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Action Team Meeting Minutes IDC and JOBS 2020: Action Team Reports Present: Jim Hoolihan, Bud Stone, Kelly Hain, Ed Zabinski, Bernadine Joselyn, Doug Learmont, Dave Marty, Steve Arbour, Sholom Blake, Peter McDermott, Rick Utech, Lucy Flessner, Tom Osborn Action Team chairs met with the JOBS 2020 Steering Committee at Noon on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 for the third scheduled meeting to report on their Action Teams’ progress. LEADERSHIP CHANGE AT IDC Chairman Jim Hoolihan announced that the IDC board and the JOBS 2020 Steering Committee have agreed to a new organizational structure that combines the two organizations into one. The IDC board voted at their May 8th meeting to expand the IDC board membership to include the four Steering Committee members not already on the board. New board members are Jim Hoolihan, Ed Zabinski, Bernadine Joselyn and John Rajala. The new organization will be called IDC and JOBS 2020. NEXT REPORT BACK MEETING DATES The next Report Back meetings were scheduled for Noon to 1:30 p.m. on June 17, July 15 and August 19. The meetings will be held in the IDC and JOBS 2020 conference room. IDC AND JOBS 2020 FORUM The eighth JOBS 2020 forum will be held Tuesday, May 27th, from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at the Sawmill Inn in Grand Rapids. The topic of the forum will be how the private and public sectors can work together to accomplish winning economic development efforts. The keynote speaker will be Jim Campbell, retired Group Executive Vice President for the Minnesota Banking Group of Wells Fargo & Company. Panel presenters will be Bob Fragnito, Mayor of Nashwauk; Bill King, Vice President of Administration for Cirrus Design Corporation and Gene Radecki, retired Senior Vice President of Finance at Blandin Paper Company. The presenters will share their experiences of how the public and private sectors worked together to align successful economic development efforts.
ACTION TEAM REPORTS/UPDATES ACTION TEAM 1: Doug Learmont reporting Goal: Reduce production costs of manufacturing An environmental sub-committee of the Action Team was formed to look at ways area businesses could coordinate environmental testing and consulting services in the environmental area. The Action Team is compiling data on the economic impact and benefits that are contributed to the area through manufacturing jobs. Team members will provide figures from their respective manufacturing firms on the number of employees, payroll and benefit costs, estimates for indirect employment, gross annual production value, total annual local purchases and other data to help quantify the benefits of manufacturing jobs on the local economy. Improving and lowering purchasing costs for manufacturing companies by establishing common purchasing practices through local buying arrangements is also being explored by Action Team 1. Future employee turnovers are expected within the next 3-5 years within the taconite and other manufacturing industries. Preparing young with the right education and training through local education institutes is also being discussed.
ACTION TEAM 2: Mike Ives and Kelly Hain reporting Goal: Implement a county-wide lodging tax to promote the region’s tourism The Action Team has been closely following the lodging tax state legislation. The bill has passed the Senate by a 67 — 0 vote. The legislation is now in the tax bill. Member of the Team have met with several members of the lodging industry and have had mixed comments about the legislation. If the legislation passes, the Team will work to encourage the county board to form and advisory committee to look at the benefits of implementing a county-wide lodging tax. A 3% lodging tax is now collected by twelve lodging facilities within the City of Grand Rapids and two other volunteer facilities and the money is used exclusively to market the area to recreational and business travelers.
ACTION TEAM 3: (written report submitted) Goal: Become a center of excellence to educate and sustain a professional healthcare workforce for our regional rural communities. Specific action steps have been developed to meet the goals identified as strategic community efforts to support accessibility to healthcare education, promotion of healthcare careers and support for the rural health science, promotion of healthcare careers and support for the rural health science model. Co-chairs Mike Johnson, Mary Ives and Steve Feltman were unable to attend today’s meeting. At the time of this meeting, they were in Duluth making a presentation before the Minnesota Area Health Education Center (AHEC) decision-makers. The other cities vying for the location of the new center are Moose Lake and Hibbing. Because the opportunity to work with the University of Minnesota through their Minnesota Area Health Education Center (AHEC) initiative presented itself, the co-chairs met with the selection committee and proposed the Grand Rapids area as the center location. The designation would bring $1.2 million in federal dollars over 3 years and would require a 25% local funding match. The Team is awaiting their decision which is expected before the end of May. The Team members will meet the first week of June to plan the next meeting.
ACTION TEAM 4: Steve Arbour and Tom Osborn reporting Goal: Help improve Blandin Paper Company’s chances of becoming a preferred UPM-Kymmene expansion site. The primary focus of Action Team 4 is to be available to Blandin Paper or any other company as special needs arise. The committee began with an educational process on what factors are limiting Blandin’s future. These include fiber availability and price, energy, transportation costs and environmental permitting processes. Many of these issues are long-term and are being worked on by the company and the industry. The Action Team has focused action on issues that can be dealt with short term such as community relations, vendor relations, and immediate issues such as the "Captive Rail" issue. Blandin is served by only one railroad. In order to compete in the global economy, Blandin must have access to an efficient and competitive freight rail system. Action Team members submitted a letter to the editor of the Herald Review in support of S. 919 "The Railroad Competition Act of 2003" which seeks to rectify the situation.
ACTION TEAM 6: Sholom Blake reporting Goal: Explore JOBZ (tax free) zones as a tool for economic development in Itasca County. The South Central Itasca County Intergovernmental Planning Board passed a resolution stating "The South Central Itasca County Intergovernmental Planning Board will provide networking support to the Itasca Development Corporation which will serve as the focal point on JOBZ legislation along with IDC and JOBS 2020 to work with the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission to help facilitate and make the application for the Itasca County area." The Team plans to develop a map showing potential JOBZ zones locations around the county to provide an opportunity for people to visualize the available locations.
ACTION TEAM 8: Dave Marty and Bernadine Joselyn reporting Goal: Create a new community-wide event An event is being planned for September 27-28, 2003 called "Goods from the Woods". The Action Team plans to make this an annual two-day event. The event will include workshops and exhibits to provide a chance to learn from landowners, artisans and entrepreneurs who have resourceful approaches to earning supplemental income, while maintaining their ties to the land. Specialists will teach workshops and offer tips on using private ownership land to benefit the owner. The event will showcase opportunities to increase the benefits enjoyed from the forests, while still protecting them for future generations. For more contact information and event registration access www.specialforestproducts.com.
ACTION TEAM 9: Peter McDermott and Mike Ives reporting Goal: Leverage all available resources to help the Itasca area recover from the workforce reduction at Blandin Paper Company via job creation in 2003. Action Step # 1 Work with IDC and others on effectively and efficiently delivering business development assistance to laid off Blandin employees and others who have expressed interest in starting a business. Status — The IDC board of directors and JOBS 2020 steering team have been merged and are working together on the over all goal of jobs and diversification. IDC and JOBS2020 is working with 33 laid off Blandin employees as SBDC clients. A number of other laid off Blandin employees have received informal counseling and support from staff and volunteers. Year to date the SBDC has worked with 165 new clients (including 33 above) versus 220 for all of 2002. Action team #7 with the overall mission of ‘creating efficiency, accountability and reduction in costs in public services’, first area of focus is economic development. Action Step # 2 Work with top 25 area businesses with job creation potential.
Status — The action team with the assistance of the staff of IDC and JOBS 2020 has identified the top 37 businesses with the most job creation potential. To date the team has visited with 25 of these businesses and begun the process of nurturing a community relationship with each of them. Each business is unique as are their needs and bottlenecks to business growth and job creation. The team has begun the process of bringing community resources to bear on these needs and bottlenecks. Meetings with the 25 business to date have gone very well based on their feedback. Confidentiality prohibits specific details being listed but assistance to date has ranged from just showing interest in their business to assistance with acquisitions and business strategy. Action Step #3 Market area to jobs influential individuals connected to area.
Status - Six individuals have been identified by team and initiatives been taken with two to begin marketing the community. The Report Back meeting was adjourned.
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