Sandra Drees

By Joshua Schuetz

Residents and visitors to Hayfield now have a new way to take trips ‘round the town. The city’s new bike share service, work on which has been underway throughout this year, is now open to the public as of August 23.

Hayfield’s bike share service is free. Six new bikes were purchased through the funding from The Hayfield EDA, with the help of CEDA team member Rebecca Charles, led the way on the project, which was funded in part by a $10,000 grant from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF). A bike rodeo was held last year to raise awareness and additional community support for the project.

Bike shares, which allow residents and visitors to rent bikes for free or a small fee, are growing in popularity throughout Minnesota and the United States as cities look to promote physical exercise, reduce car dependency and give residents more opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there are 2,655 bike share stations in 65 cities across the United States.
SMIF, and work on the pergolas and bike racks was also funded through the grant. In order to make the service accessible and inclusive to all residents, the city chose to purchase bikes of varying sizes, including youth to adult frames.

The new bike share racks are located under two pergolas by city hall. In addition to sheltering the bicycles from rain, the pergolas will offer residents a place to rest in the shade when walking downtown, checking one of the bikes out, or bringing a bike in after a ride. Bicycles will be stored indoors during the winter months.

Residents and visitors are welcome to check out bikes from the city, which can be done at city hall. Weekend rentals are also available but must be checked out by 3:30 p.m. on Thursdays.

By Joshua Schuetz

CEDA’s Rural Business Innovation Lab (RBIL) launched in late spring 2023, and the inaugural cohort is now halfway through the 8-month technical assistance program. RBIL, which is funded in part by a grant from Compeer Financial, is led by CEDA team members Robert Harris III and Cameron Payne.

Since the kickoff event in Red Wing in June, CEDA’s RBIL team has been meeting weekly with the eight companies in the inaugural cohort, working with them on a customized plan to scale their businesses. CEDA has also been building capacity for future cohorts, integrating new learnings and creating programming that caters to the needs of these rural companies. Here are a few highlights of the past few months:

● To support businesses as they embark on marketing campaigns, pitch competitions, and seeking capital, CEDA developed a “storyboarding sprint” curriculum that utilized sprint and agile brainstorming methodologies to organize big ideas into actionable steps forward.

● One of RBIL’s major goals is to create a denser, more well-connected ecosystem of innovative rural businesses. One exciting example of RBIL’s collaborative nature is a new partnership between two RBIL businesses: Perennial Pantry recently featured 3Cricketeers products in their subscription box! These entrepreneurs share a unified vision for environmental change and improved sustainable business practices.

● Access to startup capital is a common need for businesses, but it’s even harder in rural places which often have fewer banking institutions and angel investors. CEDA has been working to bridge that gap by hosting virtual events for the RBIL cohort to connect directly with investors and lenders, learning about venture capital, angel investment, traditional business lending, and other creative ways to approach financing as they scale.

● To assist the RBIL cohort in the day-to-day operational challenges and knowledge gaps, CEDA has also partnered with several industry experts for consulting on topics such as human resources, CPG consumer testing, legislative engagement, and accounting.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Rural Business Innovation Lab, including information on how to apply for the next cohort (applications will open in early 2024). To learn more about the current businesses involved in the RBIL program, please visit CEDA’s website or reach out to Director of Strategic Initiatives Robert Harris III (robert.harris@cedausa.com).

By Joshua Schuetz

In September 2022, Bremer Bank, then the only bank in Eyota, announced that it would close its branch in the city at the end of the year. Following the announcement, the Eyota EDA board told CEDA team member Cathy Enerson that her “only job at this moment was to concentrate on bringing a new bank to town.”

As discussions with the five banks progressed, Enerson said another issue arose, namely a lack of space for a temporary bank location in the city. Enerson contacted Bennett Foods, a local grocery store, and asked if they would be willing to put their plans for adding liquor sales on hold to host a new bank. Leadership at Bennett, seeing the value and need for a bank to come to the community, agreed.

Enerson and the EDA board got to work, crafting a narrative, and interviewing five bank chains in southeast Minnesota. Enerson collected data on local deposits, making the case that they were significant enough to warrant the opening of a bank branch in Eyota. In this, she was joined by Eyota’s mayor, Tony Nelson, EDA chair, Dale Heintz, and City Clerk, Marlis Knowlton.

Foresight Bank, of Plainview, owned by Cassie and Will Harrington, sent in an application to the state of Minnesota, requesting permission to open a bank branch in Eyota.

Enerson said the local community deserves recognition for helping to bring the new bank to town. Prior to Foresight’s formal application to the State, key depositors, as well as prominent figures in the community took the initiative to either hold meetings or conduct phone conversations to express support for Foresight’s establishment in Eyota. Through these interactions, these community influencers effectively conveyed to Foresight that their presence was not only desired but also assured of strong backing. Their efforts underscored the message that Foresight would find both a warm welcome and steadfast support within the Eyota community.

In July 2023, Enerson and the EDA board cut the ribbon on Foresight’s new branch in Eyota. Enerson expressed her thanks to the bank’s owners for bringing a much-needed resource to the city.

“Foresight Bank choosing to open a branch in Eyota was an emotional journey as well as an important win for the city of Eyota EDA,” Enerson said. Thank you, Will and Cassie Harrington, for choosing to expand into Eyota.”

By Joshua Schuetz

In many communities, revolving loan funds play a pivotal role in the success of new ventures, ranging from small startups to housing projects. As CEDA expands its services to more communities, ensuring that team members understand the intricacies of loan operations becomes crucial to their success.

Mitch Massman, the new Director of Loan Operations at CEDA, is stepping in to address this need. Massman, who was promoted to the position in August, mentioned that he will assist in operating CEDA’s revolving loan fund and guiding new team members through queries about financial analysis and loan underwriting.

“It’s something I’ve worked on before with Ron Zeigler and Chris Giesen,” Massman said. “Part of my role will involve working on loans from our revolving loan fund, while another aspect will be developing training programs for new CEDA staff.”

CEDA’s revolving loan fund offers businesses in contracted CEDA communities the opportunity to secure up to $60,000, provided they demonstrate a need, present a complete business plan, and prove their capacity to repay interest and principal over the loan period.

Massman will also seek funding for programs that can be implemented in CEDA communities. Regarding individual projects in CEDA communities that involve loans, Massman said he can provide feedback and financial analysis to colleagues who lack experience in finance.

“It can be any project—if one of our team members doesn’t know how to underwrite a loan and interpret those numbers, I can come in and assist,” Massman said. “The position isn’t about me personally handling every loan in every CEDA community, but rather about helping new colleagues who lack experience in the field.”

Massman added that, to enhance the financial acumen of team members, training programs will be developed and offered as part of CEDA’s onboarding process.

“Our plan is to develop finance training and conduct them towards the end of the mentorship program. At that point, I’ll work with them using examples of loans I’ve dealt with in the past, making it a hands-on experience,” Massman said. “I’m excited about this position and how it can empower our team members to better serve their communities from a financial standpoint,” Massman concluded.

By Joshua Schuetz

The 2020s have been a challenging decade for cinema: the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of online streaming have dealt theaters a one-two punch from which many have not recovered, especially single-screen theaters in small communities.

CEDA team member Courtney Bergey Swanson, who serves as Spring Grove’s EDA director, and a group of community members from Spring Grove received $25,000 in funding from the Department of Public Transformation, a nonprofit headquartered in Granite Falls, MN, to help sustain the city’s local movie theater and create new ways to use the space in service of the community.

Spring Grove Cinema is now part of the inaugural cohort of the nonprofit’s Activate Rural Program, which funds projects that rehabilitate amenities in small cities to better serve their communities.

“It’s a unique project because the Spring Grove Cinema is owned by our local telecommunications cooperative,” Bergey Swanson said. “A group of local leaders were thinking about ways to attract more families to town, and they encouraged Spring Grove Communications to invest in building a new movie theater downtown in 2009.” Unfortunately, with the changing times, not as many people are coming to the theater as they used to, and the cinema sits unused for much of the week, relying on its Friday, Saturday, and Sunday showings to make ends meet.

“What we proposed is that we believe there’s a way to use the cinema to activate the space more than a couple of nights per week,” Bergey Swanson said.
As part of the program, the Cinema is working on a partnership with the local school district to create a design lab on an unused upper floor of the building. This lab, Bergey Swanson explained, will give local students a chance to not only learn valuable design skills but also shape media in their community.

“The goal would be for students to work on programming that appeals to their generation, like gaming on the big screen, or TikTok film festivals, or retro cartoon Saturdays—things that are not super common in a regular theater,” Bergey Swanson said.

The grant consists of $25,000 in funding for programming over the course of two years. Spring Grove recently had its site visit for the cinema, as well as a retreat with other awardees, which gave Bergey Swanson and other members of the project’s core team the chance to share ideas with other grantees working on similar projects.

“Our next step this fall is to start some of the programming for the grant, where we will put things on paper, advertise them, and start getting people in the door,” Bergey Swanson said.