St. Joseph County Economic Development Corporation

	St. Joseph County Manufacturers Council: This council was formed in 1998 to interact, communicate, share ideas, find opportunities, learn from one another, teach each other, leverage their collective resources, to improve the business climate in the county, assist in the improvement of area educational efforts, improve the employment base, and generally enhance the image and standing of manufacturing in St. Joseph County. More information on this council may be found at www.sjcmc.com.

	St. Joseph Valley Agricultural Council: This council was formed in 2002 to explore new crop potential, value added initiatives in agriculture and to play a role in countywide land use planning. The Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) office in St. Joseph County helps us direct the activities of this council. More information on MSUE in St. Joseph County may be found at www.msue.msu.edu/stjoseph.

	St. Joseph County Human Resources Council: In 2004, the St. Joseph County Human Resources Council and the St. Joseph County Economic Development Corporation formed a partnership, making them our third council. Consisting primarily of human resources professionals, this group has been instrumental in providing timely and useful training programs on topics such as workers compensation, healthcare benefits, HIPAA, and safety. They also assisted us in developing our annual wage survey this past year.

	St. Joseph County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority In October 2004, the St. Joseph County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority was established under the management of the St. Joseph County Economic Development Corporation. The purpose of the authority is to encourage and oversee the reuse and clean-up of blighted, contaminated and obsolete properties and to administer funds from a $400,000 assessment grant received from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.