The newly formed Milford Economic Commission met Monday, Jan. 22 to elect officers and discuss the possible development in TIF District 2. Dan Brown, right, was elected vice president and Kimberly Cates was elected secretary. Photo by Lilli Dwyer.

By Lilli Dwyer
InkFree News

MILFORD — The newly formed Milford Economic Development Commission held its first meeting Monday, Jan. 22.

The first order of business was the election of officers. Scott Gingerich was selected as president, Dan Brown of the Milford Redevelopment Commission as vice president and Kimberly Cates of the Kosciusko County Council as secretary.

The EDC was recently formed to handle the disbursement of funds from the town’s TIF 2 district, in light of negotiations between BRTB and a developer to start an industrial staging facility project in the area. The regular redevelopment commission does not have the ability to handle bonds for projects like these, so an EDC is necessary for when any development begins.

However, Brown informed the EDC that at this point, “the project is indefinitely on hold, we’re not anticipating that we’re going to have anything immediately here to do, but we’re ready.”

Of the site itself, Brown said, “there’s 214 acres and it has rail access. This was originally set up as a TIF district back in 2013. … The original idea was that this could be a mega site with rail access north and south. That’s the way BRTB’s been looking at it, but that has not occurred.”

Cates asked if there were plans for the EDC to pursue any grants for development projects in the meantime. Brown responded that there were not. Cates suggested contacting OrthoWorx to see if Milford has any prospects that could fit into the company’s development plans in the county.

The next meeting of the EDC will be called when there is further business to be discussed.