“Creating sustainable prosperity for all” is the motto of a new countywide partnership of public, private and nonprofit entities known as the “GO [Generating Opportunities] Team.” On June 19, 2012, Cook County Higher Education Business Training Coordinator Jim Boyd and Northspan Group President and CEO Randy Lasky asked the Cook County Board of Commissioners for $6,000 to support the GO Team’s development of an economic development plan for the county.
Last December, Boyd went to the county board recommending its participation in an economic development program offered by University of Minnesota Extension called “Community Leaders Business Retention and Expansion Program: A Community Consensus Approach to Encourage the Success of Local Businesses.” Using a systematic method, the program would gather community leaders to assess local business challenges and opportunities, address short-term problems, and implement a long-term action plan.
This spring, another initiative was launched: the expansion of the Grand Marais Chamber of Commerce to include businesses throughout the entire county. According to Boyd, this “metamorphosed” into the GO Team and a plan to hire Randy Lasky to work with county leaders to create an economic development plan rather than pursuing the Extension program. The team is currently comprised of about 20 public, private, and nonprofit representatives.
According to Lasky’s proposal for professional services, the Northspan Group is a nonprofit organization with over 25 years of providing business and community development consulting services. “We understand the region’s economy, its culture and values, the differences and synergies between Duluth, the Iron Range, and the North Shore, your strengths and major barriers to economic growth, and how to approach strategic enhancement and transformation of an economy,” states the proposal.
According to Lasky, his job would be “to challenge and engage various interests throughout the county and seek consensus and alignment around a clear vision and key strategic priorities and values that will garner broad public support and are capable of guiding economic growth and investment.”
Lasky told the county board the project would involve talking to business owners from all perspectives, including small, family-owned businesses, to find out what is important to all of them. “We’re going to go out and listen,” he said.
“Over the last decade,” Jim Boyd said, “Cook County’s business economy has grown at less than the rate of inflation.” While the population grew by eight people between the 2000 census and the 2010 census, “we lost young people and gained old people,” neither of which will sustain a healthy economy, he said.
“We have to find a way to bring more young people here,” said Commissioner Jim Johnson, adding that he has been told that a tourist-based economy “is really not healthy.”
Commissioner Sue Hakes supported the endeavor, saying she envisions the new as-yet-to-be-hired Cook County/ Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) director participating.
Other entities that have committed funding for this project are the Arrowhead Regional Development Council ($11,500), the City of Grand Marais ($3,000), the EDA ($3,000), and Arrowhead Electric Cooperative Inc. ($3,000). As of June 19, requests were pending from area nonprofits ($3,500) and the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa ($1,000).
The board authorized an expenditure of $6,000 toward the cost of the project, which Northspan estimated would cost $25,000-$30,000. The project is slated for completion in December.
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