Council, EDC to hold meetings Wednesday

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove city council will be meeting with the city’s Economic Development Corporation board for a special joint workshop Wednesday at 1:05 p.m. at the city’s Technology Center, at 508 S. 2nd St.
During that workshop, both entities will hear a presentation by Carlton Schwab of the Texas Economic Development Council. The presentation is about Type 4A economic development organizations, which the Copperas Cove EDC is classified as. 
Additionally during that meeting, both groups will have discussion on moving the Economic Development Department employees out from under the control and direction of the City of Copperas Cove. 
Prior to the 1:05 p.m. meeting, the EDC board will hold its regular monthly meeting at noon, during which it will take action on paying the city for payroll charges for EDD employees and other city employees for performing work related to the EDC. It will also receive the EDC’s unaudited financial report for February 2018. 
The EDC board will also receive its first look at the future sidewalks project for The Narrows Business & Technology Park, which is included in a project that will also install more sidewalks along Constitution Avenue. Jerry Landes from BSP engineers will be making that presentation that shows artist’s renditions of inside and outside rights of way for the sidewalks. The board will give direction on that project. 
The board will also render a decision on whether or not to reject all bids received for the clearing and grubbing of The Narrows, and the EDD interim director is asking for permission to rebid the project with a more detailed scope of work. 
Also during that meeting, the board will discuss the possibility of using its building located at 201 S. 2nd St., which it received as part of a property swap with Coryell County. The building has been vacant since the county moved over to the former EDC building, now the Coryell County Justice Center. 
The EDC board will receive an update on the multi-modal rail use feasibility study, for which Coryell County and the EDC have already agreed to split the 10 percent match, which is a total of $30,000 of an estimated $300,000 study. 
An executive session is on the agenda for the EDC meeting, with legal discussions about the EDC’s now-defunct digital sign, as well as the two previous performance agreements with businesses the board had approved at its prior meeting, but the Copperas Cove city council took no action on last week. 
Sandwiched between the EDC board meeting and the join EDC-city council workshop, the Copperas Cove City Council will hold a brief meeting at 1 p.m. to take action on acceptance of the city’s annual financial report for 2017. That item was on last Tuesday’s city council meeting agenda, but one of the concerns brought up by the audit committee is that it is llabeled a “draft” document due to the fact that the external auditor and the city’s financial directors were still proofreading the document at that time, although the numbers are final, said interim city manager Ryan Haverlah.