By Robert Williams

Editor

Consultant Don Lorsung announced he was leaving Community and Economic Development Associates (CEDA) at the end of the year and in turn would be finalizing his duties with the Frazee Economic Development Authority after December.

Lorsung presented two different proposals for his successor, an annual contract from CEDA and a second from Karen Pifher of Creating Community Consulting (CCC).

Pifher, owner and CEO of CCC, was in attendance to discuss her company and gave a high-level overview of services she can provide, one of the biggest being locally based.

“I love Frazee; I live here; my kids go to school here,” she said.

Pifher earned a Masters Degree in Community Development from North Dakota State University and has also spearheaded a number of large projects, both regionally and in Frazee over the past dozen years.

Pifher was integral in getting the 5-year, $730,000, Positive Community Norms Grant for the high school and led the development of CornerStone Youth and Community Center, a $1 million campaign; she is also leading grant writing and fundraising for Wannigan Regional Park, along with legislative advocacy.

“Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of things on what works and what doesn’t work,” she said. 

Pifher created CCC 18 months ago and has expanded to six staff members across the region. Much of her current work has her based in Fargo and a contract with the EDA would allow her to base her personal operations out of Frazee more.

“I want to do more work locally; that’s where my heart is,” she said. “When you hire me, you get all of my staff and all of our experience. What I know I can do is bring money and projects that work here and we’ve done that very well in several communities.”

Top priorities for the EDA in 2024 is engaging local businesses, the ongoing potential of the Dental Access Center coming to Frazee and the downtown retail building.

“How do we bring dollars into the community or help investments to align so we can do more economic development?” Pifher said.

The proposal from CCC will increase costs from $22,000 for CEDA consulting to $40,000 for CCC. One of the major differences is CEDA’s contract is for only three days of work per month, whereas, CCC would provide approximately 12 hours per week, along with her company being willing to fundraise to cover half of the expense.

“That allows me to work locally, stay locally, and we will fundraise for the remaining dollars,” Pifher said. “The commitment from the city we would ask is for $20,000 and what we would be willing to do is go find the money to be able to match those dollars.”

Pifher also noted that her company will likely go over the budgeted 12 hours per week.

“We know that and that’s on me,” she said. “We would not come back and ask the city to reimburse for that.”

Pifher’s proposal made for a difficult match for EDA to continue with CEDA and the EDA board accepted the offer with a quick, unanimous decision.

Lorsung commented on the fact that having more time on the job can only be beneficial to both the EDA and the city.

“I think this will provide even more service,” said Lorsung.

Vice Chair John Olson’s motion to approve the proposals was met with positive comments all around.

“I think our return on investment is going to be much greater,” said Ashley Renollet.

The board also thanked Lorsung for his efforts. Heath Peterson stated that Lorsung’s work was vital in getting the EDA going in the right direction and also commented on Pifher taking over.

“Having worked with Karen on a number of projects, I know we’re in good hands,” Peterson said.

Mayor Mark Flemmer recognized Lorsung with a plaque for his service to Frazee.

“Don came on board and he was a breath of fresh air for us and guided us well,” Flemmer said. 

With the proposal approved, a final contract will be prepared for consideration.

Housing efforts

Peterson made a push for the EDA group to make a concerted effort on housing in Frazee.

“I know I bring it up every month and it’s almost like a broken record at this point, but we definitely need housing and we need it bad,” he said. “We need to stop pretending that we’re not a low-income community. We need apartment housing in Frazee.”

Last month, the Becker County EDA Specialist Cody Piper, along with County Administrator Pat Oman, visited the meeting in Frazee offering assistance on how the county and city can work together to increase housing opportunities in town.

Flemmer related information he had from studies done on new housing units that are built or in construction in both Park Rapids and New York Mills. One of his takeaways was that each project had a point person that was very aggressive in getting those projects going.

Peterson also wants to see changes made to the city’s density ordinance 

“The density ordinance, although it has done some good, has also hurt us tremendously when it comes to bringing in new apartment housing,” he said. “It needs to be revisited and it needs to be reworked to be more inviting to bring people in rather than all stick and no carrot. We need something to tell people we want you in Frazee.”

Peterson also related his own personal issues with the lack of rental space in town having to purchase a building to house a family member and an employee.

“I needed to keep one of my employees so guess what, she’s renting from me in a building that I purchased,” he said. 

That issue is not limited to Frazee. Many of the homes that surround Spanky’s Stone Hearth are owned by Josh Hanson, who specifically purchased the properties in order to house and keep his employees.

“As a business owner it’s just frustrating,” said Peterson.

Pifher echoed a similar situation she has had with her family.

Peterson also noted the rentals that are available in town are less than desirable.

“The quality of rentals is not something I would put my daughter in; I would not put my employees in if I didn’t have a choice,” he said. “The only way you take care of the poor rentals is by building quality rentals. You have to build a new one so that the lower rentals have a choice to either step up their game or go out of business.”

“If we want to keep expanding businesses in town people need customers and we also need more people to live here so they’re consuming goods so that we can get more business,” Pifher said.

Peterson noted the lack of increase in city population in Frazee over the past five years compared to surrounding towns.

“We see Detroit Lakes and Perham going gangbusters and as a business owner, let’s get on board,” said Peterson. “Let’s bring housing. Housing drives economic development.”

The December EDA meeting will be moved up to Tuesday, Dec. 19, at 11:30 a.m., due to the holidays. The EDA will also hold a special meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 11:15 a.m., to discuss the downtown retail building.