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Economic Development Commission Minutes January 17, 2017 Page 3 of 6 ----------------------------------------------------------- Highway 371 (current) at Woodman Streets would maybe need a pedestrian light to move children across safely. Chair Jurchen stated it will be interesting to see what the traffic is going to feel like and how people are going to use the streets once the new highway opens. Sheila Haverkamp suggested adding amenities such as bike racks and benches. Crosby is building out infrastructure adding bump outs making it safer for people to cross streets, they have added music and a speaker system, and common signage. 5. Fiber Optic Availability Update - TDS Chair Jurchen stated fiber optic availability should be top priority this year. Nancy Malecha stated the grant TDS received will be for unserved areas, not under-served areas. This topic is one of the goals for the Thriving Communities Initiative Task Force. The EDC will coordinate with the task force. Chair Jurchen stated the EDC needs to keep pressure on this for the Business Park. Commissioner Rieck stated Spectrum is half of the cost and it is faster. She had asked their representative if they would attend an upcoming EDC meeting. Spectrum is planning on putting service into the Business Park this summer. Nancy Malecha will invite Spectrum to a future meeting. She has contacted them for City needs also. Chair Jurchen stated TDS needs to be aware of this. Sheila Haverkamp suggested the City study the Monticello model. They are being served by a different entity entirely. Commissioner Lindholm stated the EDC and the Thriving Communities Initiative have discussed branding the City. Spectrum Reach does branding; their representative locally is Kristin Larsen. On February 1 Spectrum Reach will do interviews and produce branding videos on how awesome the school district is. This could be a budget item for the City for the future and may target business attraction. Sheila Haverkamp stated the City of Crosslake did that. They had a video made and it is on their website. They haven’t gone out for the branding effort yet. Chair Jurchen suggested inviting Mrs. Larsen to either the February or March EDC meeting and for Commissioner Lindholm to bring it to the TCI focus group. Nancy Malecha stated this should be put in front of the TCI group first and the EDC can partner with the focus group to support the idea.