Brookings Banter

DICKERSON'S LAKE FLORIDA RESORT

My family and I were on our end of summer vacation last week at Lake Florida in Minnesota.  The lake is north of Willmar, MN.  I decided not to post during the vacation and try to keep my mind off of city issues.  Sunsets like this helped.  But by Friday I had appointments to meet with two Willmar City Council Members.  Willmar is similar to Brookings in several ways.  Size, growth, form of government, city owns both the utilities and the hospital.  Willmar does have a larger, higher population trade area than Brookings. 

Last year when we rolled around town on the by-pass I saw a new building that looked like a Best Buy.  I wanted to know if they were given any incentives by the City to come to Willmar.  The answer was no.  Willmar is a regional retail center and retailers are interested without incentives.  They do own the hospital but the difference is it also a regional center.  With only two questions I found we may look a lot alike but our issues are totally different.  They are not fighting for the retail and health care dollar like we are with Watertown and Sioux Falls.