Horsch Anderson, an ag manufacturer based in Andover, S.D., is building a new, 110,000-squarefoot facility in the Mapleton Industrial Park. Horsch Anderson produces and distributes world-renowned Horsch-branded products in North America,

including premium agriculture seeding and tillage

products. The company plans to add approximately

80 employees over the next few years and is participating in the PACE program for equipment financing. Total project costs are about $12,500,000.

K & K Construction & Repair is utilizing a Flex PACE loan to purchase equipment to increase efficiencies and production capacity. The company is a structural steel manufacturer base out of West Fargo with additional locations in Mott, N.D. and New England, N.D. They currently employ 42 people locally. Total project costs are $700,000. There is no job creation requirements tied to the Flex PACE loan.

The GIF is a community revolving loan fund managed by the GFMEDC. It was established in 1993 and capitalized by property taxes from Cass County, the City of Fargo and the City of West Fargo over the period of 1993 - 2001. Those funds continue to be reinvested. The purpose of the GIF is to assist the GFMEDC in achieving its mission of retaining and expanding primary-sector employment.

Early employer survey results indicate higher than average loyalty and work ethic among Red River Valley employees, Bill Fredrick, president of Wadley-Donovan GrowthTech, told the Valley Prosperity Partnership (VPP) steering Committee at its meeting April 8. Fredrick stressed to the committee the employer survey is one piece of the research they are completing.

A survey will also be distributed by the end of April to high school and post-secondary students to establish a benchmark of their perceptions and employment interests in the Valley.

Fredrick and Mark Waterhouse spent four days in the Grand Forks-East Grand Forks region interviewing employers, city leaders, and entrepreneurs, and higher education leaders. They will be conducting interviews in the Fargo-Moorhead area in May.

Committee members stressed to consultants the importance of incorporating feedback from a cross-section of companies; weighing perceptions of life-long residents versus those who moved into the region from elsewhere; and ensuring the research being conducted is correlating with the VPP's objective.

The VPP was launched in February 2013, spurred by William C. Marcil, chairman of Forum Communications Company, to identify strategic economic opportunities in the Red River Valley region of North Dakota and Minnesota. The initiative will focus on workforce development, job creation, infrastructure, and economic needs of the region.

Through its strategic planning efforts, the VPP will identify collaborative, actionable economic development initiatives that can be implemented within five years.