HERMANN – The Gasconade County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) will remain in place, bolstered by the appointment last week of two new members. How active the long-dormant agency will become is unclear.

Several weeks after the members of the IDA asked for a meeting with the Gasconade County Commission to clarify the future of the organization, county administrators named two bankers to the panel. Rustin Colter of Peoples Savings Bank in Hermann and Adam Koepke of First State Community Bank in Owensville were named to the panel that includes Dale Ridder, Roberta Berger and Glenn Ely. The county IDA is headed by Paul Schulte.

An IDA is in place to help foster economic development either within a county or a municipality. Cities have their own IDAs. The agency’s primary role when they were created many years ago was to issue Industrial Development Bonds to assist developers in creating jobs through such projects as industrial parks.

The appointment of Colter and Koepke came during Thursday’s session of the county commission. The commission used the session to make another appointment to a panel that’s also charged with fostering economic development. Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, suggested that Mark Mundwiller, who defeated Schulte in last month’s Primary Elections for the county’s top administrative post, be appointed to either the Gasconade Valley Enterprise Zone (GVEZ) or the region’s Enhanced Enterprise Zone (EEZ). Both of those organizations operated under the umbrella of Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) and are designed to promote economic development.

Mundwiller agreed to serve; it was to be determined just which panel Mundwiller would be named to. Hermann Alderman Dolores Grannemann recently was named as a Gasconade County representative to one of the organizations. There are several boards and commissions operating under the auspices of MRPC and to which members are regularly appointed.

Running unopposed in November’s General Elections for the presiding commissioner’s post, Mundwiller likely will be taking a seat on the MRPC Board of Directors, which is the policymaking body for the regional planning agency. He would be succeeding Schulte on that board.

Meanwhile, Southern District Associate Commissioner Ron Hardecke, R-Owensville, on Thursday was appointed to one of the county’s three seats on MRPC’s Transportation Advisory Council (TAC). The TAC is a key panel in that it decides which projects contained in the Meramec Region’s eight counties’ separate Transportation Improvement Plans will be included in the overall regional Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) that is approved and forwarded by the MRPC board to the Missouri Department of Transportation for its 5-year rolling State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP).

The other two members of the county’s contingent on the TAC are representatives of Hermann city government and Owensville city government.