NCDC to advertise president position soon, responses due in March

Applications for the top staff job will be due March 5

“We don’t want to rush this. We want to make sure we get a good pool of candidates . ... We don’t want to just jump into it, because it will be awfully hard to replace Jason. I don’t think we’re ever going to replace Jason, but we want to do the best we can to fill his shoes.”

SEARCH COMMITTEE MEMBER FRANK MANFREDI TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS THURSDAY

Norwich — The Norwich Community Development Corp. hopes to identify potential candidates for the president's position by midMarch and already has received one letter of interest before the position has been advertised.

The NCDC board's search committee plans to advertise soon for the position, using a job description similar to the one used to hire President Jason Vincent, who died Dec. 30 in an apparent suicide in West Virginia. Applications will be due by March 5, and the search committee hopes to review the responses by March 20. The person who already has submitted a letter of intent will be invited to apply formally.

“We don't want to rush this,” search committee member Frank Manfredi told the full board of directors Thursday. “We want to make sure we get a good pool of candidates . ... We don't want to just jump into it, because it will be awfully hard to replace Jason. I don't think we're ever going to replace Jason, but we want to do the best we can to fill his shoes.”

Fawn Walker, a former NCDC administrator, has been appointed as a part-time transition coordinator, working 20 hours a week.

With NCDC's expanded duties, NCDC plans to hire a vice president, who would be tasked with finding potential grant sources to support the agency and increasing the hours of part-time support staff.

NCDC will seek increases in funding from its two sources, Norwich Public Utilities and the city. NPU has not increased its $150,000 annual grant to the city's economic development agency since 1999, and the city of Norwich has not raised its $150,000 grant since 2009.

NCDC Board Chairman Robert Buckley said a proposed request, not yet set, will be made to the city and NPU within a week. Board Treasurer Robert Staley, also chairman of the Norwich utilities commission, said the commission discussed the idea of boosting NCDC's grant at its meeting Tuesday and supported the idea.

Staley estimated that with inflation over the past 21 years, the $150,000 grant should be about $234,000 today.

The NCDC board started a more long-term discussion Thursday on the future of its Foundry 66 shared workspace facility at 66 Franklin St., which also houses the NCDC offices. The facility has struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, although two members recently upgraded their spaces and two new businesses plan to move in Feb. 1, NCDC Community Manager Mary Riley said.

NCDC has seven years remaining on its 10-year lease for the 66 Franklin Street complex, the former Norwich Bulletin building. For the first two years, Buckley said, Foundry 66 income covered NCDC's “occupancy cost” in the leased building. But NCDC has subsidized the operation for the past year, with the COVID-19 economic downturn.

“Foundry 66 is a great model,” board member Chris Jewell said. “I hope we can eventually turn it over to an entity interested in doing management of buildings or space. This model works great for our downtown community. We just have to get past this thing called the pandemic.”

Several board members agreed that some level of subsidy for the Foundry 66 operation would be reasonable, considering the value the facility has provided to downtown Norwich.

City Council President Pro Tempore and NCDC board member Mark Bettencourt said it's worthwhile for the city to increase its payment to NCDC to support Foundry 66 and other operations.

“It's a real investment,” Bettencourt said. “You've got to invest a little money to make a little money.”