03-16-10 EDC Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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SWOT MEETING - Notes February 12, 2010 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: • Don Hickman • Sheila Haverkamp • Tommy Woog • Dawn Bittner • Sandy Peine • PJ Smith Sheila Haverkamp explained how the Economic Development Commission was formed. She stated that the purpose of the EDC was to explore opportunities and issues affecting the community regarding economic development. She noted that one question that had been asked by the Chamber at an EDC meeting was "Why would anyone want to come to Pequot Lakes." She explained that the EDC felt that there were many reasons for people to come to Pequot Lakes but thought it may be prudent to do a SWOT analysis to allow people the opportunity to share their thoughts on the strengths of Pequot Lakes. She then explained that the EDC formed a SWOT committee. This committee met and was informed that the Planning Commission was working on updating the economic development section of the comp plan. Sheila explained that the purpose of this meeting is to learn about the Planning Commission's process in updating the comp plan,to find out what has been done so far and to determine whether a SWOT is still a valuable tool. Tommy Woog,Planning Commission Chair, explained the Planning Commission's role in the review process of updating the Comp Plan. Tommy talked about the idea of doing a SWOT. He stated that he felt a smaller version of a SWOT was done at the joint Planning Commission meeting held on January 12th. He stated that other valuable information came from the Comp Plan open house, and the Chamber of Commerce meetings. Tommy explained that the Planning Commission will review all of the information from these meetings and incorporate the information into the Comp Plan. He stated that although doing a SWOT process is good, he questioned whether enough has already been done and whether we have enough information. Tommy talked about the end section of each individual section of the Comp Plan which consists of action items, long term,mid term and short term goals. PJ Smith stated that it would be a good idea to have the EDC also review the goals and give input to the Planning Commission. Tommy concurred.