WILLMAR -- With one year down and four to go in a strategic five-year plan, the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission has notched up several accomplishments this past year.
For starters, a series of grants and evening classes helped provide Internet skills for local businesses to increase their ability to reach customers online.
A major $60 million-plus initiative to recycle biomass into anhydrous ammonia took major steps forward.
And EDC staff has been working behind the scenes to promote the development of an emerging biotechnology sector in the local economy.
"It's been a good year," said Steve Renquist, executive director of the Economic Development Commission. "We certainly do not claim the credit in everything, but there are some things we claim credit for."
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Progress on the five-year plan was outlined Thursday for the joint powers board of the EDC.
The plan was developed in 2010 to help guide the Economic Development Commission in encouraging and facilitating business growth in Kandiyohi County.
The EDC is involved in dozens of projects at any given time, but the priorities listed in the five-year plan "are the principal objectives," Renquist said.
There have been some disappointments. For example, attempts to develop the Willmar airport as a cargo facility continue to fall short. "We haven't much to show for our efforts with the airport," Renquist said.
Officials came close a couple of times with deal-making efforts to bring back a grocery store to the town of New London but haven't yet been successful on that project either, he said. "We're still working on that."
All the statistical indications point to a local economy that's thriving better than most, however -- a point on which Renquist and the joint powers board dwelled with some detail Thursday.
A recent study by the Center for Urban and Rural Affairs at the University of Minnesota ranks Kandiyohi County seventh among all outstate communities in retail sales.
Another analysis measuring economic strength, conducted by the Policom Corp., places Kandiyohi County at No. 70 nationally. The analysis weighed several factors, including jobs, wages and growth.
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According to the latest batch of unemployment statistics, the jobless rate is now down to 4.3 percent in Kandiyohi County, Renquist said. "We're well below state and way, way below federal figures."
He said local economic development will continue this year on several fronts. Officials hope to learn in the next few weeks whether the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development will help fund the anhydrous ammonia project to the tune of a $450,000 grant.
And a kickoff event is planned on Feb. 14 at the state Capitol to formalize a renewable resources coalition whose goal is to create a biosciences corridor in southwestern Minnesota.
