|
Missing a pianist, we recited the Pledge of Allegiance and The Four Way Test, after which Lois Josefson Russell gave the invocation. Encouragement to support the Kiwanis Otter Risers Splash Pad submission led off the announcements. Members were then reminded of the plans to go over to Dave and Karen Peter's house (805 Sunset Drive) tomorrow after our meeting to sing a few Rotary songs to Dave. We also talked about plans for an evening meeting on April 13th to hear from President Theodore Roosevelt. This writer tried to get a show of hands as to whether we should start at 5:30 or 6:00 that evening; with emotions running high there was a challenge to the vote counter's veracity in announcing the results. We will try again tomorrow, with hands raised high. Information on The Rotary Foundation's efforts to support Ukrainian refugees was provided and there was further encouragement to redouble our effort to bring in new members. There were a lot of people wanting to brag, including Steve Leitte about the Otter girls' basketball team, Keith Olson glad to be back from Arizona before heading off to Iceland, John MacFarlane on the success of his alma mater's sports teams (dare I say U.N.D.?), Randy Kempfer for finishing his stint as President of the Minnesota Optometric Association, this writer to correct last week's Rounds to indicate it was Guy Olson's son, Robbie, who is an Eagle Scout, Kathy Austvold to celebrate her partial recovery from a bad fall on the ice, Wally Cole for a picture his daughter sent of him taken five years ago celebrating his 50th year as a member of the Minnesota Chiropractic Association, Buzz Lundeen for Victor Lundeen's offering shamrocks, a 17% discount and a donation to the Food Shelf in recognition of St. Patrick's Day, Ken Harty for the publication of The Daily Journal's Progress edition and the naming of Pam Muxfeldt as its Person of the Year, and, of course, John MacFarlane to note the Ides of March and St. Patric's Day. Randy Kempfer introduced our program, NeTia Bowman from Greater Fergus Falls. With her was her administrative assistant, Patricia Wahl. We heard that NeTia use to be at one of the other institutes of higher learning in North Dakota (dare I say NDSU?), having worked both on training law enforcement in counterterrorism and with a tribal outreach program. She reminded us that Greater Fergus Falls was founded in July of 2018 and it currently has a 15-person board of directors, with its mission to grow the area's business community. That involves a four-part strategy, emphasizing economic development, marketing, partnerships and organizational stability. In 2021, the goal was to assist four start-ups and they ended up helping 60. She talked about the conversion of the 54,000 square feet, former Sunmart building to a site housing light manufacturing (necessitating a zoning change which Greater Fergus Falls facilitated), with Cornerstone Cabinets and Midwest Bevel Edge now located in the structure. There is 38,000 square feet of remaining space available in the building which is owned by Wayne Enterprises. She also talked about the redevelopment of the grain elevator site behind Service Foods by Red River Milling Co; Greater Fergus Falls helped secure a $130,000 state development grant and tax increment financing for this project. This projected $5.2 million dollar investment, with over half of that being borne by the developer, should result in a 30-unit hotel. The former site of Hedahl's will become Dental Specialists of Fergus Falls, with three different specialties housed under its roof after a $3 million capital investment. The businesses should generate 10 to 15 high paying jobs and expect to be operational by this fall. One surprising fact NeTia related to us was that this site has not been hooked up to city water or sewer and that had to be resolved to get a developer interested in it. Past accomplishments of the organization include working with Companion Animal Hospital on its new 10,000 square foot facility, retaining 14 jobs and bringing in a new veterinarian. There are also 20 new businesses in Fergus Falls, including X-Stream Water Jetting, Home Instead, Rustic Ruff Dog Groom and Zens Steak & Seafood. Penny Cakes now has its own food truck. Greater Fergus Falls also hosted their first in-person start-up workshop, with over 30 investors attending. While not functioning as a realtor, the organization's website currently shows 39 buildings as available (a 19% decrease from the prior year) and 21 building sites (a 32% decrease). Since its inception, over one million square feet of commercial/industrial property and approximately 533 acres of land have been listed on the website. Go to greaterfergusfalls.com. The unfortunate part is that there is a big demand for 10,000 square foot facilities and we are lacking in those, which means about 90% of the site requests that are received cannot be filled. NeTia also mentioned that they have developed a virtual career platform in cooperation with the school district and Otter Tail County. Greater Fergus Falls has to date hosted 40 outreach programs involving over 1,500 attendees. Everything done for prospective businesses is at no cost to those receiving assistance, with needed funding coming in part from the City, in part from larger employers and the rest from other businesses and individuals. NeTia also mentioned the "Grow With Us" billboard that originally was located near Clearwater-Annandale but now is by Rothsay. Finally, reference was made to Harbor Freight purchasing a portion of Westridge Mall and its plans to open up a store at the mall soon. |
.png)
