FAIRMONT– The Martin County Economic Development Authority board held a meeting on Monday and approved two broadband development grants as well as measures which will provide event management training. The board also launched a new website.

The board approved two grant requests from its rural broadband development program. The first was submitted by Bevcomm and requested $71,879 which would fund 25 percent of $287,516 which would serve 128 households and 13 additional locations in the Granada area. The second project was a much larger project submitted by Federated REA which would connect much of rural Martin County.

Additionally, the board approved a motion which would allow more than a dozen community leaders to attend a six week online course that teaches event management. The University of Minnesota’s Festival and Event Management course teaches skills relevant to planning community events such as marketing and recruitment. The goal of providing the course would be to help communities create more successful community events which would generate returns for the EDA by boosting community awareness and business connections.

“Successful community events stimulate entrepreneurship; they bring vendors into a community, they bring money into a community, they get communities fame and notoriety,” said community development specialist, Joshua Schuetz.

The course could be especially beneficial in smaller communities where local governments may not have the necessary resources to provide such training to employees.

The funding could also be provided to people in Faribault County if spots are available.

The board also voted to authorize the launch of its new website. The site was created alongside Fairmont’s Ad MFG and will replace the organization’s current website which hasn’t been substantially updated in more than a decade. The new website will be simpler and more closely resemble the websites used by other Martin County government entities. It would also provide a more concise overview of the organization’s operations while making it easier to access contact information and other resources.

In a review of some of the EDA’s recent activities, community development specialists Schuetz and Amber Patten noted they were in the process of organizing EDA materials for translation, ordered signage and received flyers from event leaders for Breakfast on the Farm and scheduled a meeting with local grocers, a grocery locker provider and the Jackson EDA for May 10 to evaluate the potential of grocery drop-off lockers in rural communities.

Near the conclusion of the meeting, community development specialists presented an annual report which detailed the EDA’s operations over the course of the past year. The report described 2023 as a transitional year wherein the EDA’s staff spent 438 hours assisting 20 businesses in three communities. The document highlighted the organization’s broadband partnership program, establishing more partnerships with community organizations and redeveloping its website as major initiatives which it is undertaking in 2023.