Litchfield City Council Meeting

The Litchfield City Council heard a report last evening from Lisa Graphenteen regarding the Minnesota Main Street Economic Revitalization program. The project has been a joint effort of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the Southwest Initiative Foundation and Meeker County EDA.

Graphenteen, from the Meeker County EDA, says 20 applications were received in the program – with 17 applications awarded and 15 applicants proceeding. A total of $750,000 was awarded, with $741,219 worth of grant agreements, and $511,709 worth of projects completed. She says the difference in the amount of grants compared to the amount actually awarded is due to some property owners dropping out or over-estimating their costs, and the extra grant money just goes back to the state and is distributed elsewhere.

Graphenteen says total investment in downtown Litchfield from the project is $1,850,201 – with private investment of $1,338,492. The tax assessed value of these properties is $1,121,200 and 7 housing units were created, 12 existing housing units were rehabbed, 14 existing businesses were retained, 30 existing jobs were retained, 5 new businesses were created and 16 new jobs were created. She says the program was created by the Legislature in 2021, with reimbursement up to 30% of the project cost for property owners and the grant money from DEED went to SWIF and then to each business owner.

Council member Darlene Kotelnicki says Litchfield was one of just 3 Minnesota cities in this program, which was specifically for downtown, 2nd story buildings – along with Worthington and Montevideo.

Also last night, the Litchfield City Council approved of a certificate of appropriateness for Charles Burdick for the replacement of second story windows at 231 North Sibley Avenue.