[0:00] [Music]
[0:06] as we look back over the last year we're
[0:08] happy to report successes both in
[0:09] traditional Economic Development
[0:11] projects as we bring new employers to
[0:13] our community and in more
[0:14] non-traditional areas such as our work
[0:16] and partnership with the shasi county
[0:24] landbank my name is Ken Nelson I'm the
[0:27] owner of Lifetime metal sales Lifetime
[0:30] metal sales produces metal roofing and
[0:33] siding and we mainly sell that to
[0:36] contractors in about a 75 mile circle we
[0:40] are currently producing out of a plant
[0:42] in Rose Bush Michigan and we're about to
[0:45] open a plant in Perry we got a lot of
[0:49] help from uh all the local uh government
[0:53] officials from uh sedp um the township
[0:57] the counties the cities they've been
[0:59] great great for uh for us to work with
[1:02] really takes a interest in the process
[1:06] um Justin has actually asked us if we
[1:09] would be interested in helping other
[1:11] local businesses produce parts for them
[1:13] uh given the fact that he knows the kind
[1:15] of equipment that we're putting in our
[1:16] plant never ever have I had an an
[1:19] economic development person reach out
[1:22] usually that process ends when the
[1:24] building is done and it seems like
[1:25] Justin is someone that's interested in
[1:28] drawing us together well but after that
[1:31] process is finished and I I appreciate
[1:33] that attention to
[1:35] detail if you are someone that is
[1:38] considering relocating a business or
[1:40] starting a new business consider the
[1:42] sedp consider shasi County they've been
[1:46] great to work with very detail oriented
[1:49] and they're more than just interested in
[1:51] you coming in they're interested in
[1:52] helping you after you're
[1:58] here
[2:01] my name is Joshua Hicks I'm an owner at
[2:04] uh J&J egg equipment over in Duran
[2:06] Michigan uh we are a antique and late
[2:09] model uh tractor parts restoration and
[2:12] repair facility uh we also sell um a
[2:15] large amount of aftermarket tractor uh
[2:18] replacement tractor parts as our
[2:20] business grew we found that there was a
[2:23] ideal location there in chasi County
[2:26] where we are currently located that
[2:28] allows us to operate within a building
[2:30] that holds all of our different entities
[2:32] we have different business units for uh
[2:35] remanufacturing cylinder heads and
[2:36] cranks and a lot of heavy machinery uh
[2:39] located inside a building with large
[2:41] electrical needs uh we found that in in
[2:44] the Duran location that we're in right
[2:46] now we've experienced massive growth uh
[2:49] two years ago when we first started
[2:50] working with the sdp I feel that they
[2:52] saw something within us that we didn't
[2:54] even see and they knew some of the needs
[2:56] that we needed before we even saw them
[2:59] it gave us an opportunity to work with
[3:01] them to see what New Paths that we
[3:03] weren't seeing that they did allowed us
[3:05] to be where we are
[3:06] today without the sedp and the shasi
[3:11] county land bank none of this
[3:12] opportunity would would have been
[3:14] available to us we wouldn't be within
[3:16] shasi County right now uh we'd probably
[3:18] still be struggling along the path of uh
[3:21] trying to find new places and trying to
[3:23] find that extra help that this community
[3:25] actually brings to us and and has given
[3:26] us the the opportunity to to grow
[3:36] within hi my name is Cameron Horvath I'm
[3:38] the city manager for the city of Durand
[3:40] and I am the vice chair on the shasi
[3:42] county landbank so land bank's
[3:45] countywide we've done projects in lenon
[3:47] some in Duran we've got some slated for
[3:49] aaso the townships so the land bank
[3:51] gives us tools that we wouldn't have had
[3:52] access to one of the tools for the shy
[3:55] wasi County Land Bank is blade
[3:56] elimination so had we not created the
[3:58] land bank these dollars has never been
[4:00] appropriated to the to the community 209
[4:03] South Oak or the old Simplicity building
[4:04] that we call it perfect example of of
[4:07] that's utilization City didn't have the
[4:09] funds to take care of it on its own we'
[4:10] applied for grants in the past but there
[4:12] was always some type of red flag or
[4:14] stipulation as to why it wasn't going to
[4:16] work and this was The Perfect Storm of
[4:18] the Stars lining and kudos to our
[4:21] Council to take the leap of faith big
[4:24] thanks to the shasi county land bank for
[4:26] the help and getting the dollars but now
[4:29] it's down we've got an end user and
[4:31] hopefully a good Community partner going
[4:33] forward I'm Barbara Baker omod and I am
[4:36] the President of the village of lenon
[4:38] the village has been struggling with uh
[4:40] blight issues for some time and we've
[4:42] been trying to come up with some way of
[4:45] taking care of it the community is very
[4:48] tighten it we're very very small so we
[4:49] don't have a lot of money to uh do that
[4:52] but it's really come to a head recently
[4:55] and the downtown area was completely um
[4:58] decimated with uh abandoned buildings
[5:00] and it was looking really really rough
[5:02] we had previously worked with Michigan
[5:04] landbank and we were thrilled to learn
[5:06] that shasi County had uh gotten a land
[5:09] bank going and so that has been
[5:11] extremely helpful to us and really
[5:13] beneficial since we're so tiny and when
[5:15] we're trying to deal with uh the state
[5:16] of Michigan we still look really tiny so
[5:18] it's nice with shasi County that we were
[5:20] able to um work together with the new
[5:23] land bank and try to get that going and
[5:25] they've been amazingly helpful to us we
[5:28] were able to get the downtown buildings
[5:30] taken down it's a huge huge benefit to
[5:33] the Village to be able to work with the
[5:35] shasi land bank the land bank and the
[5:37] SCP staff have been amazing to work with
[5:40] they came to all of our meetings they
[5:41] helped us all the time they would come
[5:43] to special meetings that we'd call at
[5:44] the last minute they were constantly in
[5:47] contact and very very helpful and
[5:50] responsive 2023 was an exciting year
[5:53] fordp and shasi County Business and
[5:56] we're looking forward to even more
[5:57] successes in 2024
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