Minutes of Menno Area Development Annual Meeting

July 17, 2007

 

The Menno Area Development Corporation held its regular meeting at the Open Door Cafe on July 17 with the following in attendance: Peg Thranum, Bill Headley, Brad Letcher, Darlene Mehlhaf, Bruce Anderson, Glenn Kirschenman, Marsha Schelske, Shannon Herrboldt, Brent Haberman, Connie Knodel, Judy Headley, Brenda Edelman, Donna Zeeb, Nancy Larsen, Gary Herman, Dale Weiss, Ken Bertsch, and David Bender.

 

President Dale Weiss called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.

 

Gary Herman made a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Marsha Schelske seconded, all present in favor.

 

Shannon Herrboldt made a motion to approve the minutes of the June 19th meeting and the July finance report. Glenn Kirschenman seconded; all present in favor.

 

SEFP Report: Nancy Larsen remains very busy with SEFP. She has had two client inquiries from Menno this year and both are clients.  She has helped write 162 business plans in the past five years. She is working to have the semi-annual report done in time for the Turner County Fair which is August 13-16.

 

Committee Reports: Grocery Store – We haven’t heard if Mr. Jensen received approval for a loan from the Areawide Business Council. Ken Bertsch reported waiting for Ray Woehl to stop in and sign the papers for the property on Fifth Street. September 1 will be the tentative deadline to have the lots cleaned up.

 

Ad Campaign – Dale Weiss suggested hiding a “fancy M” in the next full page ad for the $25 Menno Bucks drawing. Reminder letters for the ads will go out in August and need to be back to Dave Bender by August 20.

 

Housing Development – The committee has decided to wait until the grocery store is more stable before trying to purchase land or have studies done to see how much it would cost to prep the land for development.

 

Band Day – Wilma Liebl, Morna Anderson and Darlene Mehlhaf delivered buttons to businesses July 13 and will check periodically to see if more are needed. Tolzin will contact the Yankton P&D and Argus Leader in August with a news story about Band Day. Smidt Appliance will display the lawn mower and microwave prizes in their window. Thranum made a motion to use any profit from Band Day to help pay off the clinic loan. Brenda Edelman seconded, all present in favor. The loan balance for when the clinic was remodeled is $11,690.45 as of June 30, 2007.  Thranum will check if there are matching funds available.

 

Marsha Schelske mentioned hosting a dinner theater as a way to raise funds to help defray the clinic loan. She will check into this further and report at the next meeting.

 

Poker Run/Car Show – Shannon Herrboldt stated the poker run was well attended for the hot weather we had on July 7. Only two cars had air conditioning. They paid out $60 for 1st place, $40 for second place, $20 for 3rd place and a $25 gift card (donated by Country Pride) was given for low hand. The Pit Stop donated “Coozies”. We may host another poker run late in September or early October.

 

Shannon mentioned the car show trophies have been ordered and will be more generic in appearance so they may be used from year to year or for different classes. An announcement will be made at the show listing any businesses that donated money for the trophies. Anyone wishing to donate prizes for the car show may drop them off at the finance office. Help will be needed for judging and registration, which begins at 4 p.m. Dale Weiss will provide music for the evening. Discussion was had on changing the date of the car show because it conflicts with the Lesterville Pickup Pull and the Deadwood Car Show. No decision was made.

 

 

New Business: Paper work has been received to apply for the Golden West Grant.

 

Doug Cunningham spoke at the Open Door on July 12 concerning the effect supercenters have on local economy. Some interesting points of the studies done in Nebraska and Wisconsin showed: 

1.       Most county economies grew faster before the supercenter opened

2.       Sales tax research show communities w/o supercenters had 0.8% higher growth than cities with supercenters

3.       Many supercenter employees do not elect to have insurance benefits: they make to little money

4.       Studies in 23 states showed employees of one popular supercenter to be the #1 Medicaid program users

5.       In Nebraska, a popular supercenters’ Medicaid costs born by tax payers equals $8.7 million/year

6.       Nebraska supercenters in Omaha and Chadron showed an 18% pricing variance

7.       Pricing at a supercenter is cheap until the competition is eliminated

8.       When competition is eliminated, supercenters consolidate and close stores, creating a monopoly, further devastating towns

9.       An Austin, Texas study showed money spent at an independent or local chain had 10 times more economic impact on a community than money spent at a national chain

10.   Local spending recycles within a community 3-7 times

11.   As businesses close, you have fewer individuals to volunteer for things as the fire department, ambulance, church groups, little league coaches, local fund drives, local boards, etc.

12.   SHOP LOCALLY – Everyone wins! Including businesses in your community, your community’s citizens, churches and charitable organizations.

 

REMEMBER: THE FUTURE OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS IN YOUR HANDS!!!!!!

 

Sarah Ebeling will be invited to attend our next development meeting to discuss doing a visitor’s guide for Menno. She will bring samples of those she has done for other communities close to Menno.

 

Everyone was reminded of the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program Thursday, July 19 at the Davison County Fairgrounds in Mitchell beginning at 7:00 p.m. Dale Weiss stated the school would take both vans if enough people wished to go. They should be at the school at 5:30 p.m.

 

The next meeting of the group will be held Tuesday, August 21 at the Open Door Café beginning at 12:00 noon.

 

Marsha Schelske moved to adjourn at 1:00 p.m. Brenda Edelman seconded; all present in favor.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Peggy Thranum, Secretary