Wall Economic Development Corporation held their Annual Meeting

The Wall Economic Devel- opment Corporation held their Sixth Annual Meeting on Wednes- day, November 17th. Forty-five people attended the meeting, in- cluding elected officials Penning- ton County Commissioner Chair Gary Drews and Travis Lasseter and Wall City Council Members Rick Hustead and Dan Hauk.

Mary Williams introduced members of the current Board of Directors: Carolynn Anderson, Josh Geigle, Kallie Kjerstad, Lindsy Reagle, Steven Edoff and high school board representatives Sierra Hilgenkamp and Norman Livermont.

During the President’s Report, Mary Williams compared Wall Main Street in the Summer to Wall Main Street in the Winter-- saying it goes from a vibrant flour- ishing street to 75% closed. She recognized the off-main street businesses that serve the com- munity year-round, and went on to explain that the purpose of the Wall Industrial Park is for local business retention/expansion and new business attraction. Williams expressed appreciation to the Wall City Council for funding the de- sign, cost of infrastructure, and roadway for the IP Phase I Lots; as well as the Pennington County Commissioners for their $660,000 donation for infrastructure from the park to connect with the city wastewater system. Williams out- lined the timeline for the Phase I design, bidding, and construction completion by mid-summer 2022.

Attendees heard from WEDC Executive Director Liliya Stone about WEDC accomplishments which included:

1. Development of newly de- signed, top-notch website, that shows great images of the area, drone footage of the industrial park, a map of the region and fea- tured listings. It will market the area to businesses, site selectors, and potential residents.

2. Progress on application crite- ria for Light Industrial Park Cer- tification

3. Senior Living Facility discus- sions regarding the location of the facility, type, and funding options.

4. Launch of the Leadership Class 2021 that develops the lead- ership potential existing in our community to continue to provide civic organizations in the Wall area with quality leaders.

5. The SD GOED matching grant awarded to WEDC for work- force recruitment to attract trade industry workers. The digital mar- keting effort will promote Wall trade businesses and will launch early in 2022.

6. The wage gap grant to the Legacy Child Development Center to prevent closure and to tempo- rarily help with the workforce.

Stone shared the 2022 WEDC Goals which are: industrial park infrastructure, industrial park cer- tification, marketing phase I lots, update of Why Wall promotional video, recruit trade workforce and increase housing.

Guest speaker, Joe Fiala, Part-

ner Relations Director, Governor’s Office of Economic (GOED), spoke about the vision of economic devel- opment and the focus of SD GOED Office. He conveyed there is a lot of interest by companies wanting to do business in South Dakota.

Recipients of the WEDC awards were:

Business Development Award: Jody Gallino and Rhonda Wil- liams;

Community Development Award: Donna Crown and Betty Haerer;

Citizen Leadership Award: Cha- ron Geigle;

Friend of Economic Devel- opment Award: Dick Johnson.