ST. LOUIS COUNTY ECONOMIC COUNCIL OFFERS HELP
TO NEW ORLEANS BUSINESSES
Site Location/Business Support Services Available to Companies
Temporarily Relocating from Gulf Area

ST. LOUIS – At the direction of St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley, the St. Louis County Economic Council is offering a range of services to businesses affected by the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.

The County Economic Council, the economic development arm of St. Louis County government, will provide assistance to companies temporarily relocating in the area and struggling to keep their businesses running following the disruption.

The County Economic Council maintains an inventory of industrial and office space available in the County and will be able to help companies find temporary sites. Space is also available in the County’s system of four business incubators, and these Enterprise Centers can provide shared office services to the organizations.

The County Economic Council provides financing services to growing St. Louis-area companies, and its staff has already been in contact with their connections at the Small Business Administration to plan assistance for Gulf area firms. The consortium of 24 banks with which the Economic Council works is on board to provide support as needed. The Council will also help companies by putting them in contact with lawyers, accountants, bankers and other services they may need, and businesses dependant on shipping will be connected with the Tri-City Regional Port or related organizations.

Through its economic development mission, the St. Louis County Economic Council has relationships with a wide range of private sector companies here, and is facilitating formation of a Task Force for assistance. Employees of temporarily relocated companies as well as the families who will be sheltered at the County-owned facility in Chesterfield and elsewhere will be provided with emergency services, transportation, health care and more by these outstanding St. Louis County enterprises.

More information on the Task Force will be released next week. To help or find out more, contact Dawn Reed, St. Louis County Economic Council, (314) 615-7672.
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ST. LOUIS – St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley announced approval of state tax credits for the St. Louis County biotech company Chlorogen. The $200,000 in tax credits were granted to Chlorogen based on its donation to the St. Louis County business incubator system.

“I congratulate Governor Blunt and the State of Missouri for approving these tax credits and enabling a promising and important young company to grow and create jobs here in St. Louis County,” said Dooley.

“Chlorogen represents the kind of high-potential, science-based organization we work to attract and retain in the County, and we’re delighted we were able to play a role in their continuing success,” Dooley said.

The $200,000 in Development Tax Credits was approved by the Missouri Department of Economic Development. Chlorogen will make a cash donation to the St. Louis Enterprise Centers, the County’s system of four business incubators in St. Louis County and midtown St. Louis. The incubators provide lower-cost space, shared services and mentoring for promising young companies in their early years.

The St. Louis Enterprise Centers will purchase machinery and equipment for two new labs for Chlorogen, and lease the equipment to the company for at least five years. The molecular biology and process development labs will be located in The Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise in mid-St. Louis County, where the company is currently located.

Chlorogen is a biopharmaceutical company that develops proprietary cancer therapies. The lab expansion enabled by the tax credits will allow the company to create a new biopharmaceutical pipeline expected to secure $6 million in private investment and the creation of 25 new jobs in the next two years.
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COUNTY FAIR AND AIR SHOW HONORARY CO-CHAIRS DOOLEY AND BUSCH ANNOUNCE EVENT THEME
“Honor the Guard” Theme Celebrates Contributions of Army and Air National Guard Units
Children’s Miracle Network “Miracle Kids” Recognized

ST. LOUIS: St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley and Anheuser-Busch Companies Chairman of the Board August Busch III, honorary co-chairs of the 2005 St. Louis County Fair and Air Show, announced “Honor the Guard” as the theme of this year’s show at a press conference at the Missouri Air National Guard’s 131st Fighter Wing today,
August 15 at 2:00 p.m.

Busch has been an honorary co-chair of the Fair since its inception in 1992. He and Dooley were joined by the Adjutant General Joint Forces Missouri Brigadier General King Sidwell, the 131st Fighter Wing Commander Colonel Robert Leeker, and Richard E. Hrabko, director of aviation, Spirit of St. Louis Airport and Fair and Air Show President.

“’Honor the Guard’ gives us an opportunity to show how grateful we are to the men and women of the National Guard – our citizen soldiers and citizen airmen,” Dooley said.

“The Guard are our friends, neighbors and coworkers who are making tremendous sacrifices – in some cases the ultimate sacrifice – to do their duty at their country’s request. The St. Louis County Air and Fair Show is now dedicated to recognizing, honoring and truly thanking them for that sacrifice,” said Dooley.

Approximately 10,000 local men and women voluntarily serve their country in Missouri’s Army and Air National Guard units, in addition to working at their civilian jobs. Recent government recommendations have called for relocating the Guard’s 131st Fighter Wing from Lambert Field, and Dooley and the Missouri congressional delegation have been working diligently to convince the Base Realignment and Closure Commission to keep the 131st and other military operations open and operating here in St. Louis County.

At today’s press conference, the 131st Fighter Wing also honored the Children’s Miracle Network’s 2005 Miracle Kids Ella Prickett and Zachary Schmidt as “Honorary Guardsmen,” providing them with a private tour of the installation and an opportunity to meet with the Wing’s F-15 Eagle pilots.

Since the Fair’s inception in 1992, proceeds have been donated to the local chapter of the Children’s Miracle Network, which equally benefits Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. To date, the Fair has donated $1.4 million to the Network to help provide cutting-edge medical care to children.

Further information about the Fair can be found at www.stlcofair.org.
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ST. LOUIS COUNTY RANKS 5TH IN EMPLOYMENT
FOR SUBURBAN COUNTIES IN U.S.

St. Louis County’s employment is the fifth largest of all suburban counties in the nation according to a recently released U.S. Census Bureau report on County Business Patterns, County Executive Charlie A. Dooley announced today.

“We’ve known for a long time that St. Louis County serves as the economic engine for the St. Louis region and the State of Missouri,” Dooley said.

“The Census Bureau report now confirms that we are also an economic leader among counties across the country.”

The report ranks St. Louis County among the top 30 counties in the nation in total private sector payroll, and the top 25 in total number of private sector employees. This ranking includes counties with the nation’s largest urban centers such as Manhattan, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

When ranked among suburban counties, such as Orange County near Los Angeles, Fairfield County Connecticut near New York, and Fairfax County Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., St. Louis County ranks fifth in number of jobs, with 574,000 employees.

Among these suburban counties St. Louis County also ranks in the top 10 in payroll, with over $21 billion in annual payroll.

“Our ongoing efforts to build the St. Louis County economy, attract and retain businesses, and increase the number and quality of jobs are clearly paying off,” Dooley said.

“We’re a real presence in the national economy, and will leverage that advantage in an increasingly competitive national and international economy to continue to grow for the benefit of our citizens’ wealth and wellbeing.”
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DOOLEY SALUTES SIGNING OF MISSOURI QUALITY JOBS BILL
County Executive Worked to Shape Attraction/Retention Legislation

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley expressed his pleasure at today’s signing of the Missouri Quality Jobs bill. Dooley and St. Louis County staff lobbied hard in Jefferson City to shape and encourage passage of the bill, which was approved by the Missouri legislature in the last session. The Missouri Quality Jobs bill will help St. Louis County and other regions in the state attract and retain good-paying jobs and high-quality companies.

“The Missouri Quality Jobs bill gives us another very important tool to keep good jobs here and bring more companies and employment to St. Louis County,” Dooley said. “We worked hard to support the bill, and to make sure that it was written to benefit urban counties as well as rural areas. This was a real team effort, and we appreciate Governor Blunt’s initiative and were pleased to support this critical bill.”

The Missouri Quality Jobs bill enables companies to keep and invest monies that would otherwise be paid to the state in payroll taxes. It will help St. Louis County retain organizations of 1000 or more employees that are considering relocating outside of Missouri, and to convince companies of 40 or more employees to choose St. Louis County as the new location for their business. Companies can “capture” and reinvest payroll taxes for up to five years, giving them a better opportunity to succeed and grow.

The bill also extended the time period in which Ford Motor Company can take advantage of tax benefits to expand and bring new products to its plant in Hazelwood, North St. Louis County. That period is now extended to 2007 from January of 2006. Additionally, it increased the Super TIF cap for NorthPark, a critical step in redevelopment of 600 acres near Lambert Field in St. Louis County.

“This bill breaks new ground in its structure, and is very competitive with other state’s programs in its benefits to companies,” said Dooley.

“We find ourselves in an increasingly competitive global environment that requires a dynamic approach to economic development, and this bill is definitely a step in the right direction as we work to make St. Louis County and the State of Missouri increasingly attractive to those companies that bring the most and best jobs to our community.”
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ST. LOUIS – Doug Rasmussen, Assistant Vice President, Business Development for the
St. Louis County Economic Council, has been named “2004 Educator of the Year” by the
St. Louis Chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. The Society presented Rasmussen with the award at its 67th Annual Installation and Awards Banquet
on January 12.

In his position at the Economic Council, Rasmussen works to drive business attraction and expansion in St. Louis County, and has been instrumental in facilitating over $297 million in private business retention and expansion investment. One of his key focus areas is workforce development, as a high-quality workforce is vital to the area’s ability to appeal to manufacturing and other companies. As part of that focus, Rasmussen became one of the leaders of an effort to establish the Engineering Academy in St. Louis area schools, an effort designed to use input directly from future employers to design an engineering program beginning in high school and continuing through college.

In the past three years, the program has become highly successful. Rasmussen has recruited corporate support from 15 area companies, including Boeing, Tyco/Mallinckrodt, Engineered Support Systems, Ameren, Centocor/Johnson and Johnson, Emerson, SBC and GKN Aerospace. The program’s engineering curriculum has been adopted in 16 high schools with over 575 students participating.

“ St. Louis County must be able to provide qualified engineers to current and future employers in order to stay competitive,” said Charlie Dooley, St. Louis County Executive.

“The program Doug is leading goes one step further and provides a workforce that’s been educated to meet the specifications of the employers themselves – who then know that these future engineers have the exact skills they need to help the companies succeed. We’re very proud of Doug and his accomplishments,” Dooley said.

“It’s quite unusual for this award to be granted to someone who is not a member of the organization,” said Ashok Agrawal, Chair of the St. Louis Chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and Acting Dean for Math, Engineering, Science and Technology at St. Louis Community College, Florissant Valley.

“But Doug has done an outstanding job of getting St. Louis area industry involved in the program, and without him we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today,” Agrawal said.

Rasmussen shared the award with Paul MacKay, Executive Director, St. Louis Metropolitan Vocational Technical Cooperative and partner with Rasmussen in driving the success of the engineering program.

Rasmussen graduated summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked in the transportation industry for four years before receiving a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the College of Public Service at Saint Louis University in 2001. He joined the St. Louis County Economic Council that year.

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers is the world's leading professional society supporting manufacturing education. Through its member programs, publications, expositions and professional development resources, the Society promotes an increased awareness of manufacturing engineering and helps keep manufacturing professionals up to date on leading trends and technologies. Headquartered in Michigan, SME influences more than half a million manufacturing engineers and executives annually. The Society has members in 70 countries and is supported by a network of hundreds of chapters worldwide.

The St. Louis County Economic Council (www.slcec.com) provides innovative solutions to companies and communities through business development, financing programs, the Center for Business Growth, business incubator opportunities, real estate and community development programs, and international expertise through the World Trade Center S t. Louis.
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