Cassidy Carlisle recently completed her summer internship with the City of Pine City. This is what she had to say about the experience:
While with the Pine City Economic Development Authority (EDA), I worked to improve economic activity in the City of Pine City by compiling and analyzing data on vacant/available land and buildings. In an effort to advance business retention, expansion, and recruitment, I made information on available land and buildings more readily available to prospective businesses. I did this by communicating with realtors and private sellers by phone, email, and U.S. postage to find out what an incoming business would need to know for their development.
My goal was to aid new businesses in finding a prime location and connect them with the seller or realtor, as well as continually work to improve business stability through Minnesota State funding grants and programs. I made this happen by maintaining contact with sellers and realtors and updating Pine City’s database to best reflect available land and buildings. Each day, I tracked new information and regularly updated Location One Information System (LOIS), Pine City’s online database of available properties that is utilized by economic development professionals and prospective businesses. An example of the contact I made with local building owners can be seen in a couple I spoke with who have owned a building on Main Street for nearly 10 years, but have run into multiple road blocks in working to update the infrastructure of the building. To assist them in moving forward with attracting prospective businesses or potentially building their own, I was able to direct them to the sources Pine City offers, such as the Revolving Loan Fund, as well as Minnesota State programs, funding, and grants.
I have updated the Pine City Development pages – economic, housing, and community – to display resources available for business improvement and growth, and consolidated information collected by the U.S. Census on Pine City’s consumer demographics to generate tables and graphs on Excel to be displayed on the website. I also studied and transcribed BR&E surveys taken by Pine City businesses in the past, which showed me exactly what it is businesses care about and need in developing themselves in a small community such as Pine City. This work proved to be successful as I recently provided assistance to two new businesses looking to relocate to Pine City in the month of July. I attended City Council, regional Economic Development Authority meetings, and regional GPS 45:93 meetings as a part of the Pine City Economic Development Authority to learn about updates on the work the put forth to improve Pine City’s economic base.
I collected an immense amount of knowledge from working with Lezlie Sauter, Community Development Director, and gaining hands-on experience through my communication with locals, city commissioners, and prospective businesses. Being trusted with the tasks of updating the City website and database allowed me to enhance my computer skills and connection to the public through media. This internship will continue to teach me even after I have finished my work with the Pine City Economic Development Authority.