CEIDC Punts on Business Set to Bring Over 100 Jobs to City
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – In a repeat of something beginning to feel like the movie “Groundhog Day,” a Crockett Economic and Industrial Development Corporation (CEIDC) set for Monday, July 29 was cancelled due to a lack of quorum, after three council members failed to make the meeting. Crockett City Council has been serving as the CEIDC board while the city tries to bring order to the troubled corporation.
Council members Darrell Jones, NaTrenia Hicks and Elbert Johnson were no-shows to the meeting, causing a delay in important decisions affecting the economic life of the city. Crockett Mayor Dr. Ianthia Fisher and Crockett City Administrator John Angerstein, for the second time in recent weeks, could be seen shuttling from the meeting hall to their offices, trying to contact the missing members. Council members Dennis Ivey and Mike Marsh waited patiently, as it became apparent the meeting would not happen.
Visibly frustrated, Fisher eventually took her place on the podium and announced the meeting would have to be postponed, telling the audience, “Thank you all for attending. We will have to reschedule this meeting for Friday, but the exact day and time will be posted. We want to move forward, but unfortunately, we must have a quorum to move forward.”
On the agenda for the meeting was electing a secretary/treasurer for CEIDC and discussing and approving “Project Atticus,” something The Messenger has learned city officials have been working on since the beginning of the year. While few details have been released, after the meeting was canceled Angerstein told The Messenger how important the project could be to the city of Crockett.
“I have a business prospect wanting to enter into an agreement to provide quite a few jobs – in the neighborhood of about 125 jobs – over the next five years,” Angerstein said. “This has the potential to be one of our largest employers, so we want to move as expeditiously as possible to respond to them.”
There was no immediate word from the missing council members, although The Messenger has noted a recent phenomenon of several council members becoming ill on the same day at the same time. There were no confirmed reports, as of press time, of any uptick of illnesses or any flare-ups of COVID in the city.
There is a city council meeting scheduled for Monday, Aug. 5 at 6 p.m., although no word on when the CEIDC meeting will be re-scheduled.
Stay tuned to www.messenger-news.com and our social media pages for updates and when a make-good meeting is confirmed.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
