$950K will be used to help implement findings
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Editor's note: On Feb. 6, 2023, at 9:48 a.m. CST, this story was fixed to add the correct first name for Steven Pedigo, vice president of economic development at Resonance.
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BROOKINGS — At its meeting on Jan. 24, the Brookings City Council gave its approval, on a 6-0 vote, to the city’s first community economic development master plan — a plan that contains insights into the positives the Brookings area has, along with the challenges it faces.
The $125,000 plan, which was overseen by worldwide economic development consultants Resonance, covers a five-year period of time. It took 10 months to develop and will be used to provide $950,000 from the city budget to “progress Brookings’ economic efforts,” per a memo from the city. City Manager Paul M. Briseno said the funds will go to four entities:
Steven Pedigo, vice president of economic development at Resonance, was at the City Council meeting via Zoom and complimented Brookings and its residents while explaining the master plan’s findings.
“It has been a real pleasure … to work with your city,” he said. “This has been a process and a plan that really has been co-created together and it’s something that I think will guide the future of the community of Brookings in the years to come.”
Pedigo pointed out research findings from the 107-page plan, including:
The research findings also pointed out the key target clusters for Brookings:
Ag innovation is supported by South Dakota State University’s excellence in the field through the its Precision Agriculture program and also through robust work by the Research Park. Major employers in this cluster include Dynamic Concepts, Conference Technologies and Banner Associates.
This cluster is supported by Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce initiatives such as the Ag Teacher Resources Grant, ag scholarships, Feed the Farmer, and the Ag Appreciation Banquet. Major employers include Sterling Technology, Hill Top Dairy, and KC Dairy.
“You all are definitely a community that I’m excited to have had an opportunity to work with, but also follow in the years to come,” Pedigo noted.
Going beyond the research findings, the community economic development master plan also included seven goals for the city and strategies to help achieve those goals over a five-year period. The goals are:
Questions and observations came following Pedigo’s presentation, including one from City Councilor Holly Tilton Byrne.
“Thank you for the hard work that was put into this, I think it’s a great plan and it gives us some really solid goals to look at,” she said. “Obviously, all of these are great goals, but won’t all be achieved at one time. Is there any priority that might be given to any of these or recommendation about which one, two, three of them that you would recommend that we focus on first or if there is perhaps a way to identify which ones might be easiest to attain?”
Pedigo replied that, “Under each of these goals there’s prioritizations … as we’ve noted in the implementation plan, we’re not going to achieve completion of each of these goals in Year 1. This is a plan that will scaffold upon (itself) as we go through years 1 through 5.”
The conversation wrapped up with an observation by Mayor Oepke “Ope” Niemeyer.
“Obviously, in the implementation (we’ll) jump at the low-hanging fruit right away and move on from there,” he said. “It is definitely over a five-year plan and we have economic development partners that will help us with the implementation of this also.”
The City Council’s next meeting is set for 6 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Brookings City & County Government Center, 520 Third St.
— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.