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Welcome back to Rolling Places.
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We are here at the Sume Metro.
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It is Josh Chase and myself, Haley Johnson, and we are joined here with Eric Foshenheim of East River Electric.
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Eric, for those of you who may not know you, tell us a little bit about yourself.
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Well, so uh thanks for having me here today, guys.
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Um uh Eric Foshenheim with East River Electric and the Reed Fund.
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Um so uh for those who don't know, uh I was a uh USD grad, uh Go Yotes.
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Uh I started off at SDSU, so I always have to kind of say that for my STSU friends that like to give me a hard time.
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They say I couldn't hack it there.
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So um and then uh following graduation from USD, uh I kind of I stepped into the banking world, um, found a liking to that, uh, spent eight years in banking.
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In my time as a banker, uh, I found myself really kind of getting irritated by kind of the onbringing of a lot of federal regulations uh that really kind of took away the relationship feel of banking.
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Uh, they really kind of tied our hands in a lot of cases.
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Um, and you know, uh, you know, Josh Chase, who's been a customer at my bank for, you know, 25 years, has got a son that needs a car loan.
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Um, and there was all sorts of regulations around you know how we could do that uh or put that deal together.
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Um, and I found myself really getting irritated by that.
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And so I started kind of looking for a different career opportunity um and kind of had an opportunity come about uh in economic development with the state, uh the governor's office of economic development.
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I had a neighbor at the time uh that worked for the office, and he happened to work with a friend of mine from high school uh growing up.
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Uh they had become really good friends.
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They had a position open uh as a business development rep at the time, um, and you know, kind of presented the opportunity to me.
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And I thought, you know, I've I like to talk to people, I like to, you know, the relationship side of the world um seems like a good fit for me.
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So stepped into economic development and found myself really enjoying it.
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Are you winning two feet first?
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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Uh, and uh really from there, um, kind of natural progression with with that role is to you know seek out opportunities maybe more at the local level with local EDOs and so on.
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An opportunity presented itself in Madison uh with the Lake Area Improvement Corporation at the time.
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Now it's called the Madison Area Development Corporation.
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Um, and uh really kind of uh evaluated that opportunity a little bit.
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It was uh it obviously required a move for us and our family.
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We lived in Sioux Falls for 10 years.
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Um took the opportunity to move to Madison, took that opportunity um and uh was there about two and a half years, and then this read fund uh opening uh came about, and um it it what I liked about the read opportunity was it offered me the kind of ability to get back into banking a little bit.
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Um, it was more on the commercial side of banking, uh, which wasn't so uh bureaucratic.
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Um you know I guess previously I was in the on the personal side.
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I don't know, you'll have to do some editing there, but um anyway, so uh the read fund opportunity provided me um the ability to to kind of get back into banking um and then also work in economic development.
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So it's kind of like uh best of the both best of both worlds, so to speak.
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Um and I've been with Reed now for five years.
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Um and yeah, just uh kind of loving the mix of day-to-day economic development stuff and and financing opportunities and figuring out a way to get things to happen and put things together.
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Yeah, so tell us a little bit.
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A lot of people in the economic development world know what the read fund is, and um, you've probably done a lot of projects with economic development folks in the area, but for our listeners who maybe not maybe are not as familiar, just tell us a little bit about uh what the read fund is and what kind of projects you're part of.
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Yeah, so the read fund it maybe it's better for me to go back a little bit and understand East River's role in all of this.
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So East River is what would be described as a GNT cooperative, so generation and transmission.
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Um, East River does not generate any of its own electricity, however, we transmit electricity uh across the grid uh to distribution distribution substations, and then they end up going to distribution co-ops, uh plug into that, and bring electricity to your house, right?
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And so East River is kind of the conduit between the generation of electricity uh and the distribution co-op, which then ultimately brings electricity to your house.
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So the read fund actually represents those distribution co-ops.
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So the Sioux Valleys of the World or the Southeastern Electrics of the World here in the Sioux Metro, those would be uh members of the Reed Fund.
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They would be members of East River, and uh Reed's role in that is we kind of help with their economic development efforts.
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So we provide financing opportunities, we provide uh networking, uh, we we know a lot of contacts within the economic development world.
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And so when there's a project that's presented, uh oftentimes those co-ops will come to us um because they maybe don't have their own economic development folks, or you know, a lot of these rural areas of South Dakota just don't have those paid roles, and so they'll come to us at Reed and we'll help uh work through those projects, uh, work with those uh potential borrowers and so on and how to you know putting together those financing packages.
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Yeah, and when people think about electric companies, sometimes it's like that's like the big corporate company scary kind of buzzword type of thing, but it's really people that are local to you, the cooperatives especially, are people that live in your community, um, and it it's really a local type of thing, not not so much that that corporate scary structure.
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But and Reed gets to do the fun part of funding those projects and getting things off the ground, and I think that's a super cool about what you get to do.
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Yeah, and the broad spectrum of where we kind of fit.
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Um, we we can do uh municipality infrastructure projects, we can help with small business financing, we can help with your larger manufacturers, uh, whether it's you know buildings or equipment, um and volunteer fire departments, uh whatever it might be that kind of helps make your community move from an economic development standpoint.
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So the READ Fund uh helps fill financing gaps for development projects.
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What are some of the most rewarding projects so far that you've been a part of and why?
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So the most rewarding ones tend to be the ones that don't get the news headlines.
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They're actually kind of your small homegrown projects.
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Um, you know, in the news every day we see, you know, all the noise about data centers these days, or um, you know, whatever it might be that's kind of the big buzzword in economic development at any given time.
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And what people tend to forget is the nuts and bolts of these communities are the small businesses, are the local volunteer fire departments, the response services, um, the local infrastructure projects, those types of things that really are the catalyst for actually keeping the world moving.
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And while we can participate in the larger projects, the smaller ones, such as your local volunteer fire departments, um, your local grocery store, um, you know, we we just an example, um, recently we've had uh we did a uh a loan for uh a family grocery store in a small town in rural South Dakota.
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Um it was a transition from one generation to another.
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Um you know, if if this father and and mother who owned this grocery store, you know, didn't have a plan in place, um, the the town would currently be without any sort of of grocery store opportunity.
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They'd have to drive 30 miles to buy a gallon of milk.
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And uh Reed was able to come in and help that project happen.
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Um, and we were able to get financing in place for that family to be able to transition that that grocery store.
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Um it today is is a very needed and well respected business in the community.
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Uh what's awesome about that is those people are oftentimes the the folks too that that are helping fund your your school organizations and you know those other uh community projects that that need that local investment?
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In many cases it's those uh those businesses that are doing that.
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So um, yeah, that's the most rewarding.
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So you kind of touched on it a little bit there, but when you when you're in a community or you get to meet these folks that are leaders in in the communities across South Dakota, what are kind of some of those those key indicators that this town wants to grow, this town is ready for success?
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So if if I'm pulling into a town that you know I don't live in, uh a couple things that I that might stand out to me would be, you know, if there's uh new housing development that's happening in a town of 1,500 people, you know, oh cool, they're gonna have you know 20 new houses ready to go at some point for uh you know a new family that wants to move into town or or you know a new business that might come, you know, there's gonna be places for those folks to live.
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Um a bustling downtown, you know, if there are the are the buildings on Main Street, you know, uh occupied.
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You know, those uh it's it's pretty telling when you've when you drive in uh through your downtown or downtown of a small community uh and half the buildings are vacant.
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Uh, you know, it's it's it's in many cases uh an all too sad reality.
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Um and so those uh I I guess then you know what does the school look like, you know, in in that community that you're you know maybe pulling into?
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Is it an you know a hundred and fifty-year-old school that looks like it's ready to to crumble?
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Or has the community invested money in that?
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Um, you know, with the anticipation of hopefully keeping students around for you know the years to come.
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Um so I I guess those would be kind of the main things that would stand out.
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Industrial parks is the is the community investing in some infrastructure, you know, to take an opportunity that might come along in the future.
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You know, it's it's one thing to you know have a project opportunity fall in your lap where you're able to just kind of make something work on a whim.
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It's another thing to prepare for that and and kind of take steps to get ready for those opportunities that may not be ready to fall in your lap.
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Yeah, so uh economic development can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
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And especially right now, economic development has become a word that I don't know if people necessarily even know what they're saying.
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But economic development it comes down to partnerships.
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And so what role do utilities, local leaders, businesses, economic development organizations like you're a part of, what do what part do they all play in maintaining or creating successful partnerships?
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You know, one of the things we talk about in economic development is, you know, it's it's okay to not be an expert in everything.
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There's a lot of different dynamics in the world we work in.
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But it's important to know who the experts are.
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And you know, on the flip side, it is also important to know a little bit about a lot of things, right?
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So uh if if you can talk the lingo about whatever it is that your you know community uh is talking about, whether it's you know uh a local dairy that maybe is looking for an opportunity to you know invest in the in the area, you know, it's important to know you know, maybe how many dairy cows exist in South Dakota.
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Yeah.
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Or do the processors in South Dakota or in the region have capacity to take additional milk?
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You know, it's not that important to know exactly where that dairy should go or or all the details, you know, about that specific opportunity.
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But it's important to be able to talk with those folks and and kind of um paint a picture that you know the discussions are happening and we know a little bit about what you're doing.
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Um, we're not gonna try to be an expert, but hey, you know, if you want to know uh a side expert, you know, we'll get you in touch with so-and-so.
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Um, you know, those kinds of things.
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Um you know, here in the Sue Metro, you know, you have a lot of communities that you guys are working with to kind of prepare for those opportunities, you know, whether it's working with local city councils um and and trying to get those folks to understand the importance of getting ready for those opportunities.
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And uh from the utility standpoint, you know, nothing happens uh in economic development without utilities.
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You gotta have um electricity, in many cases a lot of electricity, water, sewer, um natural gas, where's that?
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How much do you have available to you?
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Those kinds of things.
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And I think you know, when I got into economic development 12 years ago, um I would say it was uh a little less uh uh common to have utility providers at the table of those conversations uh for RFIs, for example.
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Um when you have an RFI come in, um you know, there's oftentimes we need this many square feet, we need this many units of water, we need this many decatherms of natural gas.
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We would oftentimes try to put together packages for these people, and we wouldn't necessarily always know all of the information or have it at our fingertips.
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Um, and I think it's become understood in the last maybe 10 years how much more important it is to have those utility providers at the table when those conversations are happening.
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Um, when those, you know, when the RFI comes in, you know, there might be a quick turnaround and we might not know everything that we need to know, but hey, I know who I need to get a hold of in this community that's gonna provide electricity um to this site, and we need to get them, you know, on the phone.
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We need to get them a part of the conversation.
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Yeah.
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And so all that is really important.
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Yeah, and my per in my perspective, I couldn't imagine, you know, handling some of those projects or and even just requests for information on uh without our utility partners and how important those good working relationships have been to being able to do this job well.
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So I surely appreciate it.
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I know that I couldn't imagine not having you guys out of phone call away.
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Yeah, well, and it's nice to be um it's nice to be a part of those conversations, you know.
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One of the things we talk about these days in our world is lead times on being able to get transformers and you know how long is it gonna take to get you know that infrastructure put in place for that project, you know, and so if they have a uh an expectation to be operational in six months, but it's gonna take a year and a half to get the infrastructure in place, it's important for those folks to know what's what the reality is from the very get-go.
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And having those utility partners in place or or at the table helps with a lot of that.
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Yeah, and at the time of this recording, as of today, I've been here for about two and a half months, and I think that that's one of the biggest things with economic development just as a whole, that I've noticed that a lot of people talk about in economic development the next big thing or the next shiny thing or the next building to go up.
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But I just think as a whole, the general population doesn't grasp the importance of water and utilities to making all of these things happen.
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And I think that's been the most enlightening for me, as I've been with Sue Metro, of how we have to start at the base level, because nothing else happens if you don't have the base level ready to go.
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Right.
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Right.
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And it's important for the city leaders to to you know be on board with that too, because you know, if if you've got a a city council or a county commission that isn't um you know aware, I guess, of the opportunities and understand those things completely, it's really hard for them to vote confidently or talk with their constituents in a confident manner.
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And that's one thing I I applaud you guys for doing um, you know, here at Sumetro is really getting in front of those folks to educate them.
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You know, um, look, we don't, you know, here's what everybody is saying and all the naysayers are saying about this, but here are the facts.
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You know, we're yeah, we need to talk about facts versus emotion on whatever that topic may be, whether it's a a KFO or or a manufacturer or whatever it might be.
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You always have somebody that's gonna say, Well, I don't want this in my backyard, or I don't, you know, I don't necessarily want this thing here or there or wherever because you know, and so they make up a bunch of uh, you know, noise and and get the right people behind them.
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And it's it's amazing how how loud some of those minority folks can get, as you guys know.
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Yeah, well, that's why we got our partners with us, and you know, we can set the facts out there for everybody to take in as just that facts of what is realistic and what you know what projects can actually happen and what is not even feasible maybe for a number of years.
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Like I you know, I I agree with you sometimes that you think that oh this there's a lot of shiny balls out there and a lot of things that would be awesome, but you know, it the the numbers sometimes tell a little different story about what what's actually feasible and and uh realistic and how that impacts really everything else that happens in that town from an infrastructure perspective.
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So uh I can't say it enough that we're we're so thankful to have these good relationships with our utility partners and you know to be someone that's relatively new into economic development, you know, kind of learning that that wasn't always the case.
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I you know, I couldn't I couldn't imagine it any other way.
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So I'm glad that we have had that established now.
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Um just to switch gears a little bit, um, you know, and you you you touched on a little bit the importance of having uh a bench of city counselors that are um in the know about what what are the realities and the facts of a project and what goes what are all these pieces that go into economic development projects?
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You know, that's kind of one thing we've been working on with our Leadership Six Metro program um that East River has been supportive of, and we surely appreciate all this really all the support even outside of Leadership Sioux Metro that uh East River has given to us.
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What are some of the ways that um East River likes to give back to the community?
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Well, I mean I think you can there's countless examples of ways that um the co-op uh has financially given back to the you know, this effort or this effort, right?
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Um one of the things that really stands out to me and one thing that I've really enjoyed getting to understand a little bit in my time at East River is um I guess are those things such as co-ops in the classroom.
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So we actually have a staff person at East River that goes around to um all the schools within the East River footprint um and uh throughout the school year we'll give demonstrations um to uh classrooms or of of students um and just educate them on you know the the Kind of the cool things about electricity, right?
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That open their eyes to the things we actually use electricity for.
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Uh teaches them some safety things around electricity, you know.
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I mean, if you see a down power line, stay away from it.
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Those kinds of things.
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Um, the ways to kind of generate electricity, there's some cool ways that they uh show kids, you know, if you pedal your bike that's hooked up to this sort of mechanism, it'll make your hair stand up, those kinds of things.
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Um, and those types of um I guess uh ways uh of giving back are things that not everybody thinks about all the time, right?
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And but it's also really important um you know that those kids have some of that knowledge base so that when they grow up, maybe they don't take all that stuff for granted, you know, and they plug in their iPad or or you know, um need to charge uh a car down the road or jumpstart a car, whatever it might be.
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Um they know how to do some of that stuff just kind of because they've been around it a little bit and exposed to it.
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Yeah, I suppose the the dollar amounts usually catch headlines a lot more than that stuff that we kind of at the community level that actually are the the nuts and bolts of of of giving back.
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So yeah.
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And one of the other things that's cool that um kind of the touchstone network has as a whole, um, both the distribution co-ops and East River is if you've ever watched Dakota News Now, um they do a a scholar of the week and where they'll highlight a high school senior that's one uh uh scholarship to, you know, for um, you know, whatever college they choose to go to for books or whatever it might be.
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Um, but it's just kind of a cool way to recognize um young people for their hard work.
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Um and you know, I don't think the scholarships are you know relatively huge by any means, but um, it's just kind of a unique way and a neat way to recognize some kids for for you know being good people and and hard workers.
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Yeah, that goes that goes a long way to a young person.
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So that's great to see.
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Well, thank you so much for coming in today, Eric.
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Um I do have one last question.
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We don't let any of our guests get away without answering.
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What is your hidden gem in the Sioux Metro?
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So I've got I I cheated and I I think I thought of a couple of these.
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So um I live in Hartford, and you know, if you're if you've never been to the Hartford Steakhouse Um for a good prime rib, I love it.
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You you have to have to check that out.
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Um, but as a resident of Sioux Falls for 10 years, um in a previous life, our local hangout was always TC's referee.
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Uh Best Wings in the Sioux Metro.
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Um that's a fact, not a not an opinion.
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Um and so uh yeah, I mean, uh those would be my kind of two standouts.
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I did eat at um what's the burrito place in Harrisburg now, the new one.
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Oh uh breaking burrito.
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Breaking burrito.
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They had um they had a uh uh burrito bowl that uh stood out uh for me in recent history too.
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:24.880
So you haven't you didn't actually get a wrapped burrito there, you got a bowl.
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Yeah.
00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:26.000
All right, yeah.
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:26.880
Is that cheating?
00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:28.079
Is that well, I don't know.
00:25:28.319 --> 00:25:30.640
Burrito spot, I'd have to get a burrito, I guess.
00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:32.240
Well, it's like a broken burrito.
00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:33.359
It's you know cleaner burrito.
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:34.319
It's called breaking burrito.
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:34.880
Yeah, you're right.
00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:37.440
You don't you're probably less likely to get on your shirt.
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:40.079
That's what the needle of the fork.
00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:47.680
Well, thanks for coming in today, Eric, and thank you for all the listeners tuning in to another episode of Growing Places.
00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:49.119
Uh we appreciate you.
00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:50.720
Until next time.
00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:54.319
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Growing Places.
00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:58.880
We hope you learned something new about our great communities, who we are, and what we do.
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:02.000
Learn more and stay connected with SPA.
00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:04.880
Visit us online at school.com.
00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:29.920
Welcome back to Rolling Places.
00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:31.920
We are here at the Sume Metro.
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It is Josh Chase and myself, Haley Johnson, and we are joined here with Eric Foshenheim of East River Electric.
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Eric, for those of you who may not know you, tell us a little bit about yourself.
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Well, so uh thanks for having me here today, guys.
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Um uh Eric Foshenheim with East River Electric and the Reed Fund.
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Um so uh for those who don't know, uh I was a uh USD grad, uh Go Yotes.
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Uh I started off at SDSU, so I always have to kind of say that for my STSU friends that like to give me a hard time.
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They say I couldn't hack it there.
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So um and then uh following graduation from USD, uh I kind of I stepped into the banking world, um, found a liking to that, uh, spent eight years in banking.
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In my time as a banker, uh, I found myself really kind of getting irritated by kind of the onbringing of a lot of federal regulations uh that really kind of took away the relationship feel of banking.
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Uh, they really kind of tied our hands in a lot of cases.
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Um, and you know, uh, you know, Josh Chase, who's been a customer at my bank for, you know, 25 years, has got a son that needs a car loan.
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Um, and there was all sorts of regulations around you know how we could do that uh or put that deal together.
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Um, and I found myself really getting irritated by that.
00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:15.759
And so I started kind of looking for a different career opportunity um and kind of had an opportunity come about uh in economic development with the state, uh the governor's office of economic development.
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I had a neighbor at the time uh that worked for the office, and he happened to work with a friend of mine from high school uh growing up.
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Uh they had become really good friends.
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They had a position open uh as a business development rep at the time, um, and you know, kind of presented the opportunity to me.
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And I thought, you know, I've I like to talk to people, I like to, you know, the relationship side of the world um seems like a good fit for me.
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So stepped into economic development and found myself really enjoying it.
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Are you winning two feet first?
00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.919
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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Uh, and uh really from there, um, kind of natural progression with with that role is to you know seek out opportunities maybe more at the local level with local EDOs and so on.
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An opportunity presented itself in Madison uh with the Lake Area Improvement Corporation at the time.
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Now it's called the Madison Area Development Corporation.
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Um, and uh really kind of uh evaluated that opportunity a little bit.
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It was uh it obviously required a move for us and our family.
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We lived in Sioux Falls for 10 years.
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Um took the opportunity to move to Madison, took that opportunity um and uh was there about two and a half years, and then this read fund uh opening uh came about, and um it it what I liked about the read opportunity was it offered me the kind of ability to get back into banking a little bit.
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Um, it was more on the commercial side of banking, uh, which wasn't so uh bureaucratic.
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Um you know I guess previously I was in the on the personal side.
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I don't know, you'll have to do some editing there, but um anyway, so uh the read fund opportunity provided me um the ability to to kind of get back into banking um and then also work in economic development.
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So it's kind of like uh best of the both best of both worlds, so to speak.
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Um and I've been with Reed now for five years.
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Um and yeah, just uh kind of loving the mix of day-to-day economic development stuff and and financing opportunities and figuring out a way to get things to happen and put things together.
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Yeah, so tell us a little bit.
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A lot of people in the economic development world know what the read fund is, and um, you've probably done a lot of projects with economic development folks in the area, but for our listeners who maybe not maybe are not as familiar, just tell us a little bit about uh what the read fund is and what kind of projects you're part of.
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Yeah, so the read fund it maybe it's better for me to go back a little bit and understand East River's role in all of this.
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So East River is what would be described as a GNT cooperative, so generation and transmission.
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Um, East River does not generate any of its own electricity, however, we transmit electricity uh across the grid uh to distribution distribution substations, and then they end up going to distribution co-ops, uh plug into that, and bring electricity to your house, right?
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And so East River is kind of the conduit between the generation of electricity uh and the distribution co-op, which then ultimately brings electricity to your house.
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So the read fund actually represents those distribution co-ops.
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So the Sioux Valleys of the World or the Southeastern Electrics of the World here in the Sioux Metro, those would be uh members of the Reed Fund.
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They would be members of East River, and uh Reed's role in that is we kind of help with their economic development efforts.
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So we provide financing opportunities, we provide uh networking, uh, we we know a lot of contacts within the economic development world.
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And so when there's a project that's presented, uh oftentimes those co-ops will come to us um because they maybe don't have their own economic development folks, or you know, a lot of these rural areas of South Dakota just don't have those paid roles, and so they'll come to us at Reed and we'll help uh work through those projects, uh, work with those uh potential borrowers and so on and how to you know putting together those financing packages.
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Yeah, and when people think about electric companies, sometimes it's like that's like the big corporate company scary kind of buzzword type of thing, but it's really people that are local to you, the cooperatives especially, are people that live in your community, um, and it it's really a local type of thing, not not so much that that corporate scary structure.
00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:11.680
But and Reed gets to do the fun part of funding those projects and getting things off the ground, and I think that's a super cool about what you get to do.
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Yeah, and the broad spectrum of where we kind of fit.
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Um, we we can do uh municipality infrastructure projects, we can help with small business financing, we can help with your larger manufacturers, uh, whether it's you know buildings or equipment, um and volunteer fire departments, uh whatever it might be that kind of helps make your community move from an economic development standpoint.
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So the READ Fund uh helps fill financing gaps for development projects.
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What are some of the most rewarding projects so far that you've been a part of and why?
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So the most rewarding ones tend to be the ones that don't get the news headlines.
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They're actually kind of your small homegrown projects.
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Um, you know, in the news every day we see, you know, all the noise about data centers these days, or um, you know, whatever it might be that's kind of the big buzzword in economic development at any given time.
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And what people tend to forget is the nuts and bolts of these communities are the small businesses, are the local volunteer fire departments, the response services, um, the local infrastructure projects, those types of things that really are the catalyst for actually keeping the world moving.
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And while we can participate in the larger projects, the smaller ones, such as your local volunteer fire departments, um, your local grocery store, um, you know, we we just an example, um, recently we've had uh we did a uh a loan for uh a family grocery store in a small town in rural South Dakota.
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Um it was a transition from one generation to another.
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Um you know, if if this father and and mother who owned this grocery store, you know, didn't have a plan in place, um, the the town would currently be without any sort of of grocery store opportunity.
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They'd have to drive 30 miles to buy a gallon of milk.
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And uh Reed was able to come in and help that project happen.
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Um, and we were able to get financing in place for that family to be able to transition that that grocery store.
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Um it today is is a very needed and well respected business in the community.
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Uh what's awesome about that is those people are oftentimes the the folks too that that are helping fund your your school organizations and you know those other uh community projects that that need that local investment?
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In many cases it's those uh those businesses that are doing that.
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So um, yeah, that's the most rewarding.
00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:31.519
So you kind of touched on it a little bit there, but when you when you're in a community or you get to meet these folks that are leaders in in the communities across South Dakota, what are kind of some of those those key indicators that this town wants to grow, this town is ready for success?
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So if if I'm pulling into a town that you know I don't live in, uh a couple things that I that might stand out to me would be, you know, if there's uh new housing development that's happening in a town of 1,500 people, you know, oh cool, they're gonna have you know 20 new houses ready to go at some point for uh you know a new family that wants to move into town or or you know a new business that might come, you know, there's gonna be places for those folks to live.
00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:09.039
Um a bustling downtown, you know, if there are the are the buildings on Main Street, you know, uh occupied.
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You know, those uh it's it's pretty telling when you've when you drive in uh through your downtown or downtown of a small community uh and half the buildings are vacant.
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Uh, you know, it's it's it's in many cases uh an all too sad reality.
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Um and so those uh I I guess then you know what does the school look like, you know, in in that community that you're you know maybe pulling into?
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Is it an you know a hundred and fifty-year-old school that looks like it's ready to to crumble?
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Or has the community invested money in that?
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Um, you know, with the anticipation of hopefully keeping students around for you know the years to come.
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Um so I I guess those would be kind of the main things that would stand out.
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Industrial parks is the is the community investing in some infrastructure, you know, to take an opportunity that might come along in the future.
00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:10.639
You know, it's it's one thing to you know have a project opportunity fall in your lap where you're able to just kind of make something work on a whim.
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It's another thing to prepare for that and and kind of take steps to get ready for those opportunities that may not be ready to fall in your lap.
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Yeah, so uh economic development can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
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And especially right now, economic development has become a word that I don't know if people necessarily even know what they're saying.
00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:40.320
But economic development it comes down to partnerships.
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And so what role do utilities, local leaders, businesses, economic development organizations like you're a part of, what do what part do they all play in maintaining or creating successful partnerships?
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You know, one of the things we talk about in economic development is, you know, it's it's okay to not be an expert in everything.
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There's a lot of different dynamics in the world we work in.
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But it's important to know who the experts are.
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And you know, on the flip side, it is also important to know a little bit about a lot of things, right?
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So uh if if you can talk the lingo about whatever it is that your you know community uh is talking about, whether it's you know uh a local dairy that maybe is looking for an opportunity to you know invest in the in the area, you know, it's important to know you know, maybe how many dairy cows exist in South Dakota.
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Yeah.
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Or do the processors in South Dakota or in the region have capacity to take additional milk?
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You know, it's not that important to know exactly where that dairy should go or or all the details, you know, about that specific opportunity.
00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:15.440
But it's important to be able to talk with those folks and and kind of um paint a picture that you know the discussions are happening and we know a little bit about what you're doing.
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Um, we're not gonna try to be an expert, but hey, you know, if you want to know uh a side expert, you know, we'll get you in touch with so-and-so.
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Um, you know, those kinds of things.
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Um you know, here in the Sue Metro, you know, you have a lot of communities that you guys are working with to kind of prepare for those opportunities, you know, whether it's working with local city councils um and and trying to get those folks to understand the importance of getting ready for those opportunities.
00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:51.919
And uh from the utility standpoint, you know, nothing happens uh in economic development without utilities.
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You gotta have um electricity, in many cases a lot of electricity, water, sewer, um natural gas, where's that?
00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:03.759
How much do you have available to you?
00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:05.120
Those kinds of things.
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And I think you know, when I got into economic development 12 years ago, um I would say it was uh a little less uh uh common to have utility providers at the table of those conversations uh for RFIs, for example.
00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:39.279
Um when you have an RFI come in, um you know, there's oftentimes we need this many square feet, we need this many units of water, we need this many decatherms of natural gas.
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We would oftentimes try to put together packages for these people, and we wouldn't necessarily always know all of the information or have it at our fingertips.
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Um, and I think it's become understood in the last maybe 10 years how much more important it is to have those utility providers at the table when those conversations are happening.
00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:19.600
Um, when those, you know, when the RFI comes in, you know, there might be a quick turnaround and we might not know everything that we need to know, but hey, I know who I need to get a hold of in this community that's gonna provide electricity um to this site, and we need to get them, you know, on the phone.
00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:21.679
We need to get them a part of the conversation.
00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:22.000
Yeah.
00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:24.000
And so all that is really important.
00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:42.000
Yeah, and my per in my perspective, I couldn't imagine, you know, handling some of those projects or and even just requests for information on uh without our utility partners and how important those good working relationships have been to being able to do this job well.
00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:43.919
So I surely appreciate it.
00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:47.759
I know that I couldn't imagine not having you guys out of phone call away.
00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:53.360
Yeah, well, and it's nice to be um it's nice to be a part of those conversations, you know.
00:16:53.600 --> 00:17:23.599
One of the things we talk about these days in our world is lead times on being able to get transformers and you know how long is it gonna take to get you know that infrastructure put in place for that project, you know, and so if they have a uh an expectation to be operational in six months, but it's gonna take a year and a half to get the infrastructure in place, it's important for those folks to know what's what the reality is from the very get-go.
00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:29.519
And having those utility partners in place or or at the table helps with a lot of that.
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:52.960
Yeah, and at the time of this recording, as of today, I've been here for about two and a half months, and I think that that's one of the biggest things with economic development just as a whole, that I've noticed that a lot of people talk about in economic development the next big thing or the next shiny thing or the next building to go up.
00:17:53.599 --> 00:18:03.759
But I just think as a whole, the general population doesn't grasp the importance of water and utilities to making all of these things happen.
00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:15.359
And I think that's been the most enlightening for me, as I've been with Sue Metro, of how we have to start at the base level, because nothing else happens if you don't have the base level ready to go.
00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:16.160
Right.
00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:16.720
Right.
00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:41.519
And it's important for the city leaders to to you know be on board with that too, because you know, if if you've got a a city council or a county commission that isn't um you know aware, I guess, of the opportunities and understand those things completely, it's really hard for them to vote confidently or talk with their constituents in a confident manner.
00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:49.359
And that's one thing I I applaud you guys for doing um, you know, here at Sumetro is really getting in front of those folks to educate them.
00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:56.720
You know, um, look, we don't, you know, here's what everybody is saying and all the naysayers are saying about this, but here are the facts.
00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:07.200
You know, we're yeah, we need to talk about facts versus emotion on whatever that topic may be, whether it's a a KFO or or a manufacturer or whatever it might be.
00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:23.759
You always have somebody that's gonna say, Well, I don't want this in my backyard, or I don't, you know, I don't necessarily want this thing here or there or wherever because you know, and so they make up a bunch of uh, you know, noise and and get the right people behind them.
00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:29.119
And it's it's amazing how how loud some of those minority folks can get, as you guys know.
00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:45.920
Yeah, well, that's why we got our partners with us, and you know, we can set the facts out there for everybody to take in as just that facts of what is realistic and what you know what projects can actually happen and what is not even feasible maybe for a number of years.
00:19:46.079 --> 00:20:09.039
Like I you know, I I agree with you sometimes that you think that oh this there's a lot of shiny balls out there and a lot of things that would be awesome, but you know, it the the numbers sometimes tell a little different story about what what's actually feasible and and uh realistic and how that impacts really everything else that happens in that town from an infrastructure perspective.
00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:22.799
So uh I can't say it enough that we're we're so thankful to have these good relationships with our utility partners and you know to be someone that's relatively new into economic development, you know, kind of learning that that wasn't always the case.
00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:25.519
I you know, I couldn't I couldn't imagine it any other way.
00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:28.799
So I'm glad that we have had that established now.
00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:48.480
Um just to switch gears a little bit, um, you know, and you you you touched on a little bit the importance of having uh a bench of city counselors that are um in the know about what what are the realities and the facts of a project and what goes what are all these pieces that go into economic development projects?
00:20:48.640 --> 00:21:03.200
You know, that's kind of one thing we've been working on with our Leadership Six Metro program um that East River has been supportive of, and we surely appreciate all this really all the support even outside of Leadership Sioux Metro that uh East River has given to us.
00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:08.160
What are some of the ways that um East River likes to give back to the community?
00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:21.359
Well, I mean I think you can there's countless examples of ways that um the co-op uh has financially given back to the you know, this effort or this effort, right?
00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:35.519
Um one of the things that really stands out to me and one thing that I've really enjoyed getting to understand a little bit in my time at East River is um I guess are those things such as co-ops in the classroom.
00:21:35.759 --> 00:22:02.319
So we actually have a staff person at East River that goes around to um all the schools within the East River footprint um and uh throughout the school year we'll give demonstrations um to uh classrooms or of of students um and just educate them on you know the the Kind of the cool things about electricity, right?
00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:06.720
That open their eyes to the things we actually use electricity for.
00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:10.720
Uh teaches them some safety things around electricity, you know.
00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:14.160
I mean, if you see a down power line, stay away from it.
00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:15.359
Those kinds of things.
00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:29.359
Um, the ways to kind of generate electricity, there's some cool ways that they uh show kids, you know, if you pedal your bike that's hooked up to this sort of mechanism, it'll make your hair stand up, those kinds of things.
00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:41.599
Um, and those types of um I guess uh ways uh of giving back are things that not everybody thinks about all the time, right?
00:22:41.839 --> 00:23:01.759
And but it's also really important um you know that those kids have some of that knowledge base so that when they grow up, maybe they don't take all that stuff for granted, you know, and they plug in their iPad or or you know, um need to charge uh a car down the road or jumpstart a car, whatever it might be.
00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:07.759
Um they know how to do some of that stuff just kind of because they've been around it a little bit and exposed to it.
00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:18.799
Yeah, I suppose the the dollar amounts usually catch headlines a lot more than that stuff that we kind of at the community level that actually are the the nuts and bolts of of of giving back.
00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:19.680
So yeah.
00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:48.079
And one of the other things that's cool that um kind of the touchstone network has as a whole, um, both the distribution co-ops and East River is if you've ever watched Dakota News Now, um they do a a scholar of the week and where they'll highlight a high school senior that's one uh uh scholarship to, you know, for um, you know, whatever college they choose to go to for books or whatever it might be.
00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:53.599
Um, but it's just kind of a cool way to recognize um young people for their hard work.
00:23:53.839 --> 00:24:08.240
Um and you know, I don't think the scholarships are you know relatively huge by any means, but um, it's just kind of a unique way and a neat way to recognize some kids for for you know being good people and and hard workers.
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:10.880
Yeah, that goes that goes a long way to a young person.
00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:13.039
So that's great to see.
00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:16.319
Well, thank you so much for coming in today, Eric.
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:18.480
Um I do have one last question.
00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:21.519
We don't let any of our guests get away without answering.
00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:24.640
What is your hidden gem in the Sioux Metro?
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So I've got I I cheated and I I think I thought of a couple of these.
00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:39.039
So um I live in Hartford, and you know, if you're if you've never been to the Hartford Steakhouse Um for a good prime rib, I love it.
00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:41.920
You you have to have to check that out.
00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:51.279
Um, but as a resident of Sioux Falls for 10 years, um in a previous life, our local hangout was always TC's referee.
00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:53.759
Uh Best Wings in the Sioux Metro.
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Um that's a fact, not a not an opinion.
00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:05.279
Um and so uh yeah, I mean, uh those would be my kind of two standouts.
00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:09.759
I did eat at um what's the burrito place in Harrisburg now, the new one.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:11.119
Oh uh breaking burrito.
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Breaking burrito.
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They had um they had a uh uh burrito bowl that uh stood out uh for me in recent history too.
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:24.880
So you haven't you didn't actually get a wrapped burrito there, you got a bowl.
00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:25.279
Yeah.
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All right, yeah.
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Is that cheating?
00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:28.079
Is that well, I don't know.
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Burrito spot, I'd have to get a burrito, I guess.
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Well, it's like a broken burrito.
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It's you know cleaner burrito.
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:34.319
It's called breaking burrito.
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:34.880
Yeah, you're right.
00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:37.440
You don't you're probably less likely to get on your shirt.
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:40.079
That's what the needle of the fork.
00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:47.680
Well, thanks for coming in today, Eric, and thank you for all the listeners tuning in to another episode of Growing Places.
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Uh we appreciate you.
00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:50.720
Until next time.
00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:54.319
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Growing Places.
00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:58.880
We hope you learned something new about our great communities, who we are, and what we do.
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:02.000
Learn more and stay connected with SPA.
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