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EDC Minutes November 19, 2019 Page4of5 ----------------------------- Chair Lindholm had meeting with Tim Bray the Crow Wing County Highway Engineer about the Safe Routes to Schools Grant. He stated that the Grant will be submitted at the end of January and it will fund a study for next year. He stated that at the end of next school year it would result in a report with recommendations for improvements on how to get kids to school safely and how to increase the number of walkers. He explained that in the Grant application they will identify a team of people that will be part of the discussion which will include Ms. Malecha, Public Works, Police Department and others for the team. It would involve a community input process and also an audit where they would pretend they are a kid trying to walk to school. Chair Lindholm stated that for the Elementary School no one lives close enough to walk but there are many potential walkers for the Secondary School. Chair Lindholm discussed the lack of sidewalks in Pequot Lakes making it unsafe for kids to walk to school and the huge area that could be a potential walking zone. He also talked about Patriot Avenue being unsafe when it was a highway and now that it is not a highway they have an opportunity to create more walking areas. He stated that over 370 kids in the district are technically walkers and they bus them which is creating 5-6 extra buses running because of it. He stated that they are not collecting revenue to bus these kids and they only receive revenue on the kids that qualify to be bussed. Discussion ensued about the benefits to Safe Routes to School Grant. 9. Chamber Update No update was given. 10. BLAEDC Update Tyler Glynn stated that two weeks ago they approved two loans through their Unified Fund. They approved funding for EI Tequila who bought the old Olive Garden building and they will be moving December 1St. He stated that it should create about 7-9 new jobs. Mr. Glynn stated that their business plan included tra�c counts of Highways 210 and 371 and it helped make it easy decision for the BLAEDC Board to approve the loan. He also stated that BLAEDC received some great press out of it. Mr. Glynn said the second company to receive a loan was a new daycare facility in Downtown Brainerd. He said it is a much needed business and they will have the capacity to bring in 105 kids. He stated the name is Teeny Bubbles and they have a current location south of Takedown Gym. Mr. Glynn said to date the Unified Fund has lent out just under a million dollars and that they have a couple more loans currently in the works. Mr. Glynn stated that the search for a new Executive Director closes December 16th and they hope to have someone in place by the middle of January. He stated that he did apply for the position. Mr. Glynn also discussed the