Eight counties | 36 cities | one region

ST JAMES-Maries County Presiding Commissioner Ray Schwartze was elected president of the Gasconade Valley Enterprise Zone (GVEZ) at the group’s Jan. 21 meeting. He replaced Gasconade County Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, who had served three-terms as president, the most allowed by the bylaws.

Other officers remained the same with Mark Hayes of Maries County as vice president, OsageCounty Presiding Commissioner Dave Dudenhoeffer as treasurer and Byron Baker of Osage County as secretary.

“I consider it an honor to be elected president of such a worthy organization,” Schwartze said.

GVEZ is a 501© 3 non-profit that encourages economic and community development in Gasconade,Maries and Osage counties and their respective cities and supports the operation and marketing of the enhanced enterprise zones (EEZ) in the three-county area.

Other board members include Jim Decker and Mark Wallace of Gasconade County and Lloyd Honse of Maries County. Osage County currently has a vacancy on the board.

Each of the three counties has a state-approved EEZ.

Locally, qualifying companies that locate or expand within the EEZ area, create at least two jobs, invest $100,000 or more and provide at least 50 percent of the employees’ health insurance may be eligible for at least a 50 percent property tax abatement on real property improvements for at least 10 years. Companies may also qualify for state incentives. Companies wishing to qualify for the EEZ benefits must contact the EEZ administrator and the Missouri Department of Economic Development prior to starting construction or hiring new employees.

The GVEZ board is also working in the three-county area on implementation of Certified Work Ready Communities plans. CWRC boards have been established in each of the counties and developed county plans to become a certified ACT Work Ready Community.

Missouri’s CWRC initiative is a voluntary effort to align workforce and education to meet the economic needs of the state and local communities. The Missouri Work Ready Communities program is designed to address skills gap through helping potential employees, and employers looking for skilled workers, connect with each other through an integrated system of trainings, tests, and job assessments.

The primary way this system works is through potential workers receiving ACT National Career Ready Certificates, which demonstrate their preparedness towork within a certain vocational sector. With these certificates, they can then seek out, and be recruited by, businesses that are actively seeking employees with those skill sets.

For more information on the Gasconade, Maries and Osage EEZs and the CWRC efforts in the three-county area, contact Bonnie Prigge, executive director of Meramec Regional Planning Commission at 573-265-2993 or bprigge@meramecregion.org. MRPC provides day-to-day administrative assistance to GVEZ.