Good morning and welcome to the convention and visitors bureau meeting here uh for the city of Cottage Grove. Today is February 24th, 2026 and our first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh Becca, would you please >> uh Director Hatbet, Director Kamada >> here, >> director Reese, Director Olsen, >> here. Director Garc Graca. Director Lavine >> here. >> Chairman Olsson. >> I mistaken went with Eric. >> Both Olsson's are here. >> Yes. We're going to have to clarify that somehow in the future cuz he spells his name wrong, but I'm here as well. All right. Perfect. Uh, next item of business is adoption of the agenda. >> I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda. >> I have a motion by board member Katada. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> I have a second by board member Lavine. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed and the agenda is now adopted. >> Item five is approval of the minutes. Are there any changes or did anybody have comments on the minutes? Okay, with that, the minutes will stand approved by unanimous consent. And uh now we will move on to presentations. And I believe Courtney is going to start us off with convention and visitors bureau events update. Welcome. >> Good morning, chair, members of the board. >> Good morning. >> Um I have the pleasure of presenting the 2026 events with you today. Uh so kicking off with Strawberry Fest, which is on June 18th, uh ending on the 21st this year, we will have a booth at the Strawberry Fest marketplace field or Fields Marketplace. Uh we will be handing out some fun swag items similar to how we've done in years past. And of course, you're all welcome to join us at the booth as well. We will have more information to come as the event gets closer. This year we are bringing back patio week. Uh this was an event we uh started last year. It's a week-long celebration of outdoor dining. We encourage residents with patio space to take advantage of this event by featuring specials and deals and giveaways. Uh we'll be reaching out to businesses in the spring to secure the lineup. And just to note, this was um this performed really well on our website as well. It was our number two most viewed web page. We are back with our fourth annual food truck festival taking place on September 19th. Uh it's from 11 to 6 this year. The initial food truck outreach did go out, so we are excited to um see those food trucks start to come in. The committee is working on locking in the entertainment and then uh the we will open the marketplace registration soon and you're also welcome to join us there as well. And then some other events uh taking place in 2026. We have the Fourth of July fireworks hosted by the Cottage Grove Lions. Uh one family fest is taking place both during the Memorial and Labor Day weekends. This is a great opportunity to get outside at Kingston Park and enjoy some delicious street food and cheer on the teams playing in the tournament. And lastly, I know we don't want to think about winter uh with the warmer days coming up, but we are excited to have both hometown holiday and the holiday train returning in December of 2026. And so with that, I'd be happy to stand for any questions. >> Thank you. Do we have questions at all this morning? I can speak with authority that the 4th of July event for the Lions will be held on the Sunday of the 4th, which is actually the 5th at Kingston Park. So, uh, if you're looking for that date, that's firmed up. The fireworks vendors lined up, everything will be, uh, really fun, just like the last couple years. One question I did want to ask is I know that in the past we've done some partnerships with the St. Paul Saints. Um I believe that uh due to some changes in the way that they manage that, excuse me, we discussed no longer carrying forward with that partnership. I'm just wondering, did they reach out to us at all this year about it? Do does anybody know? >> I don't believe that. Oh, they have. Um Phil, would you like to talk about it? >> Chairman Olsson, member of the board. To succinctly answer that question, yes, they did reach out. We are currently reviewing kind of, for lack of a better phrase, what offerings they may have that that might make sense or not for us. >> Okay, good. I like hearing that because I know that uh previously when we were able to uh partner with them, we did so prior to Strawberry Fest and it seemed to give us a little bit of a boost in attendance at Strawberry Fest. So, if we can make a deal, that would be pretty nice to see. But I know that uh there's probably negotiating to be done. So, please keep us up to speed on how those things go forward. Anybody else have questions at all? >> Okay, moving forward. Uh, Phil, just stand there and continue with your, uh, presentation here on the 2025 Q4 lodging tax and revenue collection, please. >> That is correct. Thank you, Chairman Olsson, members of the board. Uh, here this morning to discuss the 2025 quarter 4 lodging tax collections. Um, as you all know and as I have said in the past, uh, the 2025 budget does use a 63% occupancy rate when calculating the lodging tax collections or excuse me, lodging tax projections. And also, as you know, the Minnesota Department of Revenue uh, on behalf of the city of Cottage Grove has begun collecting lodging tax collections uh, for us and they've been doing that for several months now. Uh moving on, looking at the quarter 4 uh 2025 collections, they came in at $20,1335 cents. So that is for the months of October, November, and December. Uh the ongoing administrative cost from the Department of Revenue to collect our lodging tax collections on our behalf uh is roughly about 1% of the lodging tax collections, which comes out to $18,2.85 for those three months. At the previous board meeting in November, uh I noted that those lodging tax collections from the Department of Revenue lag behind by about 40 days or so. Um that's not a hard and fast uh number, but you know, give or take 40 days. And that's just important to note as we get those lodging tax collections in. I think at the last board meeting, we were uh not missing one month, but we just hadn't seen those collections come in yet. And of course we have sense and they they look about as exactly as we would expect them to look. Uh on that note as well, um I just want to just state because they weren't we we hadn't seen them yet in September of of the last meeting. Uh those lodging tax collections came in at $6,518 for September of 2024. Uh also a question was brought up uh at the last meeting about kind of year-over-year comparisons. How does quarter 4 2025 numbers compare to quarter 4 of 2024? Which is an excellent question and I'm happy to report that that comparison quarter 4 2025 compared to quarter 4 of 2024 our lodging tax collections are up. So in 2024 they were 15,865. in 2025 20,33.15 which is a percent change of 26.9% and a growth of $4,268.15. So with that happy to stand for any questions you may have. >> All right, Mr. Katada, go ahead. I know that this is probably there's not an exact number to this, but can we can we take that that 26% increase year-over-year and correlate it to, you know, amount number of dollars spent on tourism in Cottage Grove? Um, or is is the does that increase reflect, you know, other aspects? you know, does it does it correlate to like a a tangible a tangible number, you know, like is our is our blue or is our playbook for increasing tourism working? Is is that what it's showing us or is it just telling us that hotels are charging more? you know, um I guess I guess that's I'm I'm curious to see kind of how our how our efforts are coming to fruition and and if that's if that if that increase in lodging tax year over year is representative of kind of um a year-over-year growth overall in tourism or if it's simply just a you know kind of a a fee structure thing with with the local hotels who are participating. Yeah, Chairman Olsson, Director Kambata, members of the board, that's an excellent question and I don't think I'm going to have a perfect answer for you off the top of my head. I would be happy to look into that and drill down into that. I think the starting point of lodging tax collections going up or down or stagnant, I think is an important figure to know just as a starting point. Of course, moving forward, why? Right? And in a growing tourism market, it's a very fair point to ask the question, is that due to actual increase in visitors, or is that due to hotel room rates changing, for instance, or a new hotel opening up or new short-term rentals coming online, which doesn't necessarily translate to new heads and beds, new visitors, new money being spent in the economy. So moving forward, I'd be happy to to try to look into that and drill down on what is driving that number. I think anecdotally, as an educated uh uh you know, first stab at it, I'm I'm happy with the performance of our team and our marketing. And while I would like to sit here and stand here and very confidently say that yes, absolutely because of our great work, it's, you know, translating to a growth in lodging tax collections. Uh I want to know with more a more degree of certainty to give you a more concrete answer, but I think it's a great question. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, that is a very good question. Uh okay. Um Eric, go ahead. >> Yes. Previously, we had talked about capturing limited there's limited VRBOS in town. We talked about making sure and trying to capture those taxes as well. don't know the intimate details, but I do remember we talked about that with our consultant. Is that something that we looked into further or is that still an open discussion point? I I don't know. >> Uh Chairman Olsson, Director uh Olsen, I I think that is also a great question. That is one of, not the only, but one of the reasons why we endeavored upon the the Department of Revenue collecting our lodging tax collections on our behalf was that it makes it uh easier to collect those lodging tax collections directly from vendors such as Airbnb and VBO. And if or when a a a short-term rental is not, you know, for some reason remitting those taxes, the Department of Revenue has a a better enforcement mechanism to get those uh under compliance. And so again, not the only reason why the Department of Revenue was an attractive uh thing to collect our lodging tax collections. It is is something that happens u much more automatically. I would say >> the other comment I have is I remember we talked about trying to capture more of the business traffic overnight stays namely renewal um by Anderson up north plastics etc. Uh we all agreed that that was probably some lowhanging fruit for business travel. Um, have we pursued that both with the large employers in town that have overnight guests and then also the hotel or two in town? Um, namely well the hotel or two in town and trying to form a triangle partnership business hotel us uh has that been pursued? If not, um, I would be willing to knock on a door at some of these big businesses to see if they're even interested. Uh, but update me or or have we looked into that or tried to mature that a little bit? >> Uh, Director Olsson, uh, Chairman Olsson, members of the board. I Yes, I that is something that with um uh our new economic development manager uh Nate Carlson uh we've been working in partnership on things like letters of support for the hotel RFP uh which as we know and we've seen in leakage studies we're we're leaking a lot of potential business to surrounding communities and some of that business may very well be coming from or would come from our business travelers and so Uh I I do look forward to working more closely with uh economic development manager Carlson on things like that to to see that hotel built >> for obvious reasons uh to capture some of those leaked revenues that we're seeing. >> Great to hear. The other uh and then I'll be done. The other potentially lowhanging fruit that I think could be taken advantage of more is these youth athletic tournaments and bugging uh the ear of CGAA when they send out their tournament flyers, hockey, baseball, volleyball, doesn't matter. Uh, and if a team's coming down from Duth, what have you uh most likely in the past they're staying up in Woodbury, Still Water, elsewhere. There again might be some lowhanging fruit for our business development manager to uh, letter of support is a good good way you said that. So, just a friendly reminder. CGAA athletics. >> Completely agree. >> Excellent points. Thank you. Any other comments? I will state um you know the the comment about um VRBOS's etc. is very relevant and that could potentially be that correlation that director Kato was talking about relative to the increase in revenue. Uh if we are capturing a little bit more revenue from those sources uh probably worth looking into. We've been talking uh as a city for quite a long time about um trying to ensure that we keep our businesses informed when we have these large tournaments that come to town. Uh one of our uh foundational elements um as as a city is we want to be a recreation destination and to that end we get a lot of tournaments in town. a lot uh whether it's hockey, softball, baseball, etc. The question becomes, are we leveraging those tournaments to help our businesses grow? And that stemmed from the fact that um we had a business owner reach out a number of years back, uh the business owner at Carbonis saying, "Hey, uh you know, I I haven't been able to keep up all weekend long with with the business. I didn't have the staffing plan for it cuz I didn't know it was coming. Can we maybe get a heads up in the future so that we can staff up appropriately if we know that we're going to have, you know, 16 Banttom hockey teams in town or whatever the case might be because, you know, all those young young kids are hungry. So, um, I think there's some opportunity there as well. I appreciate you bringing both of those things up. Phil, did you have anything else you wanted to add? >> No, sir. Okay, then we will move forward to the CVB website redesign update. Uh, and again, Phil's going to take us through that. >> Yes. Thank you again, Chairman Olsson, members of the board. Um well as you all know uh we have been working on a CVB website redesign uh for a while going back to uh about August when a previous um uh uh agreement was in place with a vendor to to redesign our website. Uh and at at that time going back to last summer you know the board expressed uh a definite interest in redesigning the the website. It's a it's a part of our one of our key pillars of the overall CVB strategic plan. The board has expressed interest. Staff have expressed interest. Feels like everyone's all on the same page that um that it's something we should at the very least be considering if not doing. And so at that time we estimated that a full website redesign would cost somewhere in the range of 7 to 12,000. And after that time we obtained a couple quotes, got approval, and moved forward. uh since that time uh I wanted it's important to to update the board on where we're at and why and and what we propose moving forward. So at that time an agreement was in place with a previous vendor to redesign uh the CVB website and due to unforeseen circumstances and for reasons beyond the control of the city of Cottage Grove, that agreement has since been terminated. Uh at the direction of city and CVB board leadership and in consultation with staff, uh the question of what now, right, it's a it's a part of our strategic plan. it it all feels like we're all kind of more or less on the same page that it's a good idea that we should consider this and and what do we do moving forward? Uh so as a result of those conversations, staff then pursued uh requests for proposals from multiple destination marketing organizations or DMO um website developers. So you could throw a rock out into the world and hit any number of developers who can make a really really great website, but can they also make a really really great website? specific to a DMO, a destination marketing organization, which the CVB is. So, I skipped ahead to the slide. This that's just a little bit of the background of where we've been and where we're at. Um, those new proposals, we're happy to report we've gotten four uh responsive proposals uh to that RFP. Uh also happy to report that all four of those proposals like I said earlier not only do they make great excellent mobile responsive accessible uh you know modern designed websites uh several of them have an extensive background working directly with DMO specific websites which is very interesting and and and I would say uh preferred. So those new proposals are before you as well as in your full full packet are the full proposals uh from Cyberprout WA Fisher Co. Evolve Creative and the Cultural North for dollar amounts that I won't bore you by reading uh that are on the screen there. Um when considering all of these proposals, there's a lot to consider. Uh I mentioned earlier about making a great great website but making one that is specific and tailored to a destination marketing organization. Um when looking at these companies uh a couple in particular really stood out in that one specific facet. WA Fisher Co and Evolve Creative both all but specialize in DMO websites. They do other things of course. I think firms are a lot of things to a lot of people but WA Fisher and Evolve in particular uh have designed any number of DMO websites out in the world. Uh some of which you maybe have seen in your own travels. Uh from there we of course reviewed their proposals. We checked references, had conversations with the DMOS that they had designed websites for and gotten their feedback on what their experience was like. Um we looked at of course the websites themselves to see does this kind of fit the overall vibe, look, feel, functionality that we are looking for. Uh one of the positive outcomes of the previous work that we did with the website redesign was an extensive uh uh documents of what we're looking for on our website, inspiration from other existing websites, and does that list of wants and needs line up with what these companies can provide? With that, we narrowed in on WAF Fisher Co. Um, their their website hosting services are uh comparable to any of the other vendors uh while at a lower price than the others. Uh the team has collectively 60 years experience in web and marketing uh development. We've again checked the references and received positive feedback and beyond just positive feedback. I believe if I could paraphrase or quote one person from uh visit or discover the range I forget the exact DMO name uh she called their web developer I quote unquote wizard uh which stood out uh that's of course just one you know piece of feedback but nevertheless and so some of the tourism industry that specifically that they have worked with uh oh discover the range is right in front of me there is the Twin Cities Gateway Visit Detroit Lakes Discover Shakabe and Discover the Range just to name a And so again, if I go back a slide and you look at some of these quotes, you know, why didn't we choose Cyber Sprout? They're the lowest quote. Why didn't we choose the Cultural North? While the most expensive, maybe they're the best. Um, looking at several factors. One, their portfolio of experience. Does it line up with what we're looking for? WA Fisher and Evolve, I think definitely definitely check those boxes. Number two, do they work directly with DMO specific website designs? WA Fisher and Evolve absolutely do. Uh and then number three, Cyber Sprout, while the lowest quote, which is sometimes where especially government bodies tend to lean and and choosing those lowest quotes, uh they produce a solid uh they produce a solid website, but they don't have as much experience working directly with DMOs as WA Fiser especially does. And so that for staff tipped the scales a little bit into their uh into honing in on them as a as a as a as a developer. So with that, there's a lot more I could go into if you choose. Um and happy to stand for questions uh if you have them. Otherwise, there is a recommendation before you. >> Thank you, Phil. A lot of good information there and I appreciate the um the fact that the staff took the time to do such thorough research on all of the four respondents. Uh obviously you know we want to get this right and um you know price may well be part of what right looks like but I think there's an awful lot more to it as you said. So, um, you know, I feel very comfortable with, uh, the fact that, you know, you landed where you landed. Uh, what questions do we have here from our directors? Director Katada, please. >> I'm trying to remember the specific um dollar amount that we had budgeted for with the previous vendor. I think this is a little bit higher, but I I think um so so it's a two-part question. one is or part A is you what's the what's the difference in in the you know proposed cost and then um uh the second part of that was um you know what if anything have we learned from the previous vendor to make sure that we don't get put in that position again >> uh director or chairman Olson director Kada members of the board excellent question I actually mention to mention that in my long preamble and and didn't but um the the previous uh agreement was for uh a little bit under $8,000 which fell fell in line with what with our rough estimate back in June of $7 to $12,000. So yes, this is higher than what we initially uh thought. So the difference there is, you know, roughly about $9,000 and I can get you the exact numbers if you'd like. Uh but roughly about $9,000. And to Chairman Olsson's point, when going out for the request for proposals, while obviously we need to be conscious of the budget and what it's going to cost, we also didn't want to negotiate against ourselves. And we wanted to leave it a little bit more open-ended to really see what what does the website we want and need actually cost. And if it ends up costing too much money for ourselves, then that's a decision we have to make. If it ends up costing too much money for the board, that's of course the decision that's before you. Um, but nevertheless, we didn't want to go negotiate against ourselves. In terms of the last part of your question, you know, not running into similar issues as before, I think one thing that stood out, one of the many things that stood out to us is when having conversations with these vendors and when having conversations with the representatives from the DMOS who've who they have designed their websites. And then we had direct conversations. We were just at the explore Minnesota tourism conference up in Duth at the deck and we ended up having direct conversations with these vendors and with other of course DMO representatives from across the state and uh at least one time that I can think of specifically and I'm envisioning the conversation we were having the the vendor said you've done all the homework that we need and we don't usually get that. We don't usually get a robust, you know, list of wants and needs, a wireframe that our designer, Courtney Persig, has put together, which is just kind of like a a sketch of what the website should look like. And uh essentially them stating that that we have we have put in the leg work necessary to get a good product and that's leg work they don't normally see. And so that's point number one. Point number two is um you know previously we we placed I think an appropriate but perhaps outsized emphasis on working local working with you know somebody who's local to Cottage Grove, who's local to the Twin Cities area. And of course we want to keep our money local and support local businesses. Um, and as great a work as those local businesses do, they don't necessarily specialize in this, you know, niche, uh, web design and development, uh, universe, right? And so that's where going out and seeking proposals from those types of vendors to ensure that we actually get the product that we want, assuming that it is money that in fact we do want to spend on it. >> Thank you. That answer your question? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Go ahead, Director Lavine. Um so if uh we decide the board decides to move forward with this recommendation that you have in front of us, what's the time frame before that um the new website would be live? Like how long does all of that take? >> Chairman Olson, Director Lavine, great question. While I don't have the full proposals immediately in front of me, that all of those proposals have their estimated timeline in there. I think most of them did in fact come back and say I'll look to Courtney, my colleague, maybe see if she can correct me, but I think roughly around uh June if memory serves. >> I want to say like 12 to 15ish weeks is like the sweet spot. >> Okay. >> But we could get that timeline of course specifically to you as a follow-up. >> Anything else? Okay. Uh, direct roles. >> And how long would this agreement be for? Is it a one-year deal, a two-year deal? I assume this $17,000 is annual. >> Uh, Chairman Olsson, Director Olsson, members of the board. Uh, the agreement would be until the website is done. And then from there, there's an annual hosting service. Got it. Similar to what we pay uh, right now uh, to our current vendor. I believe I believe we play pay $109 a month to our current vendor. If the board chose to move forward with WA Fisher, it's $350 a year, which comes out to about $29 and change per month. >> Understood. >> Um, and every vendor is similar. They all host on WordPress, and then they all have a ongoing monthly fee for customer service, changes, web hosting, security, updates, things like that. >> Understood. Um, and then I have a comment. Uh, I do like the quote number two, Fiser, uh, for a couple reasons. one uh my main reason is testimonials. I'm a big testimonial guy. There's four towns here that are very similar in size to Cottage Grove. Shakipi, Detroit Lakes, the Iron Range. Uh if they're happy, that's a good indication that we'll be happy. Uh considering they're the same population base and maybe in the same boat that we're in. So, good research. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Okay. So, it looks like we have a recommendation in front of us. I would seek a motion to approve. I'd like to make the motion to approve uh WA Fisher Co. for the redesign of this Discover Cottage Grove website for an amount not to exceed $17,000. >> All right. Director Kato with the motion. Do I have a second? A second by director. >> I'll second that. >> Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? That motion does carry. Thank you. Very exciting news. I appreciate all the hard work on that, you guys. Uh, moving forward here, we are up to item D, which Courtney will take us through. And this is our 2025 annual report. Thank you, chairman, and members of the board. I am back to present the 2025 annual report with you. Uh so in 2025 we produced our fourth publication of the Cottage Grove Visitor Guide. We printed 7,000 copies and distributed roughly about 7,000 copies. We had a few surplus at the end of the year but overall we distri dist distributed about all of them. Um so these went to these were on the wall at the Mall of America. We had them at the welcome centers. visitor centers and we mailed them to homes worldwide, which is awesome. Um, we had six paid uh advertisers for an incoming revenue of $3,275. In 2025, our website attracted almost 32,000 views, which is close to what we attracted in 2024. Uh, al also similar in results were the most viewed pages. Um, however, the patio week event that we had attracted additional viewers to our website. We are continuing to send a monthly e newswsletter to our 4,000 subscribers. I also wanted to mention that we do occasionally send um an email to our businesses uh informing them of the tournaments that are coming to town. So, we receive a calendar of events from our parks and recck department and then we um you know about one to four times a year will email them and let them know um of the of the big events that are coming. Uh for photo and video, we began utilizing more local imagery. Uh so we we gathered these photos from photo contests that we host. Uh this is a great way to feature the authentic spirit of Cottage Grove at little to no cost to us. Uh we also partnered with True Lens Community Media and we po uh to post 10 visitor friendly videos. Uh video also um was a huge initiative for the city in 2025 and so we plan to continue that with Discover Cottage Grove in 2026 as the visitor bureau being an emphasis for that as well. In 2025 on Facebook, we posted 6% more than we did in 2024. Um, as you can see, we had a higher engagement rate and we reached a lot more people. Um, on Instagram, we posted a little less, but we still reached a lot more people and increased our follower base. Our our top YouTube videos were the Madison, the food truck festival, and then our holiday video. And then again on Facebook, we used marketing dollars to boost three ads. Um, as you can see, we did it for Strawberry Fest, Patio Week, and Food Truck Festival. And this increased our user reach as well. And then our top uh performing campaign was the vendor lineup for Food Truck Festival. And then the video we did for the one month away reminder for Food Truck Festival as well. So, as you can see, Food Truck Festival does a really good job at marketing, bringing in people, bringing in the eyes, and all of that. So, and this is a lot of information, too. I apologize for that. And then, as we mentioned in our last CVB meeting, uh, Discover Cottage Grove formalized its first comprehensive brand style guide. So, we didn't change much. We kind of just, um, put it on a paper essentially. We, um, solidified the color, the color palette, the logo, the the fonts, um, kind of our look and feel for our kickoff to the website rebrand. Our staff continues to engage with residents and visitors both online and at community events. Uh our main event is the food truck festival where we see anywhere from 14 to 16,000 attendees. So looking ahead to 2026, uh we want to continue to leverage our strategic roadmap. So, a few initiatives we plan to implement are uh rebuilding the website experience to be more inspirational and a user-friendly hub uh for trip planning, hosting an annual tourism summit uh that encourages businesses to network and skill build, partner with high follower influencers to tell our story through their lens. Uh develop new attractions that put Cottage Grove on the map, and many more. and I'd love to talk about those with you um later if you have questions. Uh so with that, I'd be happy to stand for any questions. >> Excellent information and really fun to see the growth, especially the food truck festival impressions. That was unbelievable. >> Anybody have any questions at all for Courtney on the annual report? >> Comment. >> You're allowed to make comments. Director Kada. >> Uh, I'm overall I'm I'm really um happy with the style guide and kind of building some uniformity around that. Um, I'm really happy with the overall numbers as far as like digital digital media traffic. Uh again, I know we don't meet every month, but so sometimes it's hard to remember like, you know, what what like benchmarks or objectives did we put in place three or six months ago, but um you know, as I'm looking back on it, it's like the first couple years that we did CVB, it was really of like I felt like like there was a steep learning curve and it it's nice to see that things are um you know, kind of progressing, you you know, kind of in in accordance with the plan and the advice that we were given and, you know, the the the industry experts that we brought in and consulted with. Uh, so it's it's it's looking like it's paying off and it's uh so as somebody who's been part of this for a little while, it's it's nice to see the the progress that's being made. >> Thank you, director. >> Anyone else? Okay, good. Well, thank you for that. Uh, a lot of really, really fun stuff moving forward. Um, it looks like, uh, Phil is going to take us through this next item, which is the Mall of America Travel Wall Program. >> Yes. Thank you, Chairman Olsen, members of the board. Uh, this was a late, as you saw yesterday, a late addition to the CBB packet. Uh, the Mall of America Travel Wall Program is not new to Discover Cottage Grove. Um but uh we think that maybe they changed some processes around uh an agreement that's required in order for us to uh be a part of the travel wall program. Hence the late addition to the packet uh because we learned that that that agreement was was necessary. And so the long and short of it is the Mall of America travel wall program uh as you would guess is is at key entrances at the Mall of America. Uh uh visitor guides are on display, brochures are on display. It's a great opportunity for our excellent visitor guide to get in front of the eyes and hopefully in the hands of the 32 million plus visitors that come to the Mall of America every single year. And so it's a relatively lowcost uh easy to to accomplish uh way to get our our visitor guide in into the Mall of America. And so really with that, um, happy to answer any questions you may have, but, uh, with approval of the agreement in the amount of $780 to get, uh, several of our boxes over of visitor guides over to the Mall of America, um, we would be happy to do so and happy to stand for any questions, too. >> Questions at all? >> Go ahead. To come back. >> Uh, I'm assuming they're at all the main entrances, >> correct? Um, as I've been traveling around other parts of the state, um, the the vis the visitor center and in Duth comes to mind. They have a big visitor wall and I always, this is more of like a logistics question. Um, I always wondered like who's in charge of making sure that stays stocked. Do they reach out to us if they need more brochures or do we send them a ream of brochures and forget about it and then they just it's somebody there is just keeping it stocked. Yep. Chairman Olsson, Director Katada, great question. The short answer is yes. We keep track of where we're sending those visitor guides and when, of course, we need to send more and also we have great contacts with those visitor centers to have them let us know that we need to send more. That's something that my colleagues Courtney Persig and Alexa Anderson both uh manage and making sure that those guides get to where they need to be. And I should also add with the Mall of America, yes, key entrances and also new this year, I I forgot to mention uh that the guide would also be placed on the Mall of America's website. So that's just another thing they added in for the typical fee that you would typically pay. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay, then we're seeking a motion to approve this recommendation. Who would like to take that? >> I'll make a motion. Okay. So, uh, moving to approve the Mall of America signage agreement with the Mall of America for an amount of $780. Is that accurate? >> Correct. >> And I'll second. >> All right. So, we have Director Olsen and Director Lavine is the second. Any further discussion on this? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> And that motion carries. Thank you, Phil. All right. So uh moving forward to business items. I do not see anything on the agenda. Uh we do not have a workshop at all today. So now I am seeking comments from the directors at the deis. Uh do we have anybody who would like to make some comments? Go ahead. Director Katada. I just want to reiterate um uh my appreciation for everyone's hard work and um you know how how great it is to to see some you know some some persistence and hard work uh pay off for the community. >> Excellent. And I have a comment. Uh, and this is going to come out of left field for our friend Nate who's sitting in the back. Uh, for those of you who have not met Nate Carlson, who is our economic development manager, uh, Nate, would you mind taking a minute and just introducing yourself to the team here and letting everybody know who you are and what you do here for the city of Cottage Grove? Thank you. >> Certainly. Uh, Chair Olsen, members of the board. Uh good morning. My name is Nate Carlson. I'm the economic development manager for the city. Um just about to start month three. Prior to this, I was with the city of Northfield for almost nine years. uh economic development. I've been in the in the profession for better part of 10 years and I specialize in business incentives uh underwriting of gap loans uh identifying new areas of opportunity for financial resources for business development and I do a bit of recruitment of businesses as well and specifically here I'm working on the recruitment of a hotel for a property owned by the EDA. uh work closely with the chamber um attending board meetings as well as uh working on partnership with with Lori and her uh the group there. So I hope that gave a good flavor uh chair of what I do. >> I think so. >> I can stand for any questions. >> Anybody have questions at all for Nate? >> I know that director Lavine and Nate have gotten to know each other quite well already, which is good. >> Yeah, and I'll jump in and add to that. It's been great working alongside Nate and and um I can't wait to see what happens moving forward. So excited. >> Yeah, we're all excited to have Nate on board and look forward to a really strong partnership between obviously the CVB uh and of course Nate's work with the EDA. Uh we have ICSE coming up which will be another great opportunity to market the city and Nate's already working hard on setting up appointments for us and things there. So, uh, should be, uh, a really good year. And Nate, I appreciate you taking just a few minutes to introduce yourself. And with that, folks, uh, we are at number 10, adjourn, adjournment. Just seeking a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll make the motion. >> Okay, we have a motion to adjurnn by director Kada. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> We have a second by Director Lavine. Any further discussion on adjournment? Okay, seeing none, all in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. I >> opposed and we are adjourned. Thank you.