Proposed City Grant for retention and attraction of Businesses

The newly formed Seneca Development Committee has drafted a proposed city grant for the retention and attraction of city businesses. Councilman Herman Smith, who serves as chairperson of the committee, gives details. “Well, right now we are working on a draft and we are going to meet again on April 10. They are trying to tweak it a little bit further. It covers the downtown area specifically but it is a place to start at and it can end up being two ways. One is for the building and one is for the business, there are two separate things there. There are several different ways that you can qualify and that is one of the things that we are re-tweaking to make sure that it is fair for everyone. So, we are adding stuff and subtracting stuff but like I said it is still a work in progress. Hopefully we are going to have it done in the next couple of weeks. We are going to go back and start it on January of this year. When you are complete with your application and you complete the whole task then you bring the receipts and stuff and there are several different levels that you can qualify at. So, it is a little complicated but after you read through it, it explains itself pretty good.” If approved, the ordinance would allow new companies coming into downtown to get buildings upgraded with the help of grant money from the city.