I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Aug. 6, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
The city of Bemidji finalized its partnership with Telnet Systems Inc. Monday with the presentation of a $200,000 low-interest loan earmarked for the purchase of equipment.
The $200,000 is the final piece of the economic package that was offered to entice the Fergus Falls-based company to build a facility in Bemidji earlier in the year.
This loan will bring the package offered to Telnet to a total of $800,000. The economic package was a joint venture to create more jobs in Bemidji between the city, the Headwaters Regional Development Commission, the Bemidji Development Corporation, the Northwest Minnesota Initiative Fund, the Joint Economic Development Commission, Otter Tail Power Co. and Bemidji-area banks, all of which provided significant sums of money for the loan, said Larry Young, director of the JEDC.
The $200,000 loan played a vital part in Bemidji's ability to attract the company that opened a facility here in March, according to Dave Hengle, economic development director for the HRDC.
Telnet was made a partner with the JEDC in the original venture, in which the JEDC secured $500,000 in loan funds and a building site in the industrial park for the construction of a Telnet office. In addition, the JEDC provided the $800,000 in funds procured from the other area organizations to Telnet for its high-tech equipment. There was a five-year lease worked out between the JEDC and Telnet to pay back the loans, and Monday's $200,000 is already a part of the original lease, Mayor Doug Peterson said.
At a July 24 press conference announcing the purchase of Telnet by Alabama-based Touch 1, the president of the company promised he was seeking no incentives, such as tax breaks or loans, from the city in return for buying the company. He said all he would ask of the city is to help find people to fill the 700 positions Touch 1 intends to create.
Even though the city just awarded Telnet $200,000 more, Peterson said the promise is still holding because the money was part of the original deal that enticed Telnet to Bemidji. The money was promised before Touch 1 purchased the company, but it took a number of months for the grant to be awarded from the Minnesota Department of Economic Development. That is why Telnet is receiving the money now.
Peterson said it was not something the new owner, Touch 1, asked the city to provide.
Bemidji's part in providing the loan is a "win-win" situation, he said. The city received the money through a grant from the state agency, and the money was passed on to developers who can use it to provide additional jobs. Part of the lease payments Telnet makes will now return to the city until the $200,000 is repaid. The city may then use the money again for other economic development, he said.
"This is a tremendously good investment because it turns into jobs for the community," Peterson said. "The city has been tremendously happy with Telnet."
New Telnet President Richard Thrower said the equipment needed to expand the Bemidji facility would probably be purchased in about three weeks. The facilities in New York Mills and Fergus Falls will be updated in the next two weeks, and then Bemidji's center will be upgraded.
"We're moving ahead with everything we said we would do," Thrower said. "We're walking the walk we said we would."
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