Montgomery Chamber of Commerce and the Community Economic Development Association (CEDA) held a Business and Retention Engagement Conversation at the Montgomery Police Department on Monday.
Business owners and leaders of the community were treated to lunch and participated in open conversation about the climate of business within the city of Montgomery.
The event was funded by a grant from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation through the City of Montgomery. Dave Schmidt, regional manager of the CEDA Community Support Program, led the discussion and took note of the community’s thoughts.
Three major overtones appeared in the discussion: housing issues, a disconnect between business owners and decisions of the city, and a concern for high taxes and viability of both businesses and those wanting to live in the community.
Seth Huiras, owner of Montgomery Dental, expressed his frustrations with the City of Montgomery’s different boards and city council. “The findings of the housing study showed we are short by 40 units for residential housing,” he said. Huiras thought that the lack of affordable housing hurts the ability for families to move here, although a potential 43-unit affordable housing apartment building is potentially in the works within the next two years.
Huiras also asked who in the room of about 30 business leaders if anyone of them was on any of the city’s boards, specifically the economic development authority (EDA) board, which one person acknowledged they were. “There you go, there’s a huge disconnect between the EDA of this city and the business community. There are people who have been on that for like 30 years. They are not growing their business nor do they care…,” said Huiras. “I would say every one of these business owners in this room wants to grow. So, in my opinion, the core values absolutely don’t align between the EDA and the business community, and, if they (business owners) wanted to show that they aligned, they would show up to the meetings and show that they cared and they listened and actually bring that energy to the EDA. The energy, there’s a divide between inertia of this group right here and what happens at the EDA.”