Getting Up to Speed: Learning about the Chamber of Commerce and Emergency Management

It seems like every week since the election has had a bit of a theme for it.  Next week's theme is going to be travel and family as we are traveling to Wisconsin to visit my brother for the Thanksgiving week.

This week's theme was getting up to speed on a few of the very important organizations that exist in our community:  the Chamber of Commerce and our Emergency Management Services.

The new Councilors and myself were invited and attended the last Chamber meeting, which was incredibly useful to understand what the organization does, what it doesn't do, and how it is able to impact change/economic development in our county.

The Chamber addressed, in just the meeting on the 19th, issues having to do with abuse to young women in our community, training for our local contractors that would help them learn about new energy efficient techniques, how our area businesses can help encourage their employees to be more healthy, and how we can create opportunities for all of our businesses to network and thus benefit from each other's experience.  That list seems to be all over the map, but I believe the Chamber is hitting many of the concerns and needs of our community squarely on the head with its initiatives.

In addition to these initiatives, the Chamber has strong connections to the state and federal governments; they represent our needs for additional funding or assistance to the state legislature and beyond.  An example of their work can be seen down in Lutsen where the water pipeline is being installed.  They are working on many projects, but a few that I wanted to mention to you are:
1. Workforce Housing-- I can't agree more.  We are hoping that the state establishes a fund that can designate grant monies to communities in need of adequate workforce housing.  You can bet that I will be listening closely to every whisper happening on this front.  If there is even a thought that such a fund would be established, the City Council will be preparing to apply and receive this money.
2. Early Childhood Development-- There has been a growing body of research that shows that if you get young children into high quality developmental programming between the ages of 2-5, then the performance gap between sub-poverty level students and middle-class students is dramatically lessened.  Considering that we live in an area with relatively low wages, any programs that support ECD would benefit us greatly.  Also, at present we cannot access the new statewide Early Learning Scholarship program because our land values are high and thus it makes our county look like it is not in need of the program.  The Chamber is working to correct these things.
3. Sunday Liquor Sales-- I just had to put this one in. I guess that this has been a stumbling point for the tourism industry up here where visitors to the area get upset when the liquor store is closed on Sundays... I have mixed feelings about this, but I find it hard to believe that the city wouldn't make a fair amount of money on Sunday sales.  Weigh in on this:  What do you think about Sunday sales?


The other meeting I went to opened up my eyes to understand one of the very interested responsibilities of the mayor.

Did you know that in the case of a natural disaster or some sort of an emergency the MAYOR is the one who makes the declaration?  It was interesting to learn that this first step in the emergency management system is necessary in order to receive ANY relief funding... Well, I won't miss any emergencies, that's for sure!

The Emergency Management training held for elected officials on Thursday hear
kened back to my days on the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department and the Incident Command System used by all of our agencies to manage disasters or emergencies.  We learned the structure of the system and also what our role is in the system.  The Deputy Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for Minnesota, Joe Kelly, taught all of us that as elected officials we are to provide policy guidance to the people responding to the emergency as well as helping to coordinate the resources over which we preside (city trucks, equipment, etc).  We can use our knowledge of the town and its infrastructure to help them out strategically as well as authorizing actions that need to be taken for the general public safety.  In the case of an emergency I am JUST fine turning over control of the situation to the well-trained and capable hands of our new County Sheriff, Pat, or Jim Wiinanen, our Emergency Management Coordinator.

We also heard from our neighbors to the North as to how the Canadians handle emergencies.  In many ways it is exactly the same as we do, in some ways it is very different.  No matter how you shake it out, we need to know each others' structures and be willing to work with them in the instance of an emergency.

I am registered to take a more in-depth course in March of 2015 that will give me even more specific information having to do with the City's response to and role in an emergency.

Now it is time to head down to North House for the Winterer's Gathering.  You can find me with a bottomless bag of popcorn watching great movies as well as checking out some great camping setups!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I wish you all a pleasant and nap-inducing Thanksgiving!