PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release Friday, February 20, 2009

Contact: Noel LaBine 763-477-3086

Partnership host a State of the Cities event on Feb.11, 2009

The Wright County Economic Development Partnership held the annual State of The Cities event in Rockford at the Wright Hennepin Electric Conference center on February 12 th . This event featured the Highway 12 and Highway 55 cities of Wright County . The cities that presented at included Annandale , Cokato, Delano , Maple Lake , Montrose and Rockford . The other Wright County cities will be given an opportunity to make presentations at an event to be held in June 2009.

Several Wright County business people and others interested in development in Wright County attended. Lunch was served to 64 people, and the Bankwest Bank of Rockford , Hanover and Buffalo sponsored the event. Tom Screeden of Bankwest welcomed the attendees and said a few words to mitigate some of the mis-information about banks that has been reported. Screeden explained that local community banks work hard to avoid foreclosures and are not getting any of the bail-out money that congress has allocated.

Mark Casey of Annandale started out the cities presentation part of the program with a highlight of the new commercial and industrial development in Annandale in '08 and currently underway. In 2008 their senior care facility added an Alzheimer unit. They are also planning a pool and rehab center. These facilities bring a lot of professional jobs to Annandale plus a lot of spin-off work. Currently, the new 1.2 million gallon mechanical water treatment plant, which will be operated jointly with the Cities of Howard Lake and Maple Lake , is under construction with the anticipated start date to be June 2009. Also, Classic Rides and Rods have opened after a thorough remodeling of the old Ambassador building. Annandale 's Industrial park has 15 acres shovel ready, and they have commissioned an analysis to determine when to expand their industrial park for future use.

Wayne Murphy, City Council member from Cokato, discussed the First Impressions program that Cokato did in cooperation with the City of Arlington . This program was designed by the University of Wisconsin and is available on the Wright County Economic Development Partnership website. Basically, volunteers from both communities go to visit the other community and then rate and comment on different aspects of the community such as the appearance and the amount of businesses along the main highway, the appearance and number of businesses on Main Street , the appearance of the parks, access to various amenities, senior facilities, schools, etc. Then that report is shared with the city that is visited, and they can use that information to try to improve their community.

Phil Kern began his presentation about the City of Delano by mentioning that they had 9 new housing starts in 2008, and although housing was way below what the recent past has been, the amount of commercial and industrial development had the strongest year in three years at $5.8 million in improvement activity. This was brought on in part by the Hwy. 12 reconstruction activity, when a number of businesses decided to improve their buildings during the disruptive construction period. Also, True Value Hardware is building a new facility along the highway corridor. A 35 unity assisted living facility and 16 memory care units was started in '08 with completion scheduled for June '09. Other expansions scheduled for '09 includes 36,000 square feet for Modern Molding and 16,000 square feet for Sil-Pro.

Mike O'Loughlin, Mayor of Maple Lake, has replaced Mike Messina, who had been mayor for 14 years. O'Loughlin started his talk by mentioning that there were no new residential permits in 2008. Then he pointed out that in this time of budget cuts they are looking to get the fat out of government. Their consultant of many years, John Meyer, has been let go, and they are looking at less expensive alternatives for professional consultants to help with business development and expansion. Linda Hruby , City administrator, joined O'Loughlin and she added that they have decided to start their own independent library. Also a wish list for Maple Lake is to get a grocery store and they currently have five two-acre lots available in their industrial park.

  Joanne Foust presented for the City of Montrose , who had 24 new home permits in 2008. Improvements have progressed in a number of areas for Montrose. Their park system has improved with an expanded volunteer program, where over 30 volunteers helped in ‘08. Their city office is expanding into the adjoining shop area at a cost of only $25,000. Efforts will continue to improve the aesthetics of the Highway 12 corridor. To help with that effort, they have been named to be the recipients of a MNDOT Cooperative Landscape Grant Project for design services. Meanwhile, the EDA has formed a Business Recruitment and Detention Committee, and there is a proposal for a new commercial strip. Also, please be aware that the ABC lumber and truss manufacturing business site is for sale. This is a 67,000 square foot building with 7 drive-in doors, 20 acres of outside storage and rail access.

Troy Nicholes, City Council member of Rockford , finally presented for the City of Rockford , which had 15 new residential house permits in 2008 and their tax capacity increased slightly. In the last year there has been an effort to start a chamber between the City of Greenfield and the City of Rockford . The city also has annexed 62 acres for a proposed new industrial park and they got a $125,000 grant from DEED to put infrastructure in that proposed industrial park. Efforts to improve the downtown include a $5,000 loan at 0% to any business, who will improve the façade of their business. The HRA is also actively seeking to remove blighted property from the business district. They also have loaned $55,000 to DRC, a business in the industrial park, to help them buy software that will help their business expand.

  Please contact Noel LaBine of the Partnership if you are interested in the types of monthly noon luncheon events that are open to those interested in development activity in Wright County .