The meeting began with the roll call. Mark Stiles, Mark Souder Sr, Randy Boyd, Tom Little and Darrell Rosemond were all present. Elmerine Bell and Joyce Hobbs were absent.

Minutes were approved, bills and all other checks received since the last meeting were also approved.

Financial report was discussed and sales tax revenue for the month of November was $18,059.33. The month prior it was $26,942.71.

Next on the agenda was the discussion on paying off the fire truck early and because they would not save any money by paying it off early the committee decided against it.

Also discussion took place on moving the meetings to 7:00 PM rather than 6:30 PM and it was decided to set the time of the meetings at 7:00 PM from now on.

David Miracle told the EDC committee that the Baseline Analysis was completed.

This report evaluates the City of Italy, Texas in areas that are most critical to business and industry growth. Using data that was either provided by the City of Italy or collected independently by David Miracle allows the committee to take a step back and evaluate the data and trends of the City. Miracle explained the analysis will provide the necessary framework for the next phase of the strategic planning process in which we determine the Action Plan and Operation Plan.

The data acquired is from the most recent reports from the U.S. Census Bureau, North Texas Council of Governments, Texas Workforce Commission, Federal Bureau of Investigation etc. Miracle explained that because of Italy’s size some of the reports reflected data taken from cities of larger populations, 25,000 or more and some of the reports did not exist due to Italy’s location in the State and Metropolitan Statistical Area. Some of the information came from the 2000 census and some from the 2005 census.

After going over the sixteen page report Miracle Development Services Company came to these conclusions:

1) Almost half of Italy’s workforce is white collar (management, sales) most of Italy’s workforce commutes to work outside of italy.

2) Italy has experienced little or no population growth since 2000. Those under the age of 25 make up only one fourth of the population which indicates the young people once educated don’t stay in Italy. Which makes it hard to attract additional retail businesses to downtown as well as residential developers.

3) One fourth of the city’s acreage is undeveloped.

4) The City’s tax rate is the highest city tax rate in the County and one of the highest in State, however, the combined tax rate (including County and ISD) is an average to low combined tax rate in the County and State.

5) The City enjoys good infrastructure as to transportation, roads, electricity, etc. however, due to the well water supply from the city/water district and to the extent of volunteer fire fighting, large commercial or industrial users will have difficulty being served in Italy.

6) Local businesses are high in number compared to the City’s population. Several of the businesses are the newest to Italy, located along I-35E and taking advantage of the traffic count there.

7) Quality of life issues are moderate and comparative to rural Texas communities of low population. The distance to hospitals is a small deterrent to both residential and business development.

8) Residents enjoy a city with low crime rates and poverty levels above state averages.

9) Available land (Greenfield sites) and vacant facilities (both industrial and downtown commercial buildings) give italy assets for business development.

10) Economic Development as well as Marketing activities are basically nonexistent. With the new direction provided from the leadership of elected officials, the EDC has the funding to employ staff at some level to pursue at least limited economic development practices and programs.

These conclusions came from the baseline analysis by David D Miracle.

Miracle said this report is designed to help us identify areas we need to work on for the growth of the city.

President Mark Stiles said the problems to be addressed are getting more water and work on getting more businesses to come to Italy.

The next meeting will be January 25th at 7:00PM.

Comment by Daniel Huskins received December 18, 12:52pm

Alright! Let’s put some lipstick on this pig and call it pretty! I don’t know Mr. Stiles or anybody else on the EDC, but I think that they paid alot of money to have smoke blown up their $&@.

The first line in #5 is total bs. The roads are horrible, years of not maintaning them properly has created a very big problem. 34 and 77 are the roads Mr. Miracle must be talking about. Water is a problem and not only the amount. Water quality is a bigger problem that does seem to be addressed and nobody really seems to care. Citizens shouldn’t have to pay for water that they can’t drink or wash their clothes in. I personally have called the TCEQ on this. I realize that some of the locals have no problem with this, they probably haven’ t paid a fortune for school clothes, only to see them ruined after 1 wash.
High taxes should be a point of pride. The citizens voted for higher school taxes and they did vote in or re-elect the city council. I bet you I can figure out who won’t get re-elected, then we’ll save money on an unwarranted and undeserved salary.

The EDC just needed to open their eyes and look around to see the problems that exist in Italy, they didn’t need to pay for it.