SEPTEMBER 5 & 9, 2021
Steve Kohls / Brainerd Dispatch
Carpenters from Baum Brothers Construction place siding on a new home in the background, rafters are piled on a lot for another house Aug. 16 in the Brainerd Oaks neighborhood in Brainerd. The new home in the foreground will be built by IJC Construction of Clearwater.
Progress: Worker shortage dominates Lakes area economy roars back By Renee Richardson Brainerd Dispatch In downtown Brainerd, small business owner Theresa Woodward of CatTales Books and Gifts, checked out the last customers before closing at 6 p.m. on a weekday night. Outside, the blue sky and summer sun continued a warm, dry trend, which paradoxically has been good for business. In past years, the rainy days brought more customers to shop. This year, Woodward said the rainy days, while few and far between, may be more for staying home as fewer shoppers turned up. But what would a second year of a pandemic be if not for turning the norms upside down? With Brainerd celebrating its sesquicentennial this year, Woodward
pointed to the draw of that history and overwhelming enthusiasm for last year’s addition of Big Jay’s Pizza Arcade, as well as current classes like candle making at the Purple Fern Bath Co. and other fun shopping for bringing carloads of families downtown. “I count on my July and August to get me through to December, and I’m going to make it through,” as long as things hold out through August, Woodward said of her sales. The next hurdle will be getting inventory for the small merchants as suppliers report difficulty in getting their orders on incoming freighters. Woodward said she was told it was in part from the labor shortage for those loading freighters as they focused on the
Our economy has roared back, which was really hard to imagine when we had the COVID closures in late 2020. - Matt Kilian, Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce president
larger big box orders. Woodward’s already been ordering her Christmas holiday inventory early as a result and thinks those who wait will find limited offerings. “I have a lot of new customers, my new customers are way up, lots of people — almost somebody everyday that
I haven’t seen before, — but I’m not seeing a lot of my familiar faces,” Woodward said, wondering what it will take to bring those regulars back into the store or whether online sales that people turned to during the pandemic have rooted, replacing local purchases.
It’s one of the many unknowns. 2021 followed a year of immense upheaval and, while different, continued to provide an uncertain landscape but one with the speed of an economic recovery few could have predicted a year ago. “Our economy has roared back, which was really hard to imagine when we had the COVID closures in late 2020,” said Matt Kilian, Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce president, in an email response. “There are lots of reasons for the turnaround — strong-willed businesses, government relief, low-interest rates, demand for travel, and the out-migration from the Twin Cities. All of those things intersected in the Brainerd lakes area in 2021.” The Department of Employment and Economic Development reported northwest Min-
nesota, which includes most of the lakes region, had the strongest bounce back from the pandemic recession of the six planning regions in the state. “As the regional economy continues to return to normal following the pandemic recession, employers in Northwest Minnesota are in hiring mode again but they’re finding a tight labor market,” the Department of Employment and Economic Development reported in June. “DEED’s Job Vacancy Survey from the fourth quarter of 2020 showed 11,255 job openings in the region, which is the fourth highest number on record. When compared to the count of unemployed workers from DEED’s Local Area Unemployment
ECONOMY: Page 3 BD Video brainerddispatch.com
Next generation of Haglins continue entrepreneurial spirit 4th family-owned company launches Maluna coolers
Renee Richardson Brainerd Dispatch BAXTER — At the Aug. 10 groundbreaking for a new manufacturing facility in the Baxter Industrial Park a keyword popped up repeatedly: Relationships. The longstanding relationships between businesses, between companies and city officials, bankers and builders and relatively new relationships between employers and employees and family were all at play. Before the sod was
peeled away from the earth for the new rotomolding plastics facility, speakers took turns talking about those relationships as the entrepreneurial Haglin family began work on a fourth company and another manufacturing plant along Hastings Road, joining sister companies LINDAR Corp. and Avantech, which are owned by Tom and Ellen Haglin. Tom Haglin, CEO/ owner of Avantech and
president/owner of LINDAR, thanked those who were represented at the small gathering preceding the groundbreaking. “Moreso, I want to thank our family of team members. You know it’s impossible to grow and have the successes that we do have without such an awesome, amazing team.”
HAGLIN: Page 2 BD Video brainerddispatch.com
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
Brothers Garrett Haglin, left, and Connor Haglin point out features in the Maluna cooler, the Eufouric Brands flagship product during a company announcement and groundbreaking Aug. 10 in Baxter.
Table of Contents Worker shortage dominates.....................................................................1 Next generation of Haglins continue entrepreneurial spirit.......................1 Breezy Point celebrates 100 years...........................................................9 Escape in the sky...................................................................................17 Sew-sew work in Outing so rewarding...................................................18 Father-son duo open burger company in Staples..................................25 Great outdoors proves COVID proof .....................................................26
Finding a groove: Aitkin Hardwoods reshapes itself...............................33 Enterprise Academy helps businesses succeed....................................36 Do you have the best job?......................................................................41 Bringing classics back to life..................................................................42 Keeping the day rolling, one cup at a time.............................................43 For companion videos and photo galleries to go with the stories profiled in the annual Progress Labor Day edition go to the Dispatch homepage www.brainerddispatch.com where readers, viewers and listeners will find links to videos, photos and the Dispatch podcast — DispatchCast.
