By Barbara Augsdorfer, Editor for the Effingham Herald

At its regularly scheduled meeting on April 22, the Rincon City Council set in motion the beginning of an Economic Development Authority with the goal of attracting more businesses to the city.

City Manager Jonathan Lynn explained to the council that rather than a Downtown Development Authority, an Economic Development Authority encompassing the entire city is less restrictive. At this point, the city council just had to authorize the formation of the Economic Development Authority. Forming the board of seven to nine members will come later.

There was a brief discussion regarding the makeup of the board, which is to be a mixture of Rincon residents and business owners. Councilmember Mona Underwood suggested that someone from City Hall should be on the board as secretary or financial secretary.

“What I would like is for us to just kind of break the rules out -- simplified so that we know what the guidelines are,” Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Exley said.

“We can have an action plan for execution. Absolutely,” Lynn answered. “And we've already drafted a draft set of bylaws, but that would have to be adopted by the Board. At this stage. you're activating (the EDA to) set in motion.”

Lynn also mentioned that members of the city council, along with county commissioners and the IDA are traveling to South Korea to hold business meetings with Sewon officials May 5-11. He added, “The expenses are all being paid by Sewon, so there’s no cost to our budget.”

In other action, the city council voted to cancel the May 13 regularly scheduled meeting; and reschedule the May 27 meeting to May 28, due to the Memorial Day holiday. Start times for city council meetings are also being moved from 7 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. effective May 28.