Five Questions: Tim Connell

Tim Connell, president of Connell Insurance Inc. in Hollister, served on the Taney County Industrial Development Authority for five months before he was elected by the board to serve as chairman. Connell replaced Ken Kline, who served five years of his six-year term. The IDA has been given oversight of the county's economic development budget of $144,600 by the Taney County Commission. To date, the IDA has requested funding for 31 projects totaling $58 million. So far, it has received $8 million, some of which was obtained with the cooperation of other agencies.

Q: What is the mission of the IDA?

A: If you go on and just Google, "Taney County Industrial Development Board," it's to provide assistance and resources - it gives you a very brief (mission statement). I've already made a note to self that's something we need to get designated more in there because that's where people will look at us when they're trying to see what we're doing.

Q: How would you describe IDA, then?

A: An industrial development authority is a facility (where) businesses as well as housing and municipals can come ... for assistance in either bonds, grants or trying to find low-interest notes like bonds to do either sewer projects, water projects, housing authorities, building new businesses - all of those things.

Q: What role did the availability of economic stimulus money have on the IDA?

A: It was actually (former IDA chairman) Ken Kline who said we needed to get going on things, and the stimulus, I think, drove the commission to paying more attention to (the IDA) and upping the funding a little bit. Right now, we're trying to get (the commission) to consider more funding for the IDA board, which would hopefully mean more ways to get more grant money. We realize economic stimulus money isn't going to be around forever, so what we need to do is be proactive in A) getting as much as we can while we're here, and B) getting ourselves in the future and learning from the processes that were already out there that we just weren't taking advantage of before.

Q: What is a project for which IDA was able to secure funding?

A: We were approached by the city of Hollister regarding a new business that wanted to come to the Branson area by the name of Arrowhead Building Supply. We were able to secure a recovery zone bond project through the Department of Economic Development in the state of Missouri. It secured the bond for a half-a-million dollars. ... We put this deal together on Arrowhead Building Supply inside of a week.

The one thing that we are trying to communicate to our community is that you can't just bring us a project, plop it on our plate (and) say we want to build this building, but we don't have anything in it. What you need to be doing is bringing us projects that are shovel-ready, as they say, and have the architect rendering done, have the engineering done, and are ready to move. That's what Arrowhead did. ... If you're going to want money from economic stimulus or grants, or anything else, - if you want to get to the head of the line - you need to be organized and prepared and have a business plan, including being ready to move that shovel.

Q: How will your experience as president of an insurance company help you as chairman?

A: I think as a business owner, if you're going to go to the bank, you've got to be prepared. And I think doing business insurance for years, which is our mainstay as a company, we've had to see that if you want a good quote for insurance or you want to get successful in business, you'd better have a business plan. That's what we're having to explain to people that you need to have - the "i" dotted and "t" crossed and be ready to go, because the federal government is even more stringent.[[In-content Ad]]