By Sara StrongNetbriefings CEO Gary Anderson gave $30,000 to the city of Luverne Tuesday morning."We’re still here, and we’re hopeful. I think we can create jobs for Luverne and pay our bills," Anderson said.The Luverne Economic Development Authority also approved a new assistance agreement.The original agreement called for payments to start last December at $4,500 a month.The company borrowed $250,000 from the city in 2001, estimating it would have five to 35 employees in Luverne. Netbriefings started its branch office in Luverne with two employees, who were laid off. The new agreement says Netbriefings will have at least three full-time employees in Luverne by the end of 2005, and then more employees for the remainder of the loan term. The LEDA approved the loan in the first place in order to get more high-tech, well-paid jobs in town.After Tuesday’s installment of $30,000, Netbriefings will make monthly payments of $1,500 starting in February, through 2009. Then, the monthly payments will increase to $3,167.64.Along with a personal guarantee of $75,000 from Anderson, the LEDA has a security interest in all goods, property, etc. of Netbriefings. The city will also receive 62,500 shares of preferred stock.Economic Development Director Dan Statema worked with Anderson over the past few months and visited the home office of Netbriefings in St. Paul to get a better understanding of the Webcasting firm.As a good measure, to allow the city to know the inner workings of the company, Netbriefings invited the LEDA to appoint someone to its board of directors. To avoid any legal implications, the LEDA indicated that person should be an observer, not a voting board member.Anderson said some of the business’ problems have been a sluggish economy the past couple years. He noted, however, that companies like Toro and AOL have used Netbriefings and it has a growing number of annual contracts as well. Besides allowing companies to view meetings and share information over the Internet, Netbriefings offers other technical services that help cash flow.The company hopes it’s on an upswing, recording its best month ever last month. In other business Tuesday, the LEDA:oDiscussed Statema developing an advertising campaign to get out word that the Job Opportunity Building Zones are available to businesses.Luverne and Rock County’s 346.52-acre zone was approved in December 2003, as one of 10 applications to be approved.JOBZ legislation means that businesses locating to the designated areas will get tax incentives previously not available. Mayor Glen Gust said to the LEDA, "My opinion is that we need to get going on this, no dilly dallying around."Statema said he is working on ideas for advertising and is working on a budget for it. He said, "It seems to me that advertising, or all the work it’ll take to get this going, is minimal compared to what we’ll get out of it."Luverne’s JOB zone is primarily the industrial park on the southwest side of town, and a portion of land outside Luverne in that same area.If a business wants to locate outside the designated area, the former Tri-State Insurance building, for example, the acres can be swapped after approval.
