Greensboro Chamber of Commerce Top 3 Salaries total $674,435

Here is a picture of the top 3 salaries at the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce 990 report with total compensation for Patrick Danahy, Deborah Hooper and Dan Lynch= $674,435. Shake your head on this one.

Triad Group Blows Taxpayer Money on Trip to France Competing Against Other North Carolina City in Kinston in Same Booth

Looks like our local powers to be want to recruit in Paris France , Triad Business Journal is reporting
"The Triad group is comprised of Dan Lynch, president of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance; Henry Isaacson, chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority; Kevin Baker, executive director of the Piedmont Triad International Airport; Kip Blakely, TIMCO Aviation Services Inc.'s vice president of industry and government relations; and Steve Googe, executive director of the Davidson County Economic Development Commission.
Lynch said four organizations — his group, PTI, the Piedmont Triad Partnership and Davidson County — pitched in a total of $7,500 to be part of the North Carolina state pavilion at the air show. The group will use the space to promote the Triad as an ideal location for aerospace companies to set up operations."

Hope they have their expense reports in order because a public records request is in their coffers once they get back from this endeavor.

Looking at the participants in this air show let's check out the North Carolina Pavilion

AEROSPHERE AVIATION SERVICES, INC.
C.R. ONSRUD, INC.
GREENSBORO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE
IMET ALLOYS: SUPERALLOY & TITANIUM MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
LIQUIP INTERNATIONAL-BETA SYSTEMS DIVISION
MONROE- UNION COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
NLA DIAGNOSTICS LLC
North Carolina Department of Commerce
NORTH CAROLINA GLOBAL TRANSPARK
NORTH CAROLINA'S EASTERN REGION
PEMMCO MANUFACTURING
TIMCO AVIATION SERVICES

North Carolina is the King of the United States participants in regards to areas being represented in Paris Air Show from taxpayer funded groups with 5 including N.C. Department of Commerce, Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, Moore Union County Economic Development, North Carolina Global Transpark and North Carolina Eastern Region.

Here is a link to United States participants in Paris Air Show HERE

Here is a list of other airports, municipalities and states represented at the Air Show to show you how absurd it is to see 5 different areas where we should only need one entity but am sure King Zoning Stud Henry Isaacson PTI Chairman enjoys his trip to Paris every year. Other participants are: Ohio, Alabama , Arizona, Best of New England, Oregon, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia,  Mississippi(MS), Wichita, Kansas, Meridian, Maryland, Miami Airport, Jackson MS. , MS. Gulf Coast, Newport News Airport, Oklahoma , Pinellas County, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Ohio State University, Plattsburgh Airport, Rockford, South Carolina Department of Commerce, Washington State, West Massachusetts.

I am sure it is well and good to have 2 competing areas under the same roof  competing for the same companies in Greensboro and the Global Transpark in Kinston N.C. but we need to also understand how the Global Transpark has been sucking the taxpayers of this state dry for a long time , Carolina Journal has a great write up on the waste of taxpayers money in the Global Transpark in Kinston N.C.
HERE . Here is the first paragraph:

"The Global TransPark
A boondoggle from the start. This series records what is possibly the largest government waste and failure in North Carolina state history, a failed cargo-airport project that has brought false hopes but little impact to Kinston and Eastern North Carolina."

Now we have a boondoggle in Kinston competing against the local pie in the sky boondoggle Aerotropolis Board competing for the same companies in the same booth at the Paris Air Show, boy don't you just love our tax payer funded junkets to Paris France for these group of North Carolinians. Can't wait to see the expense repots from all involved.

ALSO BLOG DANG HAS SOMETHING TO SAY AS WELL ON THE SUBJECT

"Greensboro remains 'less than robust’", 2012 STATE OF THE CITY REPORT: GREENSBORO, NC - and some of what was not included in Don Patterson's GN&R article

Greensboro continues to struggle

with the ongoing ramifications of the national recession

particularly regarding the region’s significant job losses

and high poverty rate.

Greensboro Partnership

2012 STATE OF THE CITY REPORT: GREENSBORO, NC

Greensboro Performance Arts Center pitch lie number two, three and four?

...on Dec. 1, the city retired all $56.4 million in debt

for coliseum complex improvements, some dating to 1991.

Don "the man" Patterson

GN&R

"In December 2011,
approximately $3.0 million in Coliseum Certificates of Participation
were retired (This included the final maturity on Arena Expansion debt issued in 1991.).

Wasn't it reported to be about $56.4 or $48 million in retired debt?

Tom Terrell on the Solar Farm Deal: Are Skip Alston and Dan Lynch getting rolled by out of town carpetbaggers on the Solar Farm?

“If the atmosphere (in the meeting) is any indication,

I think we would be the front-runner,” said Melvin “Skip” Alston,

the chairman of the County Board of Commissioners.

“I think they were very impressed. ... I was very impressed with them.”

Solar farm deal looks bright

...A new company in Melbourne, Florida called National Solar Power
has just listed Guilford County as one of seven locations throughout the Southeast
where it might locate a mega solar farm at least 4,000 acres in size
(either as one tract or several tracts).

It would be the largest solar farm in the world.

...Triad Business Journal ...noted

1) this county doesn’t have 4,000 contiguous acres
or even 20 tracts of 200 contiguous acres

2) the company says tax credits and incentives are key
BUT nobody at state or local levels had even heard of the company or the project

3) it won’t create but a handful of long-term jobs, yet tie up 4,000 acres,

4) the only possible buyer of the electricity – Duke Power – knew nothing about it,

and 5) they went to the media first,
indicating either a total lack of sophistication and experience
or that something else was going on...

“We will do everything in our power to successfully land this project,”

said Dan Lynch, president of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance.

“We had a roomful of Greensboro and Guilford County leadership,

and I think that message was strongly conveyed.”

Solar farm deal looks bright

A more subtle – but to me a far more interesting – comment was made
in a July 2, Greensboro News & Record editorial
where the paper questioned whether this “industrial” use would gobble up land
that should be reserved for industries that would hire more people,
saying “Solar farms might be better situated in a different place than land
that a manufacturing plant might need – near a highway or the airport, for example.”

“Dan Lynch did a good job of pulling the major players together,” Alston said.

“I think that is what impressed them.”

National Solar Power had three people at the meeting.

Company officials said they would be willing to consider a regional approach

for pulling together the 4,000 acres they say they need for the project.

“They would welcome that,” Lynch said. “It doesn’t have to come from one area.”

...Why would a solar farm – inherently an industrial use
– be relegated to the areas and zoning districts reserved for industry?

In fact, they should not.

Solar farms require wide open spaces, and they generate practically no traffic, noise,
dust and any of the other qualities we link to industry.

They could be located off country roads with little access to highways and airports.

...I accept the company’s statement
that incentives and tax credits will play a major role in its decision.

It’s the only point they made that makes any sense to me.

...companies occasionally establish a “straw man” location
to create the appearance of competition
so that representatives in their desired location will sweeten the incentive package.

Company officials provided more details about the project Thursday
but did not make a specific request for incentives.

“They said it would be much easier to do the deal here than in Florida,” Lynch said.

“North Carolina has a very favorable tax climate for landing solar farms.”

National Solar Power officials left with some possible sites to consider.

Lynch expects to follow up with company representatives by phone next week.

“We have to look at this like a business transaction,” Lynch said.

“In addition to making sense for the company, it has to make sense for the community.

It has to be a solid fit.”

Alston thinks that’s the case.

“I think it will be up to Dan Lynch and the economic development folks

to go ahead and seal the deal.”

Solar farm deal looks bright

My experience suggests that National Solar Power has chosen not one
but at least two and possibly a distant third location.

While it is considering engineering and other feasibility matters
it is negotiating aggressively with those local and state officials,
the local power companies, landowners and building contractors.

And in each discussion they can tell a county or a landowner
that they are considering seven – 7 – locations,
so they should not be stingy with incentives or greedy on land price.

What sites were shown to the company by Dan Lynch?

In that respect, Guilford County was just somebody’s poor choice to add to the faux list,
and now the company looks like what it truly is,
a neophyte in the area of development and local government incentives.

Tom Terrell
Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP
Greensboro, NC

We are being used as a pawn on this solar pipe dream.

When you have a Florida company with 3 places in florida they want to place the solar farm

and when we find out not one in NC development community knew about this

then we need to understand that someone told their reps

you need to have places outside of Florida to make the competition for tax dollars viable,

it would be interesting to find out why they picked guilford county.

Are we getting a reputation for giving away the farm in regards to taxpayers money in incentives ?

Kieth Brown

HOW did these people find us?


Is there an underground network disseminating information about locales "ripe for the picking"?


Do Greensboro and Guilford County have "sucker" tattooed all over their governmental images?


oh good grief

My question is, why does Duke Energy already own a solar farm in the mid-west

and is looking at building a second one,

but have shown no interest in building one here?

Maybe they know something we don't?

jandrew28

The bottom line. How much does Skip make off the deal?


Abruti

Hat Tip Ed Cone and Doug Clark