Sheila Alldredge
January 22, 2008
Lillie Reed
January 24, 2008The Terrebonne Economic Development Authority’s Policy and Procedure Committee passed a motion last Wednesday to begin compiling a database of e-mail addresses of businesses in the parish to send Requests for Proposals and Requests for Information.
“We can send out mass e-mails, ‘Do you want to participate?'” said TEDA researcher/ grantwriter Lisa Maloz, during a discussion concerning Realtors in the parish.
Committee member Carmelita Ratna said Requests for Proposals should be listed on the TEDA Web site.
“If you do not receive (a Request for Proposal),” she said, “you’re invited to visit our Web site. You could go to the Web site and see what the Requests for Proposals are.”
Committee Chairman Darrin Guidry said the Web site should contain an easy way for businesses in the parish to get on the database.
Businesses inquiring about Requests for Proposals with TEDA may require a confidentiality agreement, Guidry said.
The committee also discussed Tier 1 funds designed for regional marketing purposes.
The state asked TEDA to administer the funds regionally. However, since TEDA is a parish entity, the agency cannot administer the funds in other parishes.
The South Louisiana Economic Council, based at Nicholls State University, could handle the Tier 1 funds regionally, according to organization representatives.
“But we don’t have a working relationship with SLEC,” Guidry said. “We felt like we needed to be involved with Tier 1 programs.”
SLEC covers Assumption, Lafourche, Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes. The council, founded as a response to the recession in the state during the 1980s, was not created to deal with intra-parish economic issues.
“SLEC has no intention of operating as a local economic development organization,” Guidry said.
The committee plans to discuss the Tier 1 funds program with SLEC.
The committee also will present to the TEDA board a change the committee has made to the Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with Terrebonne Parish government.
The change concerns TEDA’s occupational license revenues. TEDA’s previous agreement with Terrebonne Parish government expired in September.
