On Tuesday, local governments approved $900,000
Both local governments Tuesday approved funding for Henderson Economic Development’s next five-year strategic plan, which will begin next fiscal year.
Henderson County Fiscal Court approved a $500,000 allocation.
The Henderson City Commission also approved funding, to the tune of $80,000 each year for the next five years—a total of $400,000.
Officials said the city is giving less because city utilities Henderson Water Utility and Henderson Municipal Power & Light also donate to and work closely with HED.
HED Executive Director Missy Vanderpool spoke Tuesday to both the fiscal court and city commission. She said HED currently has gathered a little more than $1 million of a $2.8 million goal for the next five years.
An informational booklet from HED said that the funding will help the organization and partners achieve projected community outcomes. Those include $800 million in capital investments, retaining or creating 1,000 new jobs (of projects HED works on), allowing 2,500 students to participate in at least one career awareness program and building 200 new income-aligned housing units.
The projected outcomes are outgrowths of three categories of initiatives that HED wants to pursue in the next five years: business retention and expansion, workforce development and industry attraction and recruitment.
Vanderpool said that 70-80% of a community’s growth can be attributed growth from within. So, HED will meet with businesses on-site, coordinate seminars and networking events, investigate warehousing needs and more, according to the HED informational material.
Regarding workforce development, HED also plans to continue its work with the Henderson County High School Career and Technical Education unit and Henderson Community College as well as take on a housing needs assessment and advocate for childcare incentive programs.
And HED will continue its work attracting and recruiting new industry, Vanderpool said. That includes meeting with executives, site development and retail recruitment, among other initiatives. She also said 884 new jobs have been announced, a new 300 single-family home development (Jagoe at Bentley Point) was announced and is being built, and $710 million in capital investment was announced.
Additionally, Vanderpool pointed to successes in the past five years, including Pratt Industries and the Henderson County Mine. She said both have about a $300 million yearly economic impact.
She said that the community does face challenges in achieving economic goals. The informational booklet from HED said that local industries need more skilled workers, that Henderson County needs more available industrial sites ready for development, the community needs more quality homes across all price points and local industries need more flexible warehouse space.
HED’s vision for the return on the investment in the five year strategic plan is $100 million in wages, $210 million in gross domestic product and $900 million in total economic impact, Vanderpool said.
The fiscal court’s funding includes a $250,000 initial payment that will be pulled from the county government’s Economic Development Fund and be given to HED before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
After that, the fiscal court will budget $50,000 each year for HED over the next five years, which is equal to what the court budgeted each of the past five years. In total, the fiscal court funding will double what it funded in the previous five-year strategic plan.
“Now’s the time to hit the gas pedal, not the brakes,” Schneider said.
The city commission, like the fiscal court, has included a $50,000 line item for HED in its budget each of the past five years.
Additionally, in the fall of 2024, the city commission agreed to fund HED’s effort to hire a retail recruitment consultant, NextSite, on a three-year contract.
The Hendersonian reported then that the city commission would pay $27,500 so that HED could hire NextSite, with the fiscal court kicking in $7,500. Schneider said county government’s payment was a one-time funding.
This year, Vanderpool said that she negotiated a different lesser payment to NextSite because a tool that was part of the previous year’s work, Alpha Maps, would not be used.
This year’s payment was $30,000, which the city commission approved Tuesday.
In the coming years, HED anticipates assuming full financial responsibility for taking on retail recruitment, said a document in Tuesday’s meeting agenda packet. This is the reason for the addition of $30,000 to the previously budgeted $50,000 per year.
Mayor Brad Staton said that the city’s $80,000 funding in next year’s budget will go toward HED’s contract with NextSite, and the city is not expected to give anything more than the $80,000 that will be budgeted.
HMP&L General Manager Brad Bickett said the electric utility has pledged a total of $125,000—$25,000 each year for the next five years to HED’s strategic plan.
HWU General Manager Bart Boles said the water utility will give $15,000 for the first year of the strategic plan. He said HWU will also give money to HED next year, but that amount will be decided in the future. He said HED’s work brings new customers to the utility.
“We will give,” Boles said. “They do a lot of good stuff for Henderson and for us.”
Vanderpool said that HED, a public/private quasi-governmental organization, was funded by 92 different investors in the current five-year strategic plan.
