MnDOT approves downtown Frazee park mural, kiosk

By Robert Williams

Editor

The Frazee Economic Development Authority and City Administrator Stephanie Poegel continue to work on the Frazee city sign on U.S. Highway 10 eastbound. Plans are to replace the older sign with one that matches the sign on westbound Highway 10 at the Otter Tail County Road 10 exit.

Actual ownership of the sign remains in question, but the city is involved in maintenance. The sign operates on a 10-year lease and the current lease is up at the end of the year, which gives the city an opportunity to update it. The new permit is due by January 26 and the city must commit to a plan for the design, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Becker County and the State.

The original sign on westbound Highway 10, was quoted at $12,380. It was made with alumacore, which adds to the lifetime of the sign.

The future of the lease and sign will be moved to the Community Club to discuss potential finance options.

Downtown park

The future mural and area map at the downtown park received approval from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, but with stipulations. The mural cannot have words or numbers on it, according to Economic Development Consultant Karen Pifher. 

“Luckily, the mural that people liked best didn’t have numbers or words anyway,” she said.

The mural consists of a depiction of several different pictures of things that are important to people in Frazee incorporated into the art.

The Frazee Community Club has a $10,000 goal for the park project and has raised over $6,000. A grant proposal is also being written to match those funds up to $9,000.

Project 412 in Detroit Lakes is providing a list of professional muralists in the area and there will be a request for proposals from local artists to have the mural completed in 2025.

Frazee’s future

The EDA also discussed a 10-year study looking at land use, expansion and annexation in the future and what is feasible based on cost and how it relates to the city’s comprehensive plan. 

“In general, what is our vision? What does Frazee want to be?” said Pifher. “So much has changed in the last five years that our comp plan is outdated. I’m just going to be honest. That is a good problem to have.”

Pifher and her company Creating Community Consulting (CCC) have made a big impact in their first year on the job and have also committed many unpaid hours to economic development in Frazee.

They are currently working with the city council to figure out how much money will be budgeted for CCC to continue its efforts or potentially expand those efforts. Splitting up the city’s priorities will also help in directing CCC’s efforts, cost-saving and directing the EDA and city officials for the next five years.

“We need to figure out who can have those conversations,” she said. “Because we’re doing housing, job creation, momentum and capacity building, working with the community club and building their capacity, we have zero time to add anything else besides what we’re doing right now.”

Pifher cited the influx of new businesses, Wannigan Regional Park, CornerStone Youth and Community Center and how they will need support and the need to look to the future in being prepared for how to grow the community more and leveraging resources.

“It’s a really good problem to have massive growth,” Pifher said. 

“At the same time, we do need to be cognizant of what we have open within our existing city limits,” said City Administrator Stephanie Poegel. “How can we utilize what we currently have? Expanding is a great thing, but if you have holes in your city and you are expanding out, how do we fill those holes?”

Pifher also cited streamlining how her company can better serve the community, such as with potential fundraising for the Town Lake Beach construction.

“There are opportunities where we can think about how can we cost save or how can we get more community involvement to fundraise for those kinds of things, so that it is not mostly coming from the city budget?” said Pifher.

CCC is also using their West Main Avenue office as an incubator space for businesses that are not ready for their own space, but are in the business planning and development stages.

“They want to be able to sell so we’re working now on getting the retail space set out this week and getting that in place,” she said.

Family Resource Center

With grant funding from a county gap assessment, plans for the upcoming Family Resource Center in Frazee are continuing. 

According to Pifher, there are two more listening sessions now that data analysis from a community survey has been completed. 

“Using a strength-based approach and the survey data, it will be located in Frazee,” she said. “We’re going to expand the services at CornerStone, because they already serve youth and they’re already serving parents, especially when there is a crisis with their kids. This will pay for additional staffing for that to be a drop-in center from 1-7 p.m., for families to go to where they can get emergency food and help with families. The goal with this grand funder is to reduce out-of-home placements for children.”

CCC is currently working on a $244,000 grant proposal for two years to help pay the staff for the  current youth activities and the resource center pieces.

Long-term goals could involve a separate location, if it gets to the point where the resource center outgrows the CornerStone building, but for the length of the two-year grant it will be located at CornerStone.

Election forum

CCC is partnering with the League of Women Voters in hosting a delegate forum including mayoral and city council candidates at the Event Center Monday, Oct. 14 at 6 p.m.

“It gives people an opportunity to hear from all the candidates,” Pifher said.

Frazee 2025 events

CCC is creating a list of events happening in Frazee during 2025 and currently adding to them. At the moment, there are 16 events planned for next year, along with plans for 20 events at Wannigan Regional Park.

“Almost every weekend there would be something,” Pifher said.

Businesses and individuals are being asked to volunteer to adopt an event. Contact Pifher and/or CCC to volunteer (218) 255-3919.