[Music] Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for North Central Minnesota.

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Hello again everyone and welcome to Lakeland Currents.

I'm Ray Gildow with a special guest tonight that you've probably never heard of but you're going to hear from her I think a lot in the future.

It's Katie Heppner, who is the Economic Development or Economic Alliance Director is it's Executive Director of the Economic Alliance.

We're here to talk about "Wadena County is Calling."

It's going to be the title of the program and let's talk a little bit first Katie about what is the Economic Alliance?

So, we're the Economic Development Corporation that serves Wadena County.

So, our mission is to make Wadena County the best place to do business.

That's our goal.

It's a pretty big one but we do it through a variety of means.

We do mainly advocacy work education, you know, working with entrepreneurs and business owners and community members and making sure they're connected to resources and information they need to grow and then networking, trying to connect others so that they can build the community themselves.

Well, let's just talk a little bit about yourself.

What is your background before you got into this?

All right.

And I need to say this over the years, over the many years I've worked with economic development people from cities and small communities, that's a tough job.

It's a job that sees lots of turnovers, because it's hard to get, you know, companies.

There's so much competition out there for them.

So, what is your background before you got into this?

So, I was born and raised on the Iron Range and that was just a tremendous childhood and a big part of it was really seeing the boom and bust economy of the mines, you know and so from a young age, I saw firsthand the impact that the economy and businesses can have on people's everyday lives and I knew I wanted to somehow be involved in making communities a better place but I didn't really know how.

I didn't really know what economic development was, you know, growing up.

So, I went on to get my Bachelor's in Political Science from Minnesota State Mankato and then I pursued a Master's in Public Administration also from Mankato and then after graduation I came up here, the Brainerd Lakes area and really fell in love with Central Minnesota and really kind of found it to be my home and then worked for Crow Wing County for a while and then when the opening came up at the Economic Alliance it was kind of like my dream job, you know, working not only with local government but also small businesses.

Economic development is very unique in that aspect and that's not just straight, you know, government programs and services but it has this private, you know, private industry and community.

It's kind of a way to bring all the puzzle pieces together of what a community is and I've been doing it for about four and a half years.

Absolutely love it.

Absolutely love Wadena County.

And what is the Economic Alliance and what is the geographic stretch of that?

So, we're The Economic Development Corporation that serves just Wadena County and it was formed in 2011.

Back then there wasn't an organization that was focused on community and economic development in that area and so they knew other communities had them you know think of like Bladeck and Brainerd.

Sure.

And they wanted a group that just focused on building up Wadena County and so really the folks at West Central Telephone Association kind of took up the mantle and started the organization and then I came on board in 2018.

Can you give us a little idea of the boundaries of Wadena County and maybe the bigger communities that are in the county?

So, first probably trying to think of a map here would be the best way to do it.

So, at the far east corner you have Staples.

Staples is half in Wadena and half in Todd County.

Then moving further west you go through Aldrich, a tiny community there and then into Verndale and then you have Wadena which is the biggest city in the county and the county seat.

And what's the population roughly of Wadena?

I think it's just under five thousand.

Five thousand okay.

And they have a thriving downtown.

If anyone listening hasn't visited downtown Wadena it has been booming these past few years.

It's been so incredible to see the small businesses open and start.

There's a brewery there now, a distillery, a lot of local businesses.

So now's the time of year when people are should be shopping local.

So, check out downtown Wadena.

You know, my wife and I both live in Staples and in the early 70's to the late 70's we did most of our shopping in Wadena because Wadena had a wide wide variety of different kinds of stores and then that movement towards the big box stores came in and as you know knocked off many of those smaller businesses that were around.

So, when you think of Wadena as the biggest city in the county and you've got Verndale and Staples, these are not what you would consider booming economic places now.

Are they?

I mean.

But you're going to change that.

We're hoping to change that.

You know, I think there's a really kind of north-south divide in Wadena So, in the northern half of the county, you have communities like Sebeka and Menahga, great small towns, you know, filled the most wonderful people, you know, but they just don't have the stronger economic base that maybe Wadena does as the county center and so what we're really trying to do is promote not just Wadena which is a great place, a thriving place but the county as a whole and you know one of the best things about Wadena County is it maybe necessarily all these industrious centers but it's the green space we have and the room for outdoor recreation and just the room to grow and the room to buy 40 acres of land, build a house and have high-speed internet.

Rare for a community to be able to offer that.

It is.

I've been following that internet debate and there's a lot of larger communities that still don't have it.

That's just amazing.

And we're almost at 100% connection and we're in the top five for counties rated by the Blandin Foundation for broadband connections.

So, to think of all these other rural and even non-rural communities in Minnesota are saying how do we get broadband?

How do we get access to the internet?

Wadena County of all places has that.

That is amazing.

I don't know if you've ever worked with Ben Winchester from the University.

Yes.

You know, part of one of his themes was there's not a brain drain in rural Minnesota which is always the assumption that that's what's happening.

Everybody's leaving the little communities to go to the bigger one.

I think now it's almost the opposite.

Don't you think so with the virus hitting the countries, it seems like more and more people are moving back to working from home, working through the internet.

Are you finding that to be the case?

A hundred percent and so it's amazing as we started, you know, I'm sure we'll talk about "Wadena County is Calling" more in depth but as we start having these conversations about resident recruitment, I was just meeting so many people from around the county who had similar stories.

You know, I met a woman just the other day who she started a business downtown Wadena, Lake State Play Cafe, a little free plug there and she and her husband moved from the Twin Cities in the middle of the pandemic to Wadena.

They had no connection to Wadena.

They just researched good communities to move to.

They wanted a more rural small town lifestyle but with still the amenities that, you know, people expect and they came across Wadena and started their own business and that's the stories we'd like to elevate and that's kind of what we also want to replicate as well.

Now what is the actual emphasis from "Wadena County is Calling"?

We're really trying to attract newcomers to the region and there's kind of two main target audiences.

One of those remote workers that you mentioned because we have such great internet access, we're really trying to spread the message like you can have a hobby farm or you can have kind of room to play and grow and you can keep your job and you can have high-speed internet and enjoy all the amenities that you expect.

You know, access to telehealth and all of that but live a slower pace, not have such a rough commute, you know, there's a real joy in that that we're trying to spread and the other target audience is what, you know, might be called rural rebound.

So, think of folks who graduated, you know, from high school in Wadena County, moved off, got their degree and now they're looking to settle down and gee it's great to move back home but sometimes people don't see how that's possible or they think of their community as the community they grew up in and maybe some of the misconceptions that grew out of that but really showing what Wadena County is today and making the pathway to moving back a reality.

I think that's really true.

There's a lot of times where people have gone to school in a small community, left to go to college or to go work someplace else and probably have gotten some good paying jobs and then they look back at that small community.

They think well there's no way I can make a living in that area but that's really not true now is it?

No, it's not true, you know, there's great paying jobs throughout the county.

It's also popular for people to commute.

Wadena County's perfectly situated, kind of in that North Central area so you can travel a little bit if you want to or you can work from home, you know, with the internet.

So, it's becoming more and more reality, you know, it's not this far-off remote cabin in the woods unless you want it to be.

Which a lot of people do.

A lot, which a lot of people do and I understand that.

Right.

So, if you were to work with someone that's just coming to the area, what are some of the resources that you can provide through your program?

So, we just launched our website Wadenacounty iscalling.com and on there we have a couple key pieces.

The first is an employer connection page and employers throughout the county have signed up to be on here.

It's like a listing and they have information on their organization and their HR contact information and this page is really designed for someone who doesn't want to browse jobs but they want to find an organization that's a right fit for them.

You know and company culture is becoming more and more important these days and so these employers have said "hey reach out to us" and then we can start a conversation and see if there's a right fit for you here instead of kind of the other way around of maybe traditional job postings of "Oh do I want to do this particular job?"

Kind of looking at the company as someone to move into.

So, who are some of your partners that you work with?

So, to fund this and to get it off the ground, we're fortunate to receive funding from Wadena County, SourceWell and Todd-Wadena Electric Co-op and then the Economic Alliance ourselves have funded some of the work.

I know you don't work for SourceWell but could you just mention what SourceWell is for people who might not have ever heard of that?

I will certainly try.

They're coming on the program a little later down the road.

Perfect, so the way I see that they're in cooperative purchasing.

They help cities and non-profits buy in bulk but then they use some of that money to help fund community development and community projects throughout Region Five and perhaps even the broader area.

So, do you work with the Initiative Foundation at all?

We do partner with them.

They have not been involved in this project but we certainly would love to, you know, explore that in the future.

And where's your office located?

If you have an office or do you work remotely?

So, I actually work remotely.

We do have meeting space at West Central Telephone in Sebeka and that is our official address but I have been working remotely since the pandemic started and it was just, I'm a team of one so I kind of discovered there wasn't really a need to go into an office like so many other people discovered during this time and so I office from home but several days a week I am out about in the community.

You know, typically when I'm meeting with a business owner or a city, I'm going to them.

Okay.

So, if a young family were interested in coming back to the county, Wadena County, do they set up a meeting with you or do you sit down and walk us through a little bit, the process that you use to introduce these people to what's available.

So, we're still kind of fleshing out that stage of it, you know, the first stages we're just trying to get the word about Wadena County out there farther, you know, attract these people first and have them learn about what we have to offer.

So, we have the website.

We're on social media.

We're on Facebook and expanding to LinkedIn and Instagram and then we're trying some, we might call gorilla marketing tactics to spread the word.

Our first foray into that is we've printed just pulp board coasters that talk about Wadena County on both sides and we're distributing them to bars and restaurants throughout the region.

Really just thinking about who's sitting around with idle time on their hands and what's a cheap way to introduce them, you know, to a concept.

So, we're trying that and then we're doing some print advertising as well.

Down the line, we'd like to develop more of a community concierge program, you know, once we kind of have a base, understand what people moving back, what level of connection they want.

You know, we still see signs all over "help wanted".

How how does what you do connect to that?

Is there any connection that you have?

There's a complete direct connection and that's really one of the impetuses of starting "Wadena County is Calling" is just, the fact is we need more people in our communities, you know, the Baby Boomer Generation's retiring rapidly as they deserve to but there just aren't enough of my generation to fill those spots.

Just physically, we don't exist and so we really need to bring new people into our community to get these jobs filled.

It's, you know, really a desperate need at this point and so, you know, the Economic Alliance when thinking how economic development can influence, you know, workforce.

We see this as one of the ways we can help our local employers is by proactively trying to attract people to the area and workers.

How many manufacturing businesses do you think there are in Wadena County?

Do you have any idea?

I'd say there's probably roughly 10.

10 and what would be the biggest for employment?

Oh well, it's not exactly manufacturing but Mason Brothers and Russ Davis in Wadena.

They employ a fair share, you know, probably a few hundred.

You know, Kern Lasers out in the Wadena Business Park, they just had an expansion which is great to see and then a great story that came out of the Wadena Business Park, Mercury Mosaics was a business that was operating in the Cities and they're looking to expand somewhere else and they came across Wadena and they met the great Wadena Development Authority Director, Dean Uselman and he showed them around.

So, when they opened their second manufacturing location they chose Wadena and that brought a fair number of jobs of the area too.

So, it's great to see not only people looking at moving to Wadena County or moving to rural areas but larger manufacturers are now looking at setting up second locations and Voyager Industries just moved to Staples and they make Yeti fish houses which are, you know, Minnesota's play toy, you know.

I think they are expanding too if I'm not mistaken.

Yes and they moved in, they were able to find workers right away.

That's amazing to me.

Where did they find them?

Just around, they went around the corner?

Just around the corner.

There were people I think, you know, part of the attraction probably is they manufacture such cool things.

I mean if you're a guy who likes to weld and in your free time you like to fish, well wouldn't you like to be working on docks and fish houses?

Sure.

And they have such a great company culture and when I toured their plant, oh you could eat off the floor.

I was so impressed, so impressed.

And I don't know what they employ, they must employ 30 or more or maybe or more?

Moving into more, you know, they're constantly expanding.

That's great.

So are you looking to replicate this to other counties or is this something you want to kind of keep under wraps for Wadena County alone?

Well, we're always open to cooperating with Wadena County or with other counties but right now our main focus is Wadena County.

That's who we serve and there are other communities throughout Minnesota who have been doing these resident recruitment campaigns.

You know a 218 Relocate up in Bemidji, that one's become fairly popular that I'm sure viewers know about but we're open to like partnering with these other resident recruitment campaigns.

They're really champion Greater Minnesota and rural life but for our work we're dedicated to Wadena County.

This is our main focus, you know and unfortunately I kind of see Wadena County as this forgotten middle.

You know, you have Brainerd Lakes area to the east, you know and you have Perham and Ottertail to the west, other Lakes areas and Wadena County is in the middle and there's even though it's not a lake area, it's, you know, we're not a resort community, you know, we're farming.

We're outdoor hiking, hunting, those types of things.

That's not a bad thing to be.

That's a great thing to be.

There's a lot of dignity in that and so we're not trying to become a Lakes Region or you know be Brainerd or be Perham.

We're trying to be Wadena County and celebrate what that is because it's a really cool place.

One of the things that we're really blessed with from Crosby to Perham is great health care.

Yes.

I mean we have really good hospitals in just about every one of these communities and I know they're starting to lose nurses and they're losing a lot of their technical staff, have you had an opportunity yet to work with healthcare people?

We have had constant communications with the HR teams over at, you know, Lakewood and then Tri-County Health.

They're Wadena.

When are they moving into that?

They're moving in in December but the grand opening will be in March and it is a beautiful new facility and so excited to have that for our community and so we've been talking to their HR folks and kind of trying to keep a constant temperature read and you know one of the things they said is trying to, when they hire someone particularly thinking about a physician moving to the area and why they should choose to work at, you know, Lakewood or Tri-County versus somewhere else.

They don't really have the materials to talk about the community or the knowledge or the depth, so from those conversations, you know, this program also, you know, it's another way this program became more important for us to launch because when they're having those initial conversations they need to be able to say "hey this is a great place to work but it's a great place to live too" you know, because so often families, they're not just looking at a job when you're looking at a job.

You're looking at the whole picture and so we're trying to add that supplemental information to those HR teams so they can attract more nurses, you know, keep physicians and you know not have, you know, the story of "oh well I'd like to come here but you've got the trailing spouse is there a job for them"?

How do we even get connected to the community?

We're saying here, it's all here.

What if you could identify two or three real obstacles, what are they that you face?

One, I would just say misconceptions or I'd say older attitudes about what the community might be.

So, often and I don't even allow this phrase in meetings anymore, if someone says it I shush them right up, you know, they say "oh well, you know, we're just a poor community and we don't have a lake and well, you know, yes if you look at the demographics it's a little lower.

Las Vegas doesn't have a lake.

Exactly.

There are ways other communities can thrive.

Right, without having a lake and just because, you know, maybe the socioeconomic status of our community members may not be as high as other communities, doesn't mean they're not caring community members, doesn't mean they're not hard workers and doesn't mean they don't deserve a bigger business to come in or start up and maybe improve that a little bit you know.

So, I don't see that as a detriment but it is an obstacle when having those initial conversations, some of those misconceptions.

So, if I came to you and said, you know, I've got skills.

Let's say I'm a welder, would you then kind of connect me to some of the industries that you work with?

Absolutely.

And then I could go and talk to those people?

Absolutely and whether you're comfortable having that conversation with me, you know, some people thrive on the one-on-one interaction.

I can make those connections to the HR teams or logging on to our employer connection page and doing it yourself, you know, so much can be done remotely now so it's really whatever the person's comfortability level is.

Sure and we're going to post that website information on the show as we're talking here.

If you were to look at an area that you think is really going to start growing in Wadena County, what would that be do you think?

That's a crystal ball question I know.

Crystal ball question.

You know one of the things that I've seen really pop up kind of through the, you know, through the pandemic is these smaller kind of micro businesses that really have opportunity to grow and expand.

So, there's been tremendous people who have been rushing to farmers markets for things that they make and they grow and I met a woman two years back now, we held a farmer's market vendor training, just on how to get your cottage food license and things like that.

Well, she enjoyed it so much and she got her feet wet in it and she got a little extra income which is, we could all use these days but she enjoyed the food process so much that she started her own business, her own actual restaurant in Verndale-The Galley of Verndale, another free plug for this business and right now there's so many people kind of dabbling in their hobbies, are trying to think how can I make a little extra money out of my hobby particularly, you know, because of, you know, we have a looming recession that we might be facing and so there's an opportunity for small businesses just to boom because people are learning how to make money doing what they love and then organizations like myself and the Small Business Development Center we're there to "hey let's help plan the, you know, let's help develop a concrete business plan and let's give you more of the tools and resources you need".

So, I think that there's going to be a real big boom in small businesses of all kinds in the next few years as people discover working for themselves and making money doing what they love.

We're about out of time but just to repeat what is the website called?

Wadenacountyiscalling.com.

Wadenacountyiscalling.com and does it connect to you, is there a place that they can call you?

Yes, my contact information is there.

Okay and well we think that you're on to something and I think it'll be interesting to see how this goes along.

Do you have a board?

I was going to ask you if you have a board.

I do I have a board of eight people.

Okay.

And they are volunteers from across the county and they're great to work with and they're professionals from anywhere from Lakewood Health, West Central Telephone, Todd-Wadena Electric.

We got the whole area covered.

That's important to us.

Okay, well Katie thank you for coming on board.

Again it's called "Wadena is Calling" and Katie is the Executive Director of the Economic Alliance and you've been watching Lakeland Currents.

I'm Ray Gildow.

So long until next time.