Council takes a look at results of market analysis, downtown among topics
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
In a special Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night, City of Elkhorn Alderman and staff took a look at the results of a comprehensive market analysis for the City of Elkhorn.
Monday night’s presentation revealed the findings of the analysis done by Redevelopment Resources LLC, a Wausau firm specializing in the development and redevelopment of communities.
While Monday night’s presentation covered everything from retail to industry throughout the Elkhorn area, the bulk of Monday’s discussion circled around the city’s downtown.
Deb Ersland of Redevelopment Resources said what the City of Elkhorn needs to do when it comes to retail is focus on business retention, and not necessarily recruitment.
“You can’t let one more business close if there’s any chance that you had an opportunity to help them not close,” she said.
“You need to invest some concerted effort in your downtown. You need to keep this town from becoming a sort of shadow of itself.”
Ersland said Monday night one of the things she would recommend is getting a more specialized study done, focusing on the city’s downtown to, for instance, change the visual feeling of and re-energize a downtown area.
Ersland said she wasn’t talking about a complete overhaul or a complete re-branding of Elkhorn, but rather simply starting to take “baby steps,” to get the process rolling and get people re-engaged.
For the full story, see the Oct. 1 edition of the Elkhorn Independent.
