Industrial Commission


Santiago wants to dissolve the Industrial Commission. Why?  Santiago is a member, but has never attended an Industrial Commission meeting.  How can you dissolve something if you have no idea what they do? Santiago and Parent said the city should carry out economic development through the nonprofits in town. The Industrial Commission in no way prevents that approach, but rather supplements it and at no cost to the City. The Industrial Commission meetings are open to the public while the nonprofit meetings are behind closed doors. Is this the motivation - to once again keep the citizens of Millville in the dark?

Luckily the Industrial Commission was saved for the time being when Udalovas moved to table the ordinance. Pepitone agreed. The third vote came from Parent who at first sided with Santiago to dissolve the Industrial Commission. Udalovas said a study was needed to learn what the Industrial Commission does, who the members should be, and what are the other options.

Hopefully the commissioners will do their homework in the future before dissolving something that appears to be working quite well and at no cost to the taxpayer. Maybe if Santiago went to a meeting he would realize the great strides the Industrial Commission has made and what they have accomplished for the city.

The present Industrial Commission has worked tirelessly over the past four years on several projects. The Industrial Commission has helped activate the work on the Wheaton Property, touring the property and attending the bankruptcy proceedings. The Industrial Commission worked on Brownfield sites in the city including pushing for the cleanup of the Shone property, owned by the City and neglected for years. The Industrial Commission has also been working with a realtor for the past 2 years to market the Millville Airport Industrial Park. The Industrial Commission determined the park should be subdivided and they followed this up with meetings with the city’s engineering department. The Industrial Commission met with 2 companies interested in purchasing land in the park. One company has made an offer to buy a part of the park and establish an international company there.

The members of the Industrial Commissioner are volunteers with backgrounds in industrial, financial, real estate, and legal fields as required by statute. They are committed to the improvement of the City.

So what will Santiago’s Team decide? Will they stay with what is working or go with the backroom economic development that was previously in place prior to the last commission and not very successful at that. The backroom keeps the citizens of Millville once again in the dark and would be another move to get rid of transparency.

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