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1 Mr. Childs commented that if the Councilmembers went down to the fire <br /> •2 station to see these long overdue repairs, they would probably agree <br /> 3 that the remodeling has greatly improved the facility. <br /> 4 Mayor Sundland and Mr. Childs reported they had attended a meeting of <br /> 5 the Hennepin County Economic Development Consortium that morning and <br /> 6 learned the following about the umbrella organization designed to <br /> 7 gather and distribute economic development information to find logical <br /> 8 and reasonable sites for corporations to expand. <br /> 9 >The concept, based on experience in cities like Wichita, Kansas and <br /> 10 Denver, Colorado, had been conceived by the Minneapolis Chamber of <br /> 11 Commerce to avoid infighting between the many different organizations <br /> 12 representing various geographical regions in the metropolitan area <br /> 13 for economic development. <br /> 14 >There are 42 cities and 19 Chambers of Commerce in the Metropolitan <br /> 15 Area. Hennepin County perceived it would only be logical for the <br /> 16 county to lead in this venture which they did by putting up <br /> 17 $160,000.00 to start the process. <br /> 18 >This umbrella organization would be headed by Mr. Eric Selberg, <br /> 19 Chief Executive Office of U. S. West (Minnesota) and would include <br /> 20 many C.E.O. 's from other large companies in the county. <br /> 21 >The results of a survey taken of 275 different businesses in the <br /> 22 metro area were surprising. A high percentage indicated that they <br /> 3 would be expanding and that their expansion would be in the metro <br /> 4 area. <br /> 25 >The biggest problem with finding logical sites for expansion is to <br /> 26 also find skilled labor. There is a real shortage of skilled laborers <br /> 27 in the metropolitan area at this time. <br /> 28 >Only an indication that a City would be interested in becoming a <br /> 29 part of this organization would be necessary at this time. There <br /> 30 would be no cost for belonging the first year and all that would be <br /> 31 asked would be for cities to send representatives to become part of <br /> 32 the process by serving on the initial steering committees. <br /> 33 >There might be some. cost involved after the first year but Mr. <br /> 34 Selberg said that a commitment to stay any longer than the first year <br /> 35 would not be asked. <br /> 36 Mr. Childs indicated that he perceived this organization spoke to some <br /> 37 of the issues the Council had addressed when considering whether or not <br /> 38 to join organizations like the Northern Mayors Association or Metro East <br /> 39 who are competing with each other over economic expansion. He said <br /> 40 this umbrella organization would avoid the fractionalization and <br /> 41 infighting between different geographical sections in efforts to get <br /> 42 economic development for their area since the determination of where a <br /> 43 company could expand or start a new seed company would be guided by the <br /> 7 <br />