2018 June Newsletter

 

 

The UMVRDC continues to assist the City of Granite Falls with improvements to Memorial Park, which was designated a regional park by the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission in 2016. The city is currently working on the construction of Phase I, which includes building a new shower house, improvements on the main park picnic shelter, and reworking the entrance to the park to make safety improvements. The request of $595,613 was funded in the spring of 2017 and this project was implemented in the fall of 2017.

Phase II focuses improvements on the south side of the park. It will develop the RV campground closer to the new shower house, and turn the existing campground into a nature-based playground area. It will restore the ecological landscape on the south side of the park, improve the overlook trail and add signage to the entire park. The city received $732,261 to complete this phase, and is now working through the paperwork and environmental review.

Funding for both of these phases came from the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission. The UMVRDC helped with the funding requests, environmental review and master planning process. The UMVRDC will be assisting with the next phase funding request due July 2018.

The Minnesota River Valley National Scenic Byway just completed an update to the Corridor Management Plan. The byway runs 287 miles from Browns Valley to Belle Plaine along the Minnesota River, and the byway designated corridor includes ten miles on each side of the river.

This corridor management plan is a blueprint to guide the organizing, marketing and interpretive development of the corridor. It defines the most important steps needed to protect the character and resources along the byway. The goal of this plan is to create a balance between preservation and promotion in a manner that maintains the integrity and value of the Byway’s intrinsic qualities, and enhances the livability in the Minnesota River Communities. This plan is a comprehensive outline of these intrinsic qualities which will help planning efforts preserve what is important in the valley.

The plan can be viewed at www.mnrivervalley.com. This update was funded by the Federal Highway Administration.

Anderson-TeBeest Funeral Home utilized RLF dollars to purchase equipment and furnishings for their new location in Granite Falls, MN. The $69,720 loan closed in March and was part of a $710,000 financing package that will retain five full time jobs along with creation of a part time job.

The UMVRDC’s RLF has available funding for new and expanding businesses throughout our five-county region. The RLF continues to provide competitive terms within a financing package to allow for sustained creation and retention of jobs. As a gap financing agency, the UMVRDC partners with private financial institutions and other gap financers to complete these projects.