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Iron County Economic Development Committee Meeting Iron County Courthouse Wednesday, July 8, 2026 Unapproved: Minutes will be approved at the next regular committee meeting 1. Called to order: Larry Youngs called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance: Recited 3. Roll Call: Brooke Gilbertson, Neil Gilbertson, Adam Tutt, Autumn Hill, David McNutt, Joeseph Miller, Pelkola, Sarah Towne, and Bill Stutz were present. Julie Doucette, Joel Enking, Melissa Copp, Gary Kessler, and Roy Haeger were absent 4. Joseph Miller acknowledged that the meeting was properly noticed and posted. 5. Public Comment: Rita Franzoi discussed the July 29 meeting for the SBDG. was working with Jamey. Have someone from board interested in stepping up into Rita’s old position, Rita now project manager Received 12 applications for grant Adam Tutt explained that he has been working with EFund, and had closed negotiations on funding for Silver Street Book Café, which is opening in Hurley around the time of Festival Italiano. He intends on closing negotiations on funding Doogie’s Dugout next week. Larry Youngs brought up promoting new businesses by providing them free rent for a year. Joseph Miller and Rita Franzoi discussed Hartington Bookkeeping who is interested in finding a location for their accounting firm. 6. Approval of June 2026 Meeting Minutes Brooke Gilbertson motioned to approve, and Neil Gilbertson seconded. The minutes were approved. 7. Financial Statement and Approval of Bills. Julie Doucette needs to get invoice to Christan Brandt to get the Heritage Days band paid. The expense has already been previously approved. 8. Discussion of Educational Topics and Future Guests: Joseph Miller intends to arrange different speakers for the different types of capital: built, political, human, social, natural, cultural, financial. He collected suggestions from those present on good speakers for that purpose. 9. Finalize Heritage Days Plans: Larry Youngs decided to keep cannon on trailer and asked for children to walk with it. He suggested offering ice cream and American flags to the participants. Decided not to roll cannon because wheels have been painted. After the parade, Youngs intends to install the cannon on Sunday. The Hurley School has coordinated a band to march. Brooke Gilbertson intends to get 500 brochures, half as many as last year. Brooke confirmed with the committee that the prize money would be $500 for first place, $300 for second place, $200 for third place, $100 for Social Media Best in Show, and $100 for randomly selected non-profit. David McNutt motioned to approve $1200 total in prize money, and it was seconded Adam Tutt before being passed unanimously by voice vote. 10. Team Updates: Joseph Miller explained that the Rural Entrepreneurial Venture team had a kickoff for their Mercer team and their Hurley team early last month. Meeting dates for both teams have yet to be finalized, and Paul Chaney will need to be included going forward. Joseph Miller attended the Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference in Green Lake and someone from the Minnesota Extension came by to show how to make maps for the REV team, which Miller will share information about with the committee. 11. Review of Action Items: Larry Youngs asked how economic development is done in other counties, and was considering sending a member of the Iron County Economic Development Committee to attend a gathering discussing the topic. Joseph Miller advised everyone that to contact all the members of the Iron County Economic Development Committee, emails should be sent to ironeconomicdev@office365.wisc.edu. Larry Youngs also discussed BART and hammering out its implementation in Iron County. 12. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 6:54 p.m. Minutes recorded by Autumn Hill