Visit by the Secretary of State

May 8th, 2017

Secretary Simon:
Last Friday, I had the opportunity to sit down with our Secretary of State, Steve Simon, and talk about our branding effort. Secretary Simon was in southern Minnesota and he suggested we meet in Mantorville. We had about an hour long conversation at the Hubble House and were able to talk about several subjects. He wanted to know a little more about the brand project and the process we followed, how long the process took, what we wanted to accomplish with the brand project as well as  how it has been received so far. I was able to share with the Secretary that the brand had a very successful roll out and so far has been very well received. The secretary wanted to know about my impressions of what we need as far as new housing options. We spoke about some of the new developments that are in progress in town as well as some planning we are doing with some developers. When IK asked about what is new in the Secretary of State office, Steve told me about one of his pet projects. His office has been working on a questionnaire and related database. When a new company registers with the Secretary of State (all companies have to register with the SOS office to be an official company in Minnesota) they are asked to fill out an optional survey. The survey has only five questions on it and includes questions about veteran status, size of the company the industry “type” that the company operates in and if the company is a full time or part time company. The information obtained from the optional questionnaire combined with some of the information from the required form are stored in a sortable database. The SOS's office has a web site that allows visitors to search for a company type, veteran  owned companies etc. The secretary ran a report for me with details about Southern Minnesota. I will be sharing the report with both the City Council as well as the Mantorville EDA. This report will help us plan for the type of businesses that are growing in our area and also identify the types of businesses we need to work harder on attracting to our area.

Quarry Walk:
This Saturday May 13th at 1:00 pm the Dodge County Historical Society is sponsoring a query walk. The quarry walk is offered so that our residents can see first hand the historic quarry that is located on the Olive property. Those individuals that are interested in this rustic walk should meet at 1:00pm at the end of the 233rd Ave (AKA: West Olive Lane). The group will depart from the end of 233rd Ave shortly after 1:00pm. Directions to the meeting place are: Head South on HWY 57 across the bridge, turn West onto 617th street, take the second right heading North on 233rd Ave and drive to the end of the road.

Cliffs of Death:
I want to make sure everyone knows that there are submerged rocks that are now in the river and that the previous activity of jumping off the cliff is no longer safe. The City has new signs on order that state no trespassing and that hidden rock exist in the river and that jumping is now longer safe. The City is going to add a warning to our utility bills and the Sheriff's office will add a mention on their Facebook page warning of the new dangers found in our river below our cliffs.

Yours in service,

Chuck Bradford,
Mayor - City of Mantorville
MayorBradford.BlogSpot.com