05-16-2023 EDC Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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EDC Minutes May 16, 2023 Page 4 of 4 next two to three weeks and he will take them around the City and ask their thoughts on downtown as they work on downtown projects. He said their project in Baxter is moving along pretty quickly and they wanted to get into town to check on things. Mr. Glynn said BLAEDC was responsible for administering another round of childcare assistance grants through Crow Wing County. He said the reason they opened it back up is there was some money that was originally allocated in the funding last year and they had about$180,000 of that money came back because of some projects that couldn't get brought to completion. He said they received 37 applications for 4.2 million and the window was open for 30 days. He said they met with County Commissioners yesterday and there are some good projects. He said the primary objective for the County is to create slots therefore they are looking through the applications to define those that have reasonable requests and that are going to be able to create some slots. He said hopefully they will be able to get this $180,000 out in the next 30 to 60 days. Mr. Glynn said BLAEDC said their state foundation is supplying some funding for a matching grant and they have hired an intern for the summer and they can certainly push some projects towards the summer intern. He said if there are projects they can help with just let BLAEDC know because we're willing and able to take some things on. He said they also hired a new individual in the office to manage all of their marketing. He said they have got some really positive momentum built out with their branding last year and they have more of a social media presence now than we've ever had. He said they are also doing some updates on their website. He stated they have projects that are popping up kind of all over the place. He said they have been meeting with developers and hopefully communities will see some more development going on. He said they had about 80 people attend BLAEDC's annual meeting at the Woods. He said the President of Central Lakes College was their keynote speaker and gave a nice presentation on the educational systems in the community and what they are looking at doing and programs they have in place to benefit the community. Mr. Glynn said the Small Cities Development Grant is great and if the City gets a lot of applications, it benefits everyone. He said he has seen it work in Brainerd and Baxter. Discussion ensued about daycare shortages in the Crow Wing County. Mr. Glynn stated we are currently down by about 1600 slots. 11. Other Business Discussion ensued about the cost of potential ball fields in the HOTGL and getting a better breakdown from the school of these costs. Also discussed was if the City was going to donate the land to the school for the ball fields or if the land will be purchased by the school. 12. Adjourn