Summit set for Aug. 27 at City Hall Ballroom

By Greta Foss

Summer Intern

The City of New York Mills will be hosting a community growth summit on August 27 in hopes of informing the community on the current state of the city’s needs and it’s future goals. The event will take place at the New York Mills City Ballroom.

The main features of the summit will be presentations from; Kristian Braekkan and Bianca Newell from West Central Initiative in regards to the Community Energy and Resilience Study, Joe Hollman from Maxfield Research in regards to the Housing Study, and Kim Konikow in regards to the Strategic Framework Update. 

These updates will explain research that has been done on the town, and how it will affect decision making in the future. For example, according to the Mayor, Latham Hetland, the housing study found that there is a significant need for more housing in the town. This is information that they decided the community would be interested in knowing more about. There will be brief updates on community projects such as the New York Mills School referendum, the Cultural Center Capital Campaign, as well as an update from Brunswick, the manufacturer of both Lund and Crestliner boats, on their work in the community. 

“I think people, if people are interested in the community at all, they’re gonna want to come and it’ll be educational,” said Hetland. 

The presentations start at 6 p.m. but there will also be a meal and social hour provided at 5:30 p.m. For this reason, the city does request that people who plan to attend the summit R.S.V.P so they know how much food to prepare. 

There will be time for community members to ask questions to the experts in order to make the information more clear. Other community resources may have booths set up for those who wish to personally discuss their updates and findings during the social hour.