Back Resigns As IDA Executive Director

By REBECCA HAZEN
News Editor

The Dade County Industrial Development Authority voted to accept the resignation of William Back as the Executive Director, following a lengthy executive session to discuss personnel and real estate, during its meeting on Monday, June 20.

Back will resign on June 30, after which he will work for the IDA on a part-time contractual basis. In addition, Evan Stone, current chair of the IDA, will resign to become the new Executive Director in Back’s place.

The IDA voted board member James Cantrell as the new chair, to start June 30.

Also, after executive session the IDA discussed a proposed expansion of Integer.

“Integer has three different expansion projects over the next few years. Their first is going to be an expansion of their corporate offices, and they would like some of our dirt. It’s a great thing to be able to allow them to expand and go through several expansion projects,” Stone said.

The IDA voted to start that process. Larry Moore recused himself from the vote, because Moore’s Funeral Home owns the building on Highway 11 that Integer rents.

Also, during the meeting Back noted that there were some changes to the proposed fiscal year 2023 budget, which will go into effect on July 1. According to Back, the roof on the CHI Memorial building, which is owned by the IDA, needs to be replaced, and the budget has changed to reflect that. Even with the roof repair, which is estimated to cost at the most $44,000, Back said that the IDA’s proposed budget is still the same, $131,400, because he was able to reduce the numbers for other items. The authority voted to accept the budget.

The IDA also discussed a potential residential development.

“We met with County Executive Ted Rumley, Billy Massengale, and Stacy Stephens. We met with an engineering firm that’s in very preliminary talks about doing a major housing development.” Stone said. “That’s really all that they have at this point. Hopefully we’ll know something down the road. It would be a big asset for the county.”

Stone noted that the engineers had some preliminary drawings, but until the firm gets their infrastructure in place, they do not know what they will be able to do in terms of what type of housing.

George Williams informed the other board members that someone has been dumping trash on property on the west side of Vanguard Drive. Willams thought that putting up some type of gate would be a good deterrent. Back said that he would look into options for a gate that would be presented during next month’s meeting.

Also, the authority members voted to move the meetings, which have been held in the library, to the Dade County Administrative Building, starting with next month’s meeting.

The next IDA meeting will be Monday, July 18.