Business View Magazine | November 2019

340 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 g.01 What does natural gas energy e ciency have to do with 860,000 Paul Bunyans? Paul·i us Bühn·yin 18 ft tall 2.5 tons built 1936 Bemidji Make the connection. ank you for 25 years of doing more to use less. Explore rebates to continue saving money and energy. Visit our Fact Finding Field Guide at CenterPointEnergy.com/SaveEnergy trails connecting it to our downtown. There is another $2 million allocated for other trails connecting existing trails to parks, schools and neighborhoods within our community. These will be done over the next two-and-a-half to three years. So, those are exciting quality of life enhancements under way, right now!” Other ongoing projects in Elk River concern various road improvements. Portner explains, “The state has a $157-million grant allocated for construction to freeway status of U.S. Highway 169, which is a thoroughfare that runs north and south through our city. It’s a gateway to the Minnesota lakes area. In the summertime, we all go ‘up north’ to a lake cabin or lake home, and many people go right through the middle of Elk River for that purpose. This project will improve access for local residents; it will also free up some of the traffic that does go through town on busy summer weekends. Along with that, there’s an ongoing project with Highway 10, which leads westward to another lakes area. The first phase was done last year; the second phase, which we’re expecting sometime in 2021, will make a better connection from our lake and our park area to our downtown.” Elk River’s downtown is another area Portner says is ready for redevelopment. “Near where the Elk and the Mississippi join is our downtown area,” he notes. “We’ve developed a park from Main Street to the river; it’s a relatively steep grade, so it’s a natural amphitheater overlooking the Mississippi, and it’s gorgeous! We have summer concerts there that bring two or three thousand people; we have a downtown festival where we block off the streets for activities. About 15 years or so ago, we had two apartment complexes go in – mixed use residential and retail. We’ve gone through some property acquisition for another project that will add more mixed uses to grow our downtown. It’s near downtown with very pedestrian-friendly connections to medical services, churches, and some of our other retail areas a bit further to the east. So, we’re going to be able to increase our density with that project and we’re also looking