Wanda English Burnett
Editor

At the regular meeting of the Ripley County Council in June, members heard from Barry Lauber about a business that is interested in coming to the Osgood Industrial Park that would bring about 70 jobs to the area.

Lauber also advised the council that once this company is located, it is expected to partner with another company and would provide yet another additional 100 jobs. They would work from the same building.
The council was asked for their blessing to support the new effort with $120,000 that the County Commissioners had already pledged. A unanimous vote was given to use some EDIT fund money to provide incentives for this project.

Lauber also updated the council on the progress of Belletech, a company that is coming to the Versailles Industrial Park. They were supposed to be in operation this year, but due to the setbacks at Honda, they have not begun construction yet. Lauber said they felt construction on the building should start in September of this year and production would be up and running by April of 2011.

The Budget Finance Committee, which consists of Dephane Smith, Donald Dunbar and Ed Armbrecht gave a report. They recommended a two percent increase for employees with office budgets to remain flat at the 2010 levels.

The next meeting of the Ripley County Council will be July 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the courthouse annex building in Versailles.