HELMSBURG — The Helmsburg Community Development Corporation is still looking for at least three more people to volunteer to be members of its new board.
The group met on March 14 for the first time since December, and decided to continue meeting monthly. The standing time, date and place will be 7 p.m. on second Wednesdays at the Helmsburg Community Church.
About 25 people, nearly all of them Helmsburg residents, took some initial steps to set up group guidelines at the March meeting.
The group — the “CDC” for short — will be led by five board members: a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and a person they called “the welcome wagon.” That person would welcome new people to the community, help recruit new people and do public relations for Helmsburg.
Two board members have volunteered so far: Adrian O’Shea and Leonard Richey, who might serve as president and vice president.
However, the board isn’t going to be deciding matters for the community; the members of the CDC will be in charge, said Jim Kemp, the Brown County Redevelopment Commission member who’s been guiding this group for several months. He handed out a packet of information at the March meeting about the possible structure and responsibilities of the CDC.
The county’s hired law firm, Barnes & Thornburg, will be doing the work of actually setting up the Helmsburg Community Development Corporation as a legal, nonprofit entity, Kemp said. That whole process could take until at least August, he said.
In the meantime, Helmsburg community members started answering a series of questions about the structure of the group. They informally agreed in March to:
- Have board members serve staggered terms, so they don’t all end at the same time;
- Have board elections annually, and allow prospective board members to announce their candidacy during a public meeting rather than by submitting letters of interest;
- Allow for a way to have board members be removed if needed;
- Make board positions all volunteer;
- Reimburse board members for expenses they incur, at the discretion of the board;
- Set a registration fee of $5 per year, per member of the CDC;
- Set a geographic boundary line for voting members, which is the same as the economic development area they set last fall. The west-east boundaries are Lick Creek Road and Railroad/Oak Ridge roads; and the north-south boundaries are Dunaway Road and the creek.
- Allow anyone whose property is outside that geographic area to become a “Friend of Helmsburg” for $10 per year, but they will not be voting members; and
- Have time limits for meetings.
The group was undecided on whether people needed to actually own property or just live in the Helmsburg economic development area to be voting members; or how voting would work, such as one vote per parcel or one vote per person. Kemp planned to ask those questions of the attorney.
Helmsburg property owner Bill Austin asked Kemp to check on where the “sock factory money,” which the county received from the sale of the old For Bare Feet Sock Factory, is now. It was roughly $400,000 at the time of the sale. Austin’s opinion was that at least part of that money “should reasonably be coming here, because that (the sock factory moving) was part of the hardship on this community.”
“Once this CDC is set up, you’ve got leverage,” Kemp said, about requesting a share of that money from county officials.
The group’s next meeting will be Wednesday, April 11. The agenda includes board recruitment, locations for the new “Welcome to Helmsburg” signs, and discussion of the Helmsburg wastewater treatment facility.
