IDA Prepares Next Year’s Budget

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

The May 19 meeting of the Dade County Industrial Development Authority was short and sweet, with the primary topic being the next fiscal year’s budget.

Evan Stone (executive director) reported that the IDA is involved in a total of seven projects currently, only three of which are in the existing industrial park. Stone said he would give further updates during executive session. He did not talk about the other four projects in the open meeting.

He also said there are three current RFIs (requests for information) about property available in both the Dade County Industrial Park and the yet-to-be-developed Trenton-Dade Business Park.

The board looked at the current fiscal year’s budget in preparation to approve next year’s (FY26) budget. Stone plans to have the board vote on the new budget at next month’s regular meeting, giving the board a few weeks to ask questions or offer suggestions on the budget.

The budget was not available on the IDA’s website.

Leisa Cagle (board member) asked for the year-to-date actual expenses to compare with the budget. Stone will ask William Back (recording secretary) to send the YTD expenses to the board.

Stone added that the IDA is under budget this year, having only used a small portion of the $10,000 allocated for site prep at the Trenton-Dade Business Park and not having used any of the $15,000 allocated for signage in the industrial park.

Stone doesn’t anticipate that the FY26 budget will differ greatly from the FY25 one, but he might look at increasing some of the professional services budget. (It’s unclear what is covered by the professional services budget.)

George Williams (board member) said, “I thought we had money in here for workforce development and had a category for marketing and advertising, but I don’t see any money here.”

Stone did not address the workforce development part of the comment, but he said that the budget has $10,000 under marketing and advertising. He added that $7,500 for Placer.ai is in the budget (see the June 26, 2024, Sentinel). “I have used it on two or three economic presentations over the last year on the economic development side.”

Cagle asked about the CHI Memorial HVAC budget. Stone said that all of the A/C units in the building have been replaced, but “I will probably up the maintenance and repairs to about $8,000 because we are seeing some recurring stuff.”