MEDC targeting youth, housing

McCOOK, Neb. — Teen entrepreneurship and housing are some of the areas the McCook Economic Development Corp. is addressing.

Andy Long, MEDC executive director and Leon Kuhlen of the Citizen’s Advisory Review Committee, gave the McCook City Council an update on the MEDC at Monday’s council meeting.

Long said the MEDC is partnering with McCook Community College, The McCook Community Foundation and the Nebraska Community Foundation in offering scholarships to local juniors and seniors in high school, for business planning writing classes at the college. Selected students who take the eight-week class in January will then present their plan at a student competition in Hormel Business Competition in April, with the winning student receiving $5,500 toward the implementation of their business. Bailey Kool, owner of the Head 2 Toe Spa in McCook, is a former winner of this student competition.

The MEDC is using another program to bring back college graduates to their hometown. Long said up to 16 high school juniors and seniors at McCook High School are meeting at the MEDC once a week for leadership classes and taking tours of area businesses. This is a way for students to learn of the diverse job opportunities available in the area, he said, that they can come back to after college.

The MEDC also has applied to a program that selects communities to work with regarding the “quality and quantity” of daycare. Long said he’s heard from major employers in the area on the challenge of finding daycare, especially for infants. In McCook, there is already a core team of about 16 people who have volunteered to help, Long said.

He also touched briefly on the LB840 plan that has been re-written to reflect certain changes in state law applicable to economic development plans. The LB840 plan is the basis for the collection and expenditures of local sales tax revenue for economic development programs.

Long said one of the changes includes the addition of utilizing “workforce” housing, defined as a single-family home valued at less than $275,000 and a multi-level unit at less than $400,000, or less than $200,000 per unit. Long said a strategic planning meeting regarding workforce housing will be at the end of the month.

The MEDC, along with Mesner Development, manages two fairly new housing units, both having extensive waiting lists.

The Clary Village low-income senior duplex project, located just north of the Red Willow County Fairgrounds, consists of eight duplexes:  12 two-bedroom and 4 three bedroom units. Applicants must be 55 or older and meet the income requirements.

Quillan Courts low-income housing project is also located north of the Red Willow County Fairgrounds and consists of four, single-family homes with five bedrooms and a basement, eight four-bedroom units, and four three-bedroom units with basements