Rock County appoints members to new EDA

Rock County commissioners appointed the first nine members to the new Rock County Economic Development Authority at their Nov. 5 meeting.
Five people represent each of the five commissioner districts, two are at-large members and two are commissioners.
They were selected based on their interest in serving on an EDA and they were assigned initial terms.
“I am not looking for somebody to sit in a chair,” said Commissioner Jody Reisch. “I want people interested in serving.”
Reisch and Commissioner Gary Overgaard represent the county on the EDA board.
District representatives include Tammy Johnson of Hardwick (two years), Keith Elbers of Hills (three years), Lanette Elbers of rural Steen (three years), Tim Gust of Luverne (one year) and David Riphagen of Luverne (two years).
At-large representatives are Josh Teune of Beaver Creek (one year) and Chad Overgaard of rural Kanaranzi (three years).
The group will meet at least once before the end of the year to establish by-laws for the meetings, which start in 2020. There was no cost to join the county EDA.
Each of the communities and townships in Rock County joined the county EDA except the city of Steen. Mayor Mel Van Batavia said he is not a voting member on the four-member council. He only votes to break a tie.
His council members voted 4-0 not to join the EDA, whose purpose is to attract more businesses to locate in the area.
“Our town is three blocks long and three block wide … with farmland on all four sides … I don’t know where it would go,” Van Batavia said. “We just didn’t think it would do us any good.”
Rock County commissioners formed an EDA based on a study that showed EDAs can leverage economic development. They also can exercise the right of eminent domain, form partnerships and/or contracts and can act as an agent for another governmental unit to carry out EDA purposes.
Last year the southern third of the county’s townships were designated as Opportunity Zones by the federal government, and the county EDA will assist in attracting potential investors to those areas for the 10-year zone program.