01/20/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting Minutes 1-20-09 Page 6 We have talked in the past few years of how we have looked to diversify our portfolio and Beta has remained at the forefront of just about every committee's thoughts in a variety of ways. We will look in many ways in administration to restructure this year to address much more on a professional scale planning and zoning issues in a real sense. Right now, we have a project in the offing which Mayor Rinker finds to be very exciting. As you know, Mayfield Village is one of three County Innovation Zones. We expect to get $150,000.00 as part of that project from the County this year. It's going toward a very tangible investment in infrastructure. We will encircle Beta Park with high speed fiber. This is where we need to be. It is to business and industry development as water is to just about every community. It's that fundamental an infrastructure project. It's about a$330,000.00 project. We have specked this out. We intend to get it done by mid-year this year. About three years ago we worked with Panzica Companies on kind of a test case. One of their sites on Beta where we put up $50,000.00, they were able to bring in a small company, QED, Quality Electrodynamics. They make coils for MRI's, they gobble up bandwith like the cookie monster goes after food. It is really something that has been critical. We could provide probably 10-12 times the speed of most T-1 lines at about a fifth of the cost between the County and OneCommunity which has been a leader in the area in the last five years in really extending high speed broadband service to the area as a non-profit. We would put this in and we think we are going to see what we did with QED. Three years ago there were three employees at QED. By the end of this year there will be 40. They are already expanding across the street. We have seen in tax revenues alone virtually three times the investment that we put in three years ago. Our game plan is that we think this will have a multiplier effect. It brings a very big change in quality of life. As many of you know, we are still looking for mixed use development of Beta. That's a long way off, but these are tangible steps toward that goal where we think the revitalization of Beta is going to set us apart from a lot of other communities and will be very consistent with the goals that we have of our own community. These are two real big projects. Hilton Garden Inn is going to be opening up soon. University Hospitals is in Georgian Center. We are seeing some very tangible changes going on. Even as we look with some concern as to how Progressive has plateaud and they continue to do so, may even withdraw a little bit, we definitely feel that we are finding all kinds of new reasons to be optimistic about where we are going. We are tightening the belts even more this year, but we are continuing to invest in infrastructure and in this way we think it is something very sustainable. This is something that we all share and in so many ways the way in which we operate our affairs means so much to your fellow residents as much as it does to you. Mayor Rinker is very proud to be working with you and looks forward to a challenging year but one that will bear fruit in the long run. Thank you very much. [The audience applaudecl.]