To help small businesses grow and thrive in The Town of Argos, officials are in the process of working out the details to potentially offer a small business incentive as well as a downtown building incentive.
The guidelines for the incentive plans were presented in rough draft form by Argos Community Development Corporation president Mark VanDerWeele when town council members met for their first meeting of the month.
With the proposed programs, the town would set aside a certain amount of funding that could be requested by business owners who are looking to make improvements to their operations or their facility.
VanDerWeele said he created these plans after he was approached by a local individual who mentioned that there are many ways that bigger companies can get breaks but there isn’t really anything similar in place for smaller businesses.
He explained that there would be an application process and a specific committee could be established for this purpose. He said the committee members could review and assess the applications before bringing them to the council for consideration.
While discussing the matter, one council member recommended including some language for the business incentive program that would require a résumé from the applicant as well as a long-term, detailed business plan.
One element of the rough draft for the building incentive stated that the applicant would need to require two estimates by licensed contractors. A council member suggested adding in some wordage that would indicate the work must be performed by a licensed contractor as well.
Another recommendation was made to make it a guideline that applicants must clearly state what the building would be used for so it doesn’t end up sitting empty.
VanDerWeele mentioned that the rough drafts he presented were just some general guidelines for the programs and noted some of the council’s more specific recommendations could be worked into the applications themselves.
A motion was made to approve the rough drafts for the programs and it passed with a unanimous vote.
VanDerWeele and Town Attorney Derek Jones said they would meet more to discuss the program applications as well as the contracts that will eventually be required.
