Photo by Wanda Hanson
The R-P Valley Chamber of Commerce held their annual meeting February 15 at The Creamery. Treasurer Ross Himlie emphasized in his report that the Chamber is trying to be as diligent as possible; the $10,000 received during COVID has been set aside for the future.
New board members include Tony Becker who took over for a member who had resigned, and newly elected Rhonda Spece.
Amanda O’Connell, keynote speaker
Following the short business meeting, the Chamber welcomed Amanda O’Connell, Southeast and South Central DEED analyst, as the keynote speaker. O’Connell shared an update on the Fillmore County labor market.
O’Connell pointed out that in the county the median age is 41.6 years old, with 20.8% over the age of 65. Currently the unemployment rate is low at 2.1%. The county has three job openings for every one person who is unemployed. Polling the audience as to whether they had issues finding employees, she found that about half did indeed. Baby boomers retiring and fewer children being born to younger generations cause some of the shortage. Available employees declined during the pandemic when families decided it was cheaper to have one parent stay home and out of the workforce. The total decline in the workforce in Fillmore County was 3.4% compared to a 0.9% decrease in southeast Minnesota.
The county population increased by 2% to 21,271. While 96.2% of the county is white, the statistics for people who are two or more races or African American has increased markedly in recent years. Foreign born residents are younger on average than the rest of the population with 73.3% of the group being 15-44 years old.
Fillmore County’s household median income is lower than the rest of the state. Statistically, the county has a higher percentage of residents with an associate degree, high school degree or no degree and a lower percentage of residents with bachelor or master’s degrees or higher. 42% of residents work outside of Fillmore County. Cost of living for a household consisting of two adults and a child was estimated at $51,678.
O’Connell offered herself as a resource to anyone needing more information. Chamber members appreciated the information and hope to use it as they move forward.
Jen Hengel annual report
Coordinator Jen Hengel presented her annual report to the Chamber, noting the Chamber has 108 members and welcoming new members including Farmers Insurance Agent Jason Rasmussen and Ty Haupt of Thrivent. Hengel detailed the outreach and networking done by the Chamber as well as promotion of the members and marketing.
One of the big events of the past year was Open Doors, a tour of business opportunities and buildings in Rushford. Hengel hopes to repeat the event in the future.
A total of $11,000 was spent on marketing with funding from an Explore MN grant as well as financial support from Rushford Village, Rushford, and Peterson. Ad development spans print, social, digital and radio.
The Chamber also works with nine other towns as Root River Trail Towns to promote the area by networking, marketing, and events and projects such as the 60-mile garage sale and bike share. While the Taste of the Trail will no longer be held, each town will have its own celebration the same day this fall.The Root River Towns will be promoting the area with billboards in central Iowa this year.
Thanks to a contract with the city of Rushford, the Chamber is able to provide an information center for events. Hengel is working to provide information to new residents in town and to connect newcomers with rental agencies for housing. Hengel hopes to begin hand delivering welcome packages to new residents containing a welcome letter from the chamber as well as local business coupons.
A career exploration day will again be held in conjunction with R-P School. Last year, students visited 10 different businesses as well as lunching on pizza at The Creamery. This year the event will be held April 21 and will be offered to the R-P juniors. The Bluff Country Collaborative schools may possibly send students as well.
In closing, Hengel commented that while it was hard to see businesses close this year, there were many new businesses in the past few years including Acer, Inc., Window World, and Carl’s Electric to name a few. Some buildings have been recently sold, such as the Subway and one of Horihan’s.
Tony Chladek, Rushford city administrator, shared that the city will be offering a revolving loan fund of up to $50,000 to help jumpstart new businesses.
Chamber President Jerad Brown closed the meeting, enthusing the chamber was lucky to have Jen Hengel representing and working for them.
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