Moving dirt!

The Chamber joined the City of Lakeville to welcome RL Cold to our community, with their ground-breaking ceremony this week. RL Cold is building a facility off Cedar Avenue, right next to the new Sweet Harvest Foods building. This will eventually house a tenant in need of cold storage. The building should be complete in spring 2025.

Just a reminder that if you are wondering what is going up where around town, check out the City’s interactive development map. Here you will find real-time updates on recently completed, approved commercial, proposed commercial, residential, and institutional construction projects.

Congratulations, John!

Congratulations to John Tuschner, owner of Aria Technology, on his SECOND Lakeville business! Cedar Lake Outdoors is customizable, durable, outdoor amish -made furniture. And look at the cool colors available. You can check out some pieces, and color samples, at John's Aria office - in the Great Southern Bank building. Contact John for more information. john@cedarlakeleisure.com

Next week!

Yep - this is the big new building we have been watching go up on 185th! Come check it out!

At the Capitol this week

HOUSE Bills:

SENATE Bills:

SMALL BUSINESS, and their status.
LABOR and EMPLOYMENT, and their status.

Workforce Training Funding Available

Need Help Training or Retraining Your Workforce?

The state of Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) program offers grants to help train or retrain your workforce.

Your business may qualify for one of their training grant programs that help offset training-related expenses.

MJSP Partnership Grant of up to $400,000 to educational Institutions that partner with Minnesota businesses to develop new-job training or retraining for existing employees. Businesses must partner with an accredited Minnesota educational institution.

Automation Training Incentive Program (ATIP) Grant of up to $35,000 is available to small Minnesota businesses (under 150 full-time employees) in the manufacturing or skilled production industry for the express purpose of training incumbent workers as quickly and effectively as possible on new automation technology. Eligible Minnesota businesses must be located outside of the Twin Cities seven-county metro area.

Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) Grant of up to $200,000 is awarded to eligible Minnesota businesses to provide training for at least three new jobs. Award amount is limited to $5,000 to $10,000 per new employee trained based on wage rates. Eligible Minnesota businesses must be located outside of the Twin Cities seven-county metro area.

Find out more and apply for funding at mn.gov/deed/mjsp

Or contact the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership Office: deed.mjsp@state.mn.us

New State Program

Wednesday, May 15th

2pm-3pm

Unlocking Inclusivity: a New State Program

Watch the webinar, brought to you by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), where they will explore the power of workplace inclusivity.

Discover how your business can benefit from the Employer Reasonable Accommodation Fund (ERAF), an initiative that supports small to mid-sized businesses by reimbursing up to $30,000 for expenses related to providing reasonable accommodations for job applicants and employees with disabilities.

During this session, you'll also learn about leveraging SBA loans to finance these accommodations upfront. They will explore the details of the 7(a) Small Loan and microloan programs, providing you with solutions to embrace inclusivity while enhancing your business operations.

Thanks for Lunch!

Thank you to The Better Half for hosting this month’s Lunch Mob! As always, a good looking group having lunch and making connections! Lunch Mob is simple – drop in as you are able, order off the menu, pay your own tab, meet some new friends!

See you next month!

Labor Market Training

DEED Data Guru, Tim O’Neill is hosting some training sessions this spring. Register HERE.

May 14, 9:30-11am: Labor Market Information Training for HR, Workforce Development, and Educators
May 20, 1-3pm: Labor Market Information Training for Career Tools
May 21, 9:30-11am: Labor Market Training for Research, Economic Development, and Grant Writing
May 23, 9-11am: Labor Market Information Training for Businesses
May 23, 9am-Noon: Navigating the Labor Market: A Training Workshop for Grant Writers and Nonprofit Strategists
June 20, 9am-Noon: Labor Market Information for Decision Making

Last chance!

APG is closing out sales for the 2024-25 directory and community guide. The guide goes to 3500 businesses, residents, and visitors throughout the year. If you would like to purchase a full color ad, please contact Kristine ASAP.

It’s TIME!

Antler’s Park is ready to re-open! If you were at State of the City you saw the beautiful new pavilion and heard about all the fun new features of the park. And with the new opening brings a new restaurant to town! LBC at the Lake will be open and ready to serve!

What an event!

What a great event to celebrate so many Stars at our annual Tourism Luncheon. Thank you to Mike Budde of Culver's for being our emcee and for Renee Alexander, CEO of the MN State Fair, for being our guest speaker. Congratulations to our award winners. Thank you for being a bright light in our Tourism Industry. Your work and dedication has touched many lives as was evident by the speeches given.