Advancing the Prosperity of our Member Businesses and the Vitality of the Area.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

June Member Press Releases

-Little Theatre of Owatonna announces Veta Alexander scholarship winners.

-Little Theatre of Owatonna announces 2019-2020 Season Lineup.

-Manke's Outdoor Equipment & Appliance receives award from Toro.

-Owatonna Foundation announces application deadline for Nelson Scholarship.

-Owatonna Foundation is pleased to make available $15,000 in Nontraditional scholarships.

-Steele County Historical Society offering "A Day Away" bus tour.

Downtown Thursday is this week! Grab a friend and stop after work for music, food, shopping, art featuring HAR MAR Superstar sponsored by Jaguar Communications!

Click here for the Straight Talk interview on Downtown Thursday!

Businesses Support Student Experiences

By Brad Meier, President/CEO

The financial support and resources of business to provide student experiences during the 2018-19 school year has grown.

50 businesses provided tours, job shadow, internship or job opportunities.
10 Business organizations provided direct financial support to the SteeleCoWorks initiative (picture #2).
Businesses participated in 1st ever 'Signing Day' for students planning to enter the workforce (pictured).
Employers have hired 30 students in Steele County.
20+ businesses have served on committees to further this initiative!

New Contact Information

Anisha Zak, Workforce Coordinator has a new email as of 6/1/19. You can contact her with all your workforce questions and to connect your business to students in the Owatonna area. AZAK@wdimn.org.

JOB FAIR TODAY UNTIL 3

Owatonna Job & Career Fair, sponsored by CareerForce, is Tuesday, June 4, from 9 am to 3 pm at the Holiday Inn.

Opportunity Zones Tax Incentive Increase!

An Omnibus Tax Bill was passed by both the House and Senate of the Minnesota Legislature on May 24th and signed by Governor Tim Walz on May 30th.

The bill makes conforming changes to Minnesota tax law to adopt changes to the Internal Revenue Code as modified by recent acts of Congress including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. Accordingly, Minnesota tax law will recognize the tax deferral and gain exclusion resulting from the new Qualified Opportunity Zones tax incentive. This is great news for Minnesota investors as it effectively increases the tax benefits for Qualified Opportunity Zone investments from 23% to roughly 33%.

Information provided by James Duffy, Briggs & Morgan Attorney

Making a Difference with Made In Owatonna Days!

Our goal with the Made in Owatonna Day events is to expose students to great job opportunities in Owatonna (and Steele County). We survey students who attend the event on attitudes and feelings both before and after the day of tours and presenters.

As you can see, ALL students indicated that they learned “some” or “a lot” about careers in manufacturing and skilled trades during the May event. In addition, 98% of students rated their overall attitude about the day as “VERY satisfied” or “satisfied”.

School Bond Next Steps

Yesterday the first of at least three community listening sessions were held by the school district.
At the conclusion of the listening sessions, the district will work to unpack the feedback, categorize and prioritize in an effort to create a new action plan forward.

Support Makes Flower Program Work

Please support and thank these businesses that sponsored flowers in the last couple weeks! We are continuing to take donations and are hoping for 11 more basket sponsors.

Federated Insurance, Owatonna Garden Club, KS Rental, Minnesota Secured Title, Owatonna Food and Fuel, Alexander Lumber, Patton, Hoverstein and Berg, PA

Spring Clean Up!

A shout out to the ALC students and staff that gave downtown a spring clean up last Thursday. The following businesses served up a great lunch to the volunteers and street crew.

RE/MAX Venture, Wintrust Mortgage, Carla’s Candies and Sweets LLC, The Owatona Eagles 1791, Elks Lodge #1395, American Legion Post 77, Vern Wilker and the Steele County Pork Producers!

The HOW Behind the WOW!

Does your building or business need an update inside or out, but you don’t know where to start or how? The Owatonna Economic Development Authority, along with MainStreet are sponsoring a program on Best Practices for facade and interior improvements for commercial businesses on June 18. The HOW Behind the WOW, looks at lighting, colors, signage, windows to awnings and more … from no cost, low cost to larger projects to bring new customers in the door and increase return customers!

This is open city wide. Bring your landlord. Spread the word! Register HERE to learn How to be an After with the HOW Behind the WOW! Torey’s June 18th, 5:30-8pm. The cost is $15 per person.

Consultants available for one-on- one consultations? 10 participants (6 spaces left) will be have the opportunity for individual building and business consultations on June 6 or June 7. Pre-registration required. Pre visit assessment forms will be sent to one-on-one participants.

Summary Report: On site consultation, follow up summary report, 30 minute phone consult after report. $500

Detailed Report: All the above plus photo documentation, product numbers & sources, lighting, customer path, branding, merchandizing. $1,500

How to finance changes to the façade or interiors? The Owatonna EDA offers EDA loans for façade and interior improvements to building owners and business owners in Owatonna. If your building and/or business is located in the historic district downtown there are 2 NEW EDA Forgivable loans available in 2019. Go to Owatonna.biz for details and an application.

YPro's Retain Employees

Does your business have employees under 39 years old? The Young Professionals group is set up for them! Retain your youthful workers by helping them connect in the community as a YPro.

The next event is June 19th-Wednesday Wobble in partnership with Straight River Sports & Fitness!

Looking for Ways to Connect with Businesses? Chamber Outing is a Great Spot

The popular Chamber Golf Scramble is the perfect playing field for networking, marketing and taking a break from the daily grind. Don’t miss out on this fun stress free event! The theme for this years scramble is “Around The World.” There are a variety of sponsorships still available and Golfer Registration has begun. Register up to 4 golfers per team.

SPONSOR OPPORTUNITIES

REGISTER TO GOLF

H/R Updates

-IRS Releases 2020 Health Savings Account Limits. Read More here!

50 words for $50

Feature a special offer, an upcoming event or company information--but it must be 50 words. The cost to participate is $50.

Follow the OACCT on Social Media
Want to keep up with Chamber news? Follow us on Twitter @OwatonnaChamber or on Facebook Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism

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Owatonna, MN | 55060 US

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