Sherburne County officials are taking steps to prepare for the eventual closing of the Sherco 1 & 2 power plants in Becker. Last week, Xcel announced both plants would close by 2026. In September, a group of county, city and local community representatives attended a Coal Reliant Innovation program in Colorado to discuss strategies to keep their local economies strong once revenue from coal disappeared.

 

The group included Commissioner John Riebel, Assistant Administrator Dan Weber, Big Lake City Administrator Clay Wilfahrt, Becker City Administrator Greg Pruszinske, Dan Frank of the Initiative Foundation and Bill Kemp of Greater St. Cloud Development Corp.

 

At last week’s county board meeting, some of those representatives gave the board an update on what they discovered at the conference.

 

Wilfahrt said the goal was to try to find ways to engage local leaders to build a roadmap for diversifying the local economy. He said it will take a collaborative effort to keep the economy strong.

 

“There are no silver bullets for how we diversify our economy - no one single strategy or initiative or goal that’s going to create a more resilient economy,” he said.

 

Although Sherburne County is facing the loss of tax revenue and jobs once the plants close, Wilfahrt said the county is still in good shape compared to some of the other communities in Montana, Utah and Colorado that attended the conference.

 

“Of those communities, we were one of the very few that was looking out beyond an imminent change or something that may have already happened that was causing a decline in their community,” he said.

 

“We were looking out five, 10, 15 years, so not only do we have ideas to create a more resilient economy, we have a lot more time that the counterparts we saw there. We’re taking a very proactive approach to this process, rather than reactive.”

 

Pruszinske had a similar reaction.

 

“One of the things that struck me the most is how good we have it in Sherburne County. Imagine being in rural Colorado where the coal mine closed  and basically that’s all they have,” he said. “We’ve got a great economy when it comes to diversified businesses. We’ve got great transportation - Hwy. 169, Hwy. 10 and I-94.”

 

The group has come up with three initial strategies to work towards to help strengthen and expand the local economy;

 

• Regional community vision planning;

 

• Developing and coordinating a countywide business retention and expansion program;

 

• Continuing to work to expand broadband infrastructure throughout the county.

 

 

“We think that’s important because of strength in numbers - working towards the common good and creating synergy in the community,” he said. “It’s not just the county, a city or township. It’s all of us working together.”

 

Dan Frank said there are a variety of stakeholders who will be involved, and not just government officials. One goal will be to develop a community leadership team that will host community meetings, determine costs and explore funding sources.

 

He said the Initiative Foundation received a grant from Xcel to use in the planning stages of the group’s goal to strengthen the economy.

 

“This is not going to be a one-year or two-year process,” he said. “It’s going to take some time.”

 

Kemp, who specializes in business development, said it’s important to help current businesses thrive. “Between 80% and 90% of business growth and job growth comes from businesses within,” he said. “So the idea is to try to help them grow and make them aware that there are resources in the community to assist them.”

 

Weber said Sherburne County is still behind neighboring counties when it comes to broadband speed and accessibility. But the county is already making progress in the broadband expansion field, with two local companies getting grants to expand their network.

 

“We want to keep the momentum going,” he said. “We’re doing a feasibility study, which should be completed by December.  That will give us some ideas how to best move forward.”

 

The group has set a meeting for Oct. 27, hosted by the county, Greater MSP and Greater St. Cloud Development Corp., to discuss centralization of programs.