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MARTIN COUNTY - The Martin Economic Development Authority (EDA) heard a report from Region Nine at Monday’s MCEDA meeting as it works on a five-year roadmap for its area, including Martin County.
To start, Representative Alejandra Bejarano explained how Region Nine works.
"We partner with different state, federal and local agencies to administer and provide grants as well as other programming and projects," she said. "We also are governed by a volunteer commission that’s composed of elected officials from different townships, counties and cities, as well as business leaders and community leaders throughout the region, who basically oversee our work and give us feedback on our projects and programming."
To write a five-year road map for this region, Bejarano said they want to hear from everyone.
"We can hear from residents, business owners, chambers, local governments, students and education partners that we have in the region," she said. "We describe this typically as a vision board that we create for a year that helps us think big together, also work to address some of the challenges ahead and the opportunities that we have."
In looking through data and people's experiences, Bejarano said they are identifying changes that have happened, as the plan looks to chart the future.
"We’ve had business closures," she said. "We’ve had natural disasters. We are seeing declining birth rates, so having a plan in place that helps us identify opportunities will make the region more resilient."
At this point, Bejanaro said they are in the midst of updating their Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS) for 2027.
"We are doing so by going out to communities and collecting data," she said. "We will collect both quantitative and qualitative data. We’re going to get feedback on demographics, what’s the state of the economy, workforce, infrastructure. We also want to have input from residents, local business owners, local elected officials and really try to hear by having listening sessions, surveys and connecting with our partners."
Board Member Billeye Rabbe asked if they could have more than one, as currently the only event planned is to have one at The Hive during the first week in November, and they would like to get more feedback from outside of Fairmont. Bejanaro said they would be able to do so.
"If there’s an opportunity to host another one outside Fairmont or another community that was open to connecting with us, we have funding and can help provide some of the food and paying for the venue," she said. "If that’s an opportunity, I would love to connect and figure out if there’s another community we could host one at."
Board Member Tim Terfehr asked if manufacturing is still a viable attraction to try and go after, as he is considering a potential pivot in focus from retail to manufacturing, as he feels more jobs would bring retail itself. Bejanaro said she has heard cities go through conflicts in potential focus a lot.
"Many of them are trying to figure out what’s the best place or course of action," she said. "That’s why we typically encourage communities to hear from residents and do a lot of the planning that can happen and can inform some of those decisions because we’ve seen many communities go different ways about it. Some really focus on attracting the main street businesses. I’m really focused on housing, and it’s really going to come down to what the city wants and what residents would like to see."
In other news:
-- The board approved an application for the Martin County EDA to receive up to $20,000 through the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation's Early Care and Education Grant Program to establish a pilot program to provide grants to eligible Martin County Childcare providers to strengthen their sustainability and preserve or expand the current capacity.
-- The Martin County EDA received a signed agreement from Habitat for Humanity for projects in Sherburn and Truman. Currently, the MCEDA is helping Habitat for Humanity with a project involving Fairmont Schools.