Photo by Deb Gau Small groups, including Lyon County commissioners and representatives from area communities, jotted down ideas for shared county visions for economic development. By hearing what area cities’ needs and goals are, commissioners said they hoped to figure out what role the county should play in supporting development.

MARSHALL — A lot of the topics were familiar: the need for housing and workforce retention, child care and the ability to compete with South Dakota. But Lyon County Commissioners said they still wanted to hear what area communities’ needs were, so they could decide how best to support economic development in the area.

“We went through economic development in this county probably three or four different times,” said Commissioner Rick Anderson. Now, county commissioners wanted to hear from members of area communities what kind of support they needed, and what the county’s role should be in encouraging development.

“We hope we can come up with a plan what’s what you’d like us to have,” said Commissioner Charlie Sanow.

Lyon County held the first of two planned meetings Wednesday night to talk about economic development. The county doesn’t currently have a county-wide economic development director, or a partnership with the Marshall EDA like it had in the past. People in attendance included a variety of city officials and staff from the cities of Cottonwood, Minneota, Ghent, Marshall, Lynd, Balaton, Tracy and Garvin.

Thursday’s blizzard postponed the second planned meeting on economic development, and the new time is yet to be announced.

Discussion at the meeting kicked off with the results of a small survey of city officials and economic development staff from around Lyon County. While Lyon County has helped provide funding for some specific projects, and has a tax abatement program, survey respondents said the county has had a limited role in economic development. Of the 10 respondents, none rated the county’s performance in leading economic development higher than “average.”

Area EDA directors said they thought Lyon County could help provide additional support for local EDAs.

“I think we’re spread so thin, that’s where the help needs to come in,” said Tracy EDA Director Jeff Carpenter.

Cottonwood city administrator Teather Bliss said having support to help with specialized tasks like grant writing would also be beneficial for local economic development efforts.

Local officials and EDA staff also talked about what they saw as major development challenges Lyon County faces.

Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said developing the area workforce was a need in the county. But that was a need that overlapped with lots of others — for example, in order to grow the workforce, he said, “Housing needs to be available throughout the county.”

Bliss said land acquisition for development and expansion was another process that area cities needed to work through. Other topics area residents brought up ranged from marketing Lyon County and its quality of life, to the need for improved wireless service and available child care.

Later in the meeting, county commissioners, area EDA staff and city representatives broke into smaller groups to drive vision statements and shared goals for economic development in Lyon County.

The plan for Wednesday’s meeting and the upcoming meeting was to form shared goals and strategies, said consultant Joe Czapiewski, who was facilitating the meetings.

By the end of the two meetings, Czapiewski said, the goal was “To have a group consensus about how the county could move forward with economic development.”