Partnership holds State of the Cities event at
Wright Hennepin Electric in Rockford

The Wright County Economic Development Partnership held a State of the Cities meeting at the Wright Hennepin Electric Community Center in Rockford on February 11 th . This event featured a buffet lunch, and presentations by representatives of several cities including Annandale , Cokato, Delano , Maple Lake , Montrose, Rockford and Waverly. The event was sponsored by Bolton and Menk. Adam Nafstad, an engineer with Bolton and Menk welcomed the crowd. About 50 people were in attendance.

Mark Casey, city administrator for the city of Annandale began the event with a profile of Annandale , a city of 3008 residents. Casey described the many parks and access to nearby lakes that Annandale offers. He also promoted the ample room for business expansion with several affordable commercial and industrial properties. One existing company, Select Foods, is planning an expansion to their food processing facility in Annandale soon. Also, a new gas station and car wash is being planned for the old Market Place grocery site. There is also talk of the possibility of a new liquor store at that same intersection.

Next, Wayne Murphy, a city council and EDA member with the City of Cokato gave a presentation about Cokato. Murphy spoke about their goals for 2010, which includes more progress on their First Impressions Program. Also, all SAC and WAC fees have been waived for any new construction in 2010 (there was no building in 2009). They are hoping to receive a government grant in 2010 to build a new fire station. Joanne Foust has been hired to help with their goals in 2010. In 2009 the city tore down a blighted structure in their downtown area. Also, a new Chinese restaurant opens its doors. There were 111 homes listed for sale in Cokato in 2009 and 38 of those have sold.

Phil Kern, city administrator for the City of Delano , talked about progress in Delano . In 2009 the end of a two year project to rebuild the Highway 12 corridor through Delano ended. This was a major upgrade and included a new bridge over the Crow River . There were 64 retail businesses in Delano before the highway upgrade project started over two years ago. Today there are 67 retail businesses, so as hard as the highway construction was on the existing businesses; the support of local area shoppers has helped to grow that industry sector in Delano . Currently there exists a dream team task force in Delano to help create 300 new jobs in Delano in the next five years. To help realize this goal the city has commissioned The McCombs Group to do a retail market study of the community. Also, they have started work again on an engineering and planning feasibility study of the Northwest Industrial park . The most recent new business in the current Delano industrial park is Art-to-graph, who moved from Plymouth in late 2009.

Mayor Michael O'Loughlin of Maple Lake started his presentation with an acknowledgement of their new economic development assistant, Tina Goodroad of Bonestroo. The city has been able to lower the taxes to its residents, because they were able to qualify for a low-interest loan on the bond for the new sewer treatment plant. They are hoping to attract a new grocery store to town. The co-study that they did with Coburn's Grocery said that their community could support a grocery. Coburn's wants to have the liquor sales also, if they were to build a new building, and the city is inclined to accept that proposal. Meanwhile, Coburn's has not yet made their decision.

Joanne Foust of Municipal Development Consultants gave a presentation for the City of Montrose . They had 23 new homes built in Montrose in 2009. Only the City of St. Michael had more building than that in 2009. They also made improvements to their parks and infrastructure including the remodeling of the shop area next to their city hall into a new meeting room. The Highway 12 Redevelopment Committee has recommended two overlay districts that include a commercial retail zone and a redevelopment downtown zone. Other active groups include the Healthy Community Partnership, the MNDOT Community Partnership (which include a Landscape grant activity), and the Community Pride Task Force (which has hosted a few community-wide events). Improvement projects started in 2009 include the remodeling of a vacant manufacturing just west of the school into an early childhood family education center, and the demolition of the old lumberyard on highway 12.

Joanne Foust is also the community development advisor for the City of Rockford and she gave their presentation, also. The city of Rockford had one commercial building permit in 2009 and that was for the building of the new Buffie Chiropractic Clinic, which opened its doors at its new downtown location in late December 2009. The newly remodeled Bridge Street Café also recently opened its doors at the old Rockwell Café in downtown Rockford . The city also approved a new downtown master plan and commissioned a grocery store market study. Rockford also got a landscape grant from MNDOT and they put in an attractive flower garden along highway 55.

The Partnership exists to enhance the business climate of Wright County and to help create more jobs in Wright County . The strategies the Partnership uses to achieve its mission include being an information resource and finding technical assistance; aiding business development, providing financing resources, and providing business information and training through seminars and workshops. Also, the Partnership markets Wright County to business site locators, and maintains an excellent website, which includes a listing of commercial and industrial property available in Wright County (see www.wrightpartnership.org ). The Partnership also assists with Workforce Development and has gathered economic statistical information, which is available on its website.