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Growing Places
Growing Places
Porter and the Specialists
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Join SMGA's own Economic Development Specialists Bryce Healy, Chris Fields, and Josh Chase as well as SMGA's summer intern Porter Ihnen as they discuss internships, projects, and all the hidden gems in the Sioux Metro region.
Welcome to Growing Places, a podcast about all things economic development right here in the Siou Metro. Brought to you by the Siou Metro Growth Alliance and our supporters. We're diving into the stories and progress that shape our communities as well as getting to know the partners that help make it all happen.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back to Growing Places, your podcast for all things economic development in the Sioux Metro region. I'm Joshua Chase, economic development specialist here at Sioux Metro, and I'm joined by two of my colleagues, Bryce Healy and Chris Fields. Good afternoon.
SPEAKER_04Afternoon.
SPEAKER_03And we have the great pleasure of hosting this podcast episode with our summer intern, Porter Inan. Thank you. Porter, you've been with us for just over a month now. How's it going? Tell us a little about yourself. Let's back up. Tell the listeners a little bit about yourself, who you are, and what you're doing here.
SPEAKER_02About me, I grew up in Lenox, South Dakota. I grew up just south of town, closer to Davis. Um I'm an Oriole. I graduated there in 24 and decided to go to the University of South Dakota for basketball. I've been there the last two years, and I decided to transfer to Northern State. So I'll be playing basketball up in Aberdeen, and I'm studying accounting and finance. Go Yotes, go Wolves.
SPEAKER_01Alright, Porter, now you you had explained to us that you are recovering currently from a knee injury that you suffered earlier this year or last year. You want to talk a little bit about recovery?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I tore my ACL, both meniscus, partial LCL, and a stress fracture in my fibula last would have been early last winter.
SPEAKER_04I can't move just thinking about all that.
SPEAKER_02I tore it at Missouri and I had surgery in December.
SPEAKER_01Like the University of Missouri Tigers.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Boo. Mm-hmm. And I had surgery in December, and I just hit seven months now. It's been going really well. I'm ahead of schedule, which is all I can ask for.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're definitely walking around really good for just tearing all the ligaments in your entire leg, it sounds like.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It was so I've previously broken my collarbone. So I've I've been without an arm once and without a leg once. I'd definitely rather go without an arm than a leg.
SPEAKER_01Any other broken bones between us? Nope, never done it. Knock on wood. I broke a finger one time giving somebody a high five in elementary school.
SPEAKER_03So, Porter, you're you're on the mend and you're getting ready to continue your basketball career at Northern State University. But before you do that, you have the pleasure of spending the summer with this crew. And uh, you know, this is kind of a special episode of Growing Places because we've got the best part of the office here today on the mics. That's right. That's rare, that's a rare occurrence. We actually get the pleasure of having Bryce Helian, Chris, and myself all at the same time. Um Porter, what's it what's it been like? Is I'm assuming this is one of your first professional experiences. Um what do you think that you've learned and what would you like to maybe tell others about why they should do an internship in the future?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so this is because of basketball, this is my first real job, if you want to call it that. It's been really fun though. Um good group of people. And I think one of my favorite things about this is networking and meeting other people. It seems like at least once or twice a week we go have food with lunch with someone else, and I can network more there. Um get a free meal out of it. Get a free meal out of it, which is nice.
SPEAKER_03Um Yeah, that's one thing I really enjoy about economic development is uh the free move the free food no, I'm just kidding. Uh it's really great to get out in the communities and meet all the folks working to make their community better. Um, you know, and I think it's a great idea to do an internship in the summertime. I'm a huge advocate for internships because I, you know, kind of made my way in my professional life because of an internship. Uh our great boss now was my my boss once many summers ago in a similar similar college internship. Uh just curious around the room.
SPEAKER_04You know, Bryce, I we might have to dust off a book or something, but uh they didn't call them internships back then, but uh no, I didn't have a professional opportunity like is afforded younger people today.
SPEAKER_01Uh so I I I did not do any sort of summer internship when I was uh in high school or or college, but I I did do a um Kansas congressional internship with Senator Pete Brungart from Celine County in Kansas. So got to spend uh a couple days a week uh in Topeka. Um but I was also doing school at the same time. It wasn't a summer gig, it was it was right in the middle of school. So but but yeah, that was that was a fun experience. Got to got to see the inner workings as you did in uh state politics and um Kansas has historically at least the last I don't know about 20 years or so have been kind of a split uh uh governance. The Republicans usually hold the House and Senate, a Democrat uh holds the governorship. So I working with a Republican senator and uh Democrat governor Kathleen Sibilius, who was Obama's education secretary, that was um that was kind of an interesting uh dynamic, but a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04I would have enjoyed the opportunity for an internship. I came from a farm ranch background, it'd been a whole lot more fun than what I was doing during the summer.
SPEAKER_01Scooping up stuff.
SPEAKER_02I do find I do find uh a large importance of internships. I think that's one of the good things about transitioning from division one to division two is I have summers off. Division twos they're not allowed to have any hours over the summer. So that way I can fill out my resume more because my sister, who will play basketball at Dakota Wesleyan, she can do internships over the summer because of basketball, and she struggled to find a job because of that.
SPEAKER_04Interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's definitely something to be said for balancing the load of academics and um athletics, but there's really nothing that can compare to actually getting yourself into the workforce, um, exposing yourself to other professionals, and um you know, having something to talk about when you go into that job interview. I mean, I think about it every job interview I've done, there's not one where I didn't reflect back on an internship I had and talk through a scenario that happened and how I handled it um through an internship experience. So I think it's a it's a valuable experience, and um Bryce, you you have kids and they've done their professional internships.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I was just reflecting on that. I've got a daughter that just graduated from the Vermilion from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion, and she started this summer out with an internship that then turned into a full-time job. So as we joke in our household, her first real job, uh, but it was led to because of an internship opportunity that she had.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's great. And we're and we're glad to be able to afford that here at Sumetro Growth Alliance. And um it's cool that Porter is a kid from one of our well, not a kid, he's a young professional for from one of our communities, a community that I care a lot about, Lennox. Um I've been working there on the EDMS contract for a couple of years now. And uh it's great to see that involvement and the overlap that's kind of come with it, and you know, bringing in your your connections from the digital age club there, got some uh real young, entrepreneurial-minded folks uh working with that group, and and maybe we'll get to have them on the podcast so our listeners can learn more about that. Um but all that to be said, uh if you if you're listening to this and you're a a company who is able to offer a young professional an opportunity to get their foot in the door, to meet some folks in the community, um certainly do that, and I I think that is that is certainly giving back.
SPEAKER_04We've had a lot of great in the last two, three years, a lot of great internship opportunities for young professionals here, and and I I would echo what you've said. Uh most of our communities can find the resources that they would need, and they would actually benefit and learn more from these young professionals than probably the the folks that they're interning for.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I th I think South Dakota does uh internships and um kind of work studies better than any place I've ever lived. And I've I've lived a lot of uh places. Um kids in high school, at least in T, I'm sure it's not the same in other high schools, they're required uh to do an internship uh as part of their schooling. And then uh internships here. This the state just started a new internship program, I think, through the Department of Labor. We've got the Dakota, Build Dakota scholarships where students can can go to school essentially for free and and agree to to work for a company within the state. So apprenticeships, internships, I think I think our state is doing a bang up job on on trying to keep uh homegrown talent in our home.
SPEAKER_04Well I know the South Dakota or the Sioux Falls Community Development Foundation too has a pretty extensive summer internship program that really focuses around the networking. And Porter, I'm not sure if you've been able to interact with any of that group of uh young young professionals. There's a few hundred people that are employed by other companies around the Sioux Metro, but it's through Bob Munch Group, the development foundation, that kind of runs that program. And it's primarily focused for the networking opportunities for young professionals.
SPEAKER_01Porter, did you uh did you explain what your your major is when you were introducing? I kind of missed that.
SPEAKER_02I believe I did, but I'll say it again accounting and finance, so I'm a double major right on.
SPEAKER_01So if if if you were to graduate tomorrow, what right now in the the season of life that you're in right now, what do you think a dream job would be for you? All things considered.
SPEAKER_02I've thought about that a lot, and I think I have a very, very uh broad mindset in what I want to go into, and that's kind of part partly why I'm a double major accounting in finance. But I think being a developer would be a lot of fun. I think this job has helped me narrow down on on how much fun that would be and yeah and the connections that you can build through that too.
SPEAKER_03Well, Porter, thank you for sharing that um about your internship experience. Uh we're certainly glad to be able to provide that for you and for you to provide value to us, really. It's it it's a two-way street, and uh I think a lot of other groups probably find that as well. Um so summertime, internships, but also groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings, and things opening, things new. We've had a lot of that lately. Bryce, tell us tell us what you've been up to.
SPEAKER_04Well, Josh, there's been a lot of those, as you say, in the region, and I don't even think I can come up with all of them, but between whether it's the Canton, the T uh Brandon, Crooks, uh you name it in most of the surrounding communities that we uh represent and work for, we've had either a groundbreaking or a ribbon cutting for some type of uh opportunity that is coming up in the Sioux Metro region. We we tend to be involved in both ribbon cuttings and uh groundbreakings. Obviously, groundbreaking is is is directly tied to economic development with new uh ventures, but sometimes ribbon cuttings in some of our communities we work hand in hand with the chambers of commerce too. Now, if they don't have a chamber, we kind of fill that role to assist in getting those communities and those new businesses or expanding businesses a a plug in a m uh as they move forward.
SPEAKER_03So it I mean it may be fairly obvious to us, but why is it important to celebrate those moments to to do the ribbon cutting or the groundbreaking?
SPEAKER_04Well, in strictly uh an economic development aspect, I look at it it was somebody asked me last night, you know, give me a short answer for what economic development is. And my short answer is it's sales tax revenue. So increased sales tax revenue in any one of our communities. And it varies by community. Uh a five percent increase in one of our larger communities is somewhat significant to in totality of dollars, but in some of the smaller ones, the same percentage may not be that large of a dollar, but percentage-wise it is is important for those communities. So it's sales tax generation uh in in my estimation for most of these communities, because that's what most of our communities live and die on, is sales tax. Property tax uh is is one one revenue, but sales tax is really where some of the uh more su some of the dollars that could be used for different purposes, a lot around economic development can be used from with sales tax generation. So whether it's uh a new pet store in a community or a restaurant uh or or a a fast food restaurant or a housing development, uh the housing development's property tax, but those people that will be living in that community will be utilizing those those retail and commercial uh opportunities as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I th I think I think one of the other main aspects of of doing those ribbon cuttings and the groundbreakings too is to be able to tell your story whether it's on social media or in the newspaper, on the news. We get so much uh upslack from you know everybody about not being that great at telling our story. Uh we need to do a better job. Economic developers economic developers are you know too humble and they and they don't tell a story really well. So having the the photo ops and the the speeches and everything that gives you an opportunity to be able to tell a story of of how your community is growing and the new businesses that are coming to I think part of that too, Chris, is that in in some of our communities there's not necessarily a media outlet.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So it it behooves them to partner with Sue Metro Growth Alliance that does have the outlets for that type of information to get out to the public. Uh many of our, I mean, there's just a handful of our communities that have a daily paper. Uh most of them do not. Obviously, television and radio is is somewhat limited too, and the Sioux Metro, Sioux Falls has a great presence, but if you take some of our smaller communities, there just isn't that uh need for that type of of local media, so we fill a void.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And I think to kind of put the cherry on it, is it's the feel-good moment to celebrate with the people that have been putting the work in to get that business started up and they're ready to open their doors. Um, I personally enjoy in Lennox to bring the other business owners in and show that new business owner um or new store operator, whatever it is, that they're supported. There's a group of like-minded and and um people going through a similar experience that support them um and are there to cheer them on, you know, because in Linux I really feel like the attitude has been the more the merrier. Um, and we've been on an upwards trajectory. And I think that is largely to do because of the the kind of the environment that exists there between the business owners. So, like I said, it's just a great moment to reflect on the work that's been done to get to that point and celebrate. And uh, you know.
SPEAKER_04I think there's also some aha moments that we all recognize uh a new housing, a new industrial development, a new restaurant. We've got in one of our communities uh a uh Empire Cards in Harrisburg, South Dakota. I didn't know what Empire Cards was, but lo and behold, when school got out last last spring, that place was packed and it created sales tax dollars. It's a trading card facility uh or or stop in and it's packed all the time. So it's it's those type of of opportunities too for small communities that may not have forty or fifty jobs, but they certainly add a quality of life amenity to a community.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Let's let's let's uh give our communities a little bit of publicity here and and let's let's kind of maybe mention some of those groundbreakings that have been going going on the last quarter. So I know Harrisburg ha has one every other day, it seems like.
SPEAKER_04Not quite, but we've got a new restaurant with Breaking Burrito. We've had Verizon uh open in the last month, uh a new uh insurance firm, State Farm Insurance, uh a gunsmithing opportunity that used to be run out of an individual's garage, has now got storefront, uh a pet food supply, a specialty uh high high dollar pet food supply in Harrisburg alone. In Brandon, then we've got the culvers, uh as well as in T, we had that as well, and then the new development uh of Gateway uh in uh T. Uh Canton, we've had a housing development, same with Crooks, uh some great housing developments there, uh, as well as many of our other communities well, just to name a few.
SPEAKER_03And one of my favorites, Culver's. Two summers in a row, we've had a culverse uh a ribbon cutting or a groundbreaking uh one in T and now in Brandon. So go check it out if you're in the Brandon area. Speaking of favorite things, this is something we do on each episode. Um and you know what? I'm gonna call a bit of an audible, and I'm gonna ask uh you two as well to name your hidden gem in the Sioux Metro since I'm putting that on you. We'll start with Porter, but uh be thinking about that. What is what is your hidden gem here in the Sioux Metro?
SPEAKER_02My hidden gem in the Sioux Metro area, and it's it's relatively close to home, so I know more about it. And I believe it just got new ownership. I'm not sure if the name changed or not. But that is Royal Bake Shop in Centerville, South Dakota. Yeah. The Zebra Donuts.
SPEAKER_03Zebra King, Royal Bake Shop, uh, whatever they're calling it now, they make some dang good donuts.
SPEAKER_04They get delivered to Harrisburg. I usually have a standing order on Thursday mornings.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've utilized their services a few different times for SMG events down there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, uh I had those at my college graduation, and now they also get delivered to a store in Lennox. So uh my my uh BRE visits to the to that store might may have increased lately to get me uh my hands on some Zebra King donuts. So good one, Porter. That's uh that's a good sleeper pick in the Southern Sioux Metro. Bryce, Bryce, what can what can we learn from you?
SPEAKER_04Well, all hidden gems for me revolve around food, and I'm not gonna name any specific, but every one of our communities has something that I find whenever I get the opportunity to travel, I make sure I get myself fed, and every one of our communities has something for their their local people. As far as an attraction and things that I really like, and it's it's close to my home as well, as Porter mentioned, is is the apple orchard outside of Harrisburg. It just offers so many different unique things to do when it is the time. Uh you go down there on a Saturday or Sunday uh in fall, and I mean the hundreds of cars that are there, and it's just a neat uh as a farm ranch kid, maybe that's part of it. I get to see the tractors out there pulling uh trolleys and and just young kids out having a great time and enjoying what we have to offer in the region. So that's one of the hidden gems. There's many around our communities.
SPEAKER_01That's not really uh the Apple Orchard's not really outside of Harrisburg any longer as much as it used to be.
SPEAKER_04It's yeah, it's as our communities continue to thrive and grow. Uh we we've got some of that connectivity that that come along. And to be fair, it's probably not a hidden gem. It's just a place I really like.
SPEAKER_03Well, it surely is a gym. I know I've capitalized on a couple fall date nights at the Apple Orchard and got my hands on some some pies and and apple butter and all the goodies, so they're out there. Chris, Chris, you're up in Garretsen, but uh, you know, go ahead and maybe go outside of the Garretsen area.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm I'm with Bryce. I I've I've given Hed and Jim on this podcast before, and I think I I gave it as uh Palisades, even though it's it's not as as hidden as kind of like the Apple Orchard. But um I'm gonna go with somewhere that we just visited uh a few weeks back for our June MAB meeting, uh the Alcester, the golf course, the the new event center they have down there. It's it's brand new within the last four four or five years, I think they were saying. I've been down there twice now, and uh I love the event center, the layout of the event center. It's it's kind of used as uh, you know, it's not technically connected to the golf course, but it's used as kind of the go-to that the golfers come to after golf. What I love most about it, and I've actually never experienced it, but I can just see the how great it is and how good it it would be to be there during a Friday night. But yeah, right next to the football field. Yeah, it is it yeah, that's exactly what I think.
SPEAKER_03I thought the same thing when we were down there just a couple of weeks ago is you know what a spot to take in some Friday night lights right there. Got the the bar a couple steps away and and the game going just a few steps the other way. So um I agree. And you're on the golf course. I mean that can make for a heck of a Friday night if you if you got your plan straightened out.
SPEAKER_04But I think the important thing is if you look around the 17 communities, the four or five counties, there are literally hundreds of hidden gems that most of us don't know about and don't take the opportunity to enjoy. And I encourage everybody that is listening, everybody we ever talk to, uh in a very direct way, get out of Sioux Falls, get into some of the more surrounded communities, and you will find just a plethora of opportunities for you to do recreational dining, uh, just the whole gamut of things.
SPEAKER_03I totally agree. Um in my in my hometown, Dell Rapids, I have to give them a shout out because something that maybe a lot of people don't think about when you're stopping through a community or you have some business to take care of in in one of these small towns is the city park in Dell Rapids is actually something really special. Um they've taken a lot of care to curate that for a family experience, uh beautiful walking trail, uh baseball fields, and right along the river. And so there's a lot of opportunity for good recreation there. So it I would definitely agree with Bryce. There are a number of opportunities to get out in the communities, uh experience what they have to offer. Um, as we wrap up here, Chris, why don't you take us through the calendar? Um tell us a little about a little bit about what we've got coming up uh for events.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Um glad to. Here in the first week of August, coming up in a couple weeks, we launch our uh first Leadership Sumetro core cohort, uh leadership development program August 6th, on the August, I think it's 18th, we have our August bus tour coming up. Uh be on the lookout in your email for the invites on that coming up. Um and then in September, towards the end of September, we've got our Clay Classic pigeon shoot, uh, clay classic tournament, uh, where the money that we have raised from that actually goes towards our Leadership Su Metro uh leadership development program. So three events kind of boom, boom, boom, in August and September. We're looking forward to them and excited.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Growing Places. We hope you learned something new about our great communities, who we are, and what we do. To learn more and to stay connected with SMGA, visit us online at sumetro.com.