Progress 2012 Agriculture & Industry

ag & INdustry Sunday, february 26, 2012

A new kind of energy

Poet, an ethanol plant in Glenville, is shown on a sunny day in February. — Danielle Boss

Most field corn grown in America is used for feeding livestock and for producing cereals, alcohol, starches, sweeteners and corn flour. Food in the form of kernels comes from sweet corn and is about 2 percent of the U.S. corn crop. Popcorn is a different species altogether.

Poet constructed a cellulosic ethanol facility that makes ethanol from corncobs,

which is an example of an advancement that gives a value-added aspect to corn

growers without taking away from the many uses for the kernels.

Some of the farmer owners of the plant, Poet Glenville General Manager Rick Mummert and officials with Sioux Falls, S.D.-

based Poet Biorefining have told legislators they would like to see a phasing out of federal subsidies for ethanol in exchange for government support of investments in blender pumps and

ethanol pipelines and encouraging automakers to build flex-fuel vehicles. The plan is called the Freedom Fueling Plan.

Poet Glenville General Manager Rick Mummert said market access remains the biggest challenge facing the ethanol industry. He noted that the United States is try-ing to get OPEC to raise oil production when meanwhile ethanol is being exported to Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

Poet Glenville General Manager Rick Mummert said in Minnesota, 10 percent of ethanol is blended into gasoline resulting in substan-

tial environmental and economic benefits. He also said creating ac-cess to higher blends will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions

and displace significant volumes of imported oil.

Poet’s website said the Glenville plant became operational in 1999 and has 50 employees.

Page 2 • Albert Lea Tribune • Sunday, February 26, 2012 PROGRESS 2012

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Freeborn County is anxiously awaiting its first full year

of funding it receives from the state’s energy production tax — the tax that’s collected from wind farms.

Bent Tree Wind Farm is the only wind farm in Freeborn County so far, but others may come in the future. The state collects an energy production tax from all wind farms and then sends a portion back to the county. The county then gives 20 percent to the affected townships, in the Bent Tree Wind Farm case, Manchester and Hartland.

“The tax is calculated on the previous year’s production,” Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever said.

Because Bent Tree Wind Farm is so new, the county still doesn’t know what it will receive from a full year of operation. The wind farm was oper-ating for a small portion of 2010, and the county received that funding in June of 2011.

The county received $55,115, from its 80 per-cent of the local funding. There’s a formula for how much Manchester and Hartland receive based on how many turbines are in each township, so in 2011 the two town-ships split about $10,000 from its 20 percent of the local funding.

Kluever said he won’t know how much funding

the county and townships will receive from 2011’s production, which would be a full year. Companies like Wisconsin Power & Light, who operate Bent Tree Wind Farm, have to report by Feb. 1 their production levels to the state. He said it’s likely much more than the $55,000 the county received from 2010 production.

“I could try to proj-ect, but we don’t know what we’re going to get,” Kluever said.

The funding from the tax goes straight into the county’s general fund, and Kluever said it would be up to county com-missioners to allocate the funding to anything specific. Since the county still hasn’t received a full year of funding, he said it will likely be a future conversation for the commissioners.

The amount counties and the townships get could also change from year to year. Kluever said that since wind farms are built in windy areas there will likely always be some production, but some years could be more or less windy than others. It could also depend on how much energy is needed, like if there’s a cool summer one year the turbines may not be needed as much as another year.

Kluever said since the funding may vary, it will be difficult for budgeting over the next 25 years,

which is the length the wind farm is contracted to be in the county. Kluever said he tends to budget low for revenues and high for expenditures when he works on the budget each December. He said it’s also possible the state could change the funding formula for how much counties and townships would receive, but that would take legislative action.

Kluever also said that while any funding is always good for the county, even if the county gets something like $400,000, it would be a small percentage of its multi-million dollar bud-get. For townships, fund-ing from this production tax will make a much different impact. Town-ships like Manchester and Hartland could po-tentially get funding that may more than double their budgets.

Bent Tree has 122 turbines and is capable of producing up to 201 megawatts of energy, enough to power 50,000 homes. It is Wisconsin Power & Light’s second owned and operated wind farm. The first is Cedar Ridge Wind Farm, a 68-megawatt wind farm in Fond du Lac County in Wisconsin. It became operational in December 2008.

Madison, Wis.-based Wisconsin Power & Light is a subsidiary of Alliant Energy.

— Kelli Lageson

Late 2010: Bent Tree Wind Farm becomes operational.

Spring 2010: Construction on Bent Tree Wind Farm begins.

June 2011: Freeborn County receives about $65,000 from the 2010 production tax on Bent Tree Wind Farm, and 20 percent of that was distributed to Manchester and Hartland townships.

February 2012: Bent Tree Wind Farm reports to the state how much production it had in 2011.

June 2012: Possible time when the county and affected townships will receive their portion of the production tax from the wind farm’s 2011 production.

Timeline

A turbine is installed at Bent Tree Wind Farm in

2010. — Ashley Stewart

How much will we get?

PROGRESS 2012 Sunday, February 26, 2012 • Albert Lea Tribune • Page 3

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Before joining the Albert Lea FFA, Robin Viktora was

the quiet girl in a corner only concerned with her schoolwork.

Now, three years into the program, Viktora leads the chapter as the first female president in junior standing.

“I’ve learned to come out of my shell,” Viktora said. “I was terrified of speaking in front of people. Absolutely terri-fied to the point I didn’t want to come to school when we had to give a speech.”

Last year through FFA, Viktora took second place in public speaking and went on to compete at the state level.

“I can talk in front of people, and it doesn’t phase me anymore,” Vik-tora said. “It’s amazing.”

Albert Lea FFA Ad-viser Kim Meyer said the program has a lot of activities to offer, and it is up to the students to get involved.

“You get out of FFA what you put in,” Meyer said. “Just by paying dues you aren’t going to gain leadership.”

In 1988, FFA changed its name from Future Farmers of America to National FFA Organization.

“You don’t have to be a farmer to join because in Albert Lea we’d prob-ably have five members,” Viktora said. “It’s about leadership now and it helps you out in life. You become such a better person.”

As word spreads that it is a leadership program and not just for farm-ers, Albert Lea’s FFA has continued to grow in

numbers. Viktora said this year there are about 70 members, roughly 20 more than last year.

Meyer picked Viktora as a model for the leader-ship that can be gained.

“I saw her as a shy freshman girl going into class,” Meyer said. “I see her now as a dynamic junior leading the whole chapter.”

Besides running the chapter’s meetings, Viktora has managed the FFA food stand at the Freeborn County Fair, was in charge of volun-teers during the national Red Power Roundup Show last summer, served as chairwoman of the fruit sales committee, took first in fruit sales by selling more than $2,000 worth, served on the state nomination com-mittee and is currently on the ag sales team.

“Once I do something, I just want to get to the top,” Viktora said. “That’s my attitude on everything.”

She said in order to keep up with the work-load of FFA and get straight A’s in school, she makes sure to stay orga-nized through the use of an agenda and calendar.

“I love being in charge,” Viktora said. “This is really good be-cause FFA is pretty much leadership now, and I get to a chance to put all those skills to work. I’m not good at sports so I finally have something I’m good at.”

Meyers agrees FFA is her niche.

“Robin’s personal growth from a ninth-grader has been tremen-dous,” he said. “She’s passionate, and I think

students who are pas-sionate about it surface to the top.”

The chapter as a whole has gained and shown their leadership in many ways. Examples of their involvement include attending camps, selling fruit, adopting a high-way, giving farm tours to third-graders and doing a corn drive.

The corn drive is done during harvest season as a fundraiser. Farm-ers are asked to donate corn and then the corn is sold to an elevator. This year, the chapter raised $16,000. Some of the money is used to help people in need. This year they donated to two charities, Camp Courage and Camp Friendship, and adopted two families from the Salvation Army for Christmas. Viktora said they’re always look-ing for more places to donate to.

The fundraising also helps to cut costs for the programs and activities the FFA members par-ticipate in.

“Mr. Meyer is great with covering stuff so it’s affordable for everyone,” Viktora said. “It’s from fundraising but he’s great at keeping us going.”

Something that has pushed Meyer to con-tinue as an adviser is his belief in agriculture being the most important industry.

He said by producing leaders in agriculture, it can pretty much be guar-anteed that the food sup-ply will always be healthy and safe to consume.

In regards to leader-ship, Meyer said, “It’s not an overnight deal.”

— Brandi Hagen

Robin Viktora is the 2011-12 president of Albert Lea’s FFA chapter. Viktora is the first female in junior standing to become president in the chapter’s history. — Brandi Hagen and Stacey Bahr

Leaders

leadersbreed

The exhibitions in the 4-H building at the Free-born County fair have been the most visible dis-play of 4-H’s engagement of the youth in Freeborn County. Participants compete in a variety of categories ranging from showing beef to craft-work. During the last few years, the number of available project catego-ries has been expanding. Many of the new catego-ries are spin-offs of other combined categories, products of newfound interest or opportunities to incorporate more tech-nology into the program.

“Whenever there is enough interest, we add something new,” said county 4-H coordinator, Amy Wadding. “Some of the newer categories include scrapbook-ing, llama showing and robotics.”

Malory Mattson, 16, is a sophomore at the Alden-Conger school. She has been involved in 4-H since second grade, and she decided to join because her father used to be involved with the program when he was younger.

“I look forward to participating in 4-H every summer,” Mattson said. “My favorite part is showing my cattle at the county and state fair.”

Mattson has competed in many categories, in-cluding beef and swine. In fact, she was the grand champion at the Minne-sota State Fair in 2010 in the dairy beef category. In addition to showing beef and swine, Mattson now also competes in the scrapbooking category.

“Scrapbook was added as a new project cat-egory this past year,” said Wadding. “It used to be combined with another category, but because there was enough interest in it, we made it its own category. However, it’s still a very small catego-ry; there are only about 10 participants in it.”

Mattson started her scrapbook two years ago, and so far she has com-pleted 86 pages.

“I got the idea to start scrapbooking when I went to my cousin’s graduation open house,” Mattson said. “She had a scrapbook full of her sports pictures and school work. I thought it would be cool to start one for my 4-H because that’s what I live for. And if I start now, I won’t have to try to scrapbook 10 years worth of work at one time.”

Mattson and the other participants in the category compete at the Freeborn County fair by bringing their scrapbooks to the judging table. Then they are asked a series of questions including how it was made and which part of the scrapbooking process was the hardest and which part was their favorite.

“For me, the hardest part is picking out col-ors,” Mattson said. “I’m really anal about what matches and making sure each page is unique. My favorite part is shopping for all the supplies and seeing the page when it’s done.”

The next judging for the scrapbooking cat-egory is in August at the Freeborn County Fair.

Tirzah Larson, 11, is a fifth-grader at Alden-Conger school. She has been involved in 4-H since she was a kinder-gartner. She joined after moving from Alden to Conger in order to make some new friends. Lar-son’s favorite part about

4-H is participating in her project category: llamas.

“I like the costume part of showing llamas the best,” Larson said. “You get to pick a theme, and you and your llama dress up at the Freeborn County Fair. It’s a fun category.”

Besides the costume aspect of showing lla-mas, each participant and their llama must also score well in pub-lic relations, obstacles, inspection and overall showmanship.

“Public relations is when you bring your llama from the farm to a populated area and how it reacts to the public, the sounds, the people and petting it,” Larson said.

During the obstacles course, the llama has to walk around swimming pool noodles, jump over logs and a variety of other small obstacles.

“One time when I was riding my llama through the obstacle course, her halter slipped and I fell off into the swimming pool we were walking around,” Larson said. “It wasn’t too bad since that was probably one of the hottest days in the summer.”

Larson started show-ing llamas out of a shared interest in them between her and her uncle. She has two llamas, Dolly and Packy. One llama lives on her uncle’s farm, the other lives on a farm just outside of Albert Lea.

There are 17 other people that show llamas at the Freeborn County

Fair along with Larson and according to Wad-ding, the participant pool is continuing to grow every year.

Austin Attig, 11, is also a student at the Alden-Conger School. Attig is one of 15 participants in the newest 4-H project categories: robotics.

“As robotics becomes more popular, there will definitely be more kids joining,” Wadding said.

Attig joined 4-H two years ago along with a number of his friends. His favorite part about the program is participat-ing in all of the activities and having something to do over the summer. In the past, Attig has had exhibitions in forestry, photography, canned goods, vegetables and fruits. His current focus, however, is robotics.

“I’m really into science and I’m also into Legos,” Attig said. “I noticed that by adding a motor and battery boxes to things I could build out of Lego kits, I could make them do different things. Ever since then I’ve been building stuff and show-ing them at the Freeborn County Fair.”

One of the rules in the robotics category is that the participant’s creation must have the ability to move. Previous projects range from Ferris wheels to monster trucks. Some projects are remote con-trolled while others have controls built onto them and many are born out of starter kits from brands like Lego NXT Brick.

“The project I showed

last year was called the Excavator,” Attig said. “I built it out of a Lego kit. After showing it, I took it apart and built 150 new creations out of it. The one that I’m showing this year is the Unimog 400 model, but I just call it the Big Car.”

Projects like those cre-ated by Mattson, Larson

and Attig and many oth-ers will be on exhibition at the Freeborn County Fair in August. Although they have opportunities to show their work in special clubs or science fairs, the county fair is where their hard work and creativity gets the most recognition.

— Nya Lony


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May: Deadline to have animals identified for county fair.

March: This month includes a Dad’s Belgian waffle breakfast and the winter retreat for 4-H members.

June: Animal training for county fair begins.

July 31-Aug. 5: Projects on display at Freeborn County Fair.

September: State fair general exhibitions.

Timeline

Tirzah Larson shows her project poster about llamas that she presented at the Freeborn County Fair in 2011.

Tirzah Larson is holding a variety of products made of llama fur. She also displayed these with her poster in 2011.

Austin Attig poses for a photo with a Unimog 400, his project for the Freeborn County Fair this summer.

Malory Mattson holds up her scrapboook, which is opened to her favorite page. The spread is a display of the photos from when she was the dairy beef grand champion at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. — Nya Lony

4-H’ers enjoy new categories

You want to own a clean car, right?

Curtis Smith wants you to, too.

Smith, the owner of Red Carpet Car Wash in Albert Lea, is as pas-sionate about keeping his own car clean as his customers’. So when he purchased the company in 2003, he bought an automatic washer within three years and did away with the old method of manually washing and waxing cars – allowing his customers 24-hour service.

Smith said Red Carpet washes about 16,000 cars a year but is hoping to hit 22,000 in the future, a number the company closed in on before Smith bought it and there was less competition.

“I’d like to wash every car in town,” said Smith,

who also owns Arrow Printing and is a partner owner of Skyline Plaza. “We’re always looking to grow.”

Red Carpet is not only a car wash, but does complete detailing and tinting, too. At Smith’s right hand is Matt Rahn, a six-year employee who manages the business. Rahn leads the car detail-ing and is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to making Red Carpet run.

Smith said there are some people in town who will only let Rahn touch their car.

“Matt has detailed his whole life,” he said. “A lot of people say when the car’s done, it looks brand new. I’ve never heard a complaint about him.”

Red Carpet details up to two cars per day, but no more. Smith

said it takes eight man hours to do a complete detail, which includes shampooing the floor mats, carpets and seats, cleaning the dash and windows, and removing the air vents and cleaning them, too.

“Anything you see when you open the car door is clean,” Smith said.

When a car’s inte-rior is done, Rahn buffs, polishes and waxes its exterior.

Smith said Red Carpet details about 750 cars per year but no more than two a day because he doesn’t want to compro-mise quality for speed.

“Could we do more? Yes,” Smith said. “But we’re very thorough and don’t take shortcuts.”

Car washing and de-tailing is not a need for

most families, but Smith said Red Carpet did not take a hit when the economy did.

“When we saw $3 a gallon gas, we thought there goes the car wash,” he said. “But there’s something about a clean car. Business has been very steady.”

While Red Carpet’s detailing isn’t rushed, its car wash is, but Smith said that’s what makes his company stand out from its competitors.

Cars are automatically pulled through the car wash from start to finish in just a few minutes. The washer’s automatic teller accepts cash, credit and debit cards and Red Car-pet’s tokens. The line into the wash moves quickly because it can fit five cars on its track at a time.

“We’re the only 4G car

wash in town,” Smith joked. “In this day in age, everybody wants speed.”

Red Carpet’s washer was installed in the summer of 2006 and cost $155,000. Another $100,000 was spent on improvement to the site and to accommodate the new equipment, including a 96-foot long tunnel.

“We tried to spare no expense,” Smith said. “It would have been nice to have another $50-80,000, but it’s just like building a house. After the fact you think of a few things you would have done differently.”

Red Carpet’s customers have wash choices that range from $5 to $12. Smith said its $9 wash is the most popular because its sells wash tokens for $6 in counts of 10. He

also donates tokens to fundraisers. Red Carpet’s $12 was is the only one that includes hot wax within 100 miles, accord-ing to Smith.

Smith sees a spike in his customers in the winter because it’s too cold to wash cars by hand. He said he aver-ages about 1,500 cars in the winter and 1,000 in the summer.

Red Carpet also does overflow detailing for Dave Syverson Ford, cleans police squad cars and has wash plans with about 20 businesses, which receive washes by punching a code and are billed monthly.

“Those businesses have the cleanest cars, trucks and vans in town,” Smith said. “You know they’re customers of mine.

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The cloth inside Red Carpet Car Wash’s automated washer is made of lamb’s wool.

Owner Curtis Smith said his company is one of two washers in Albert Lea with cloth but

the only that uses lamb’s wool.

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If you weren’t looking for it, you’d probably miss the building

labeled “ServiceMaster Clean” while driving down Front Street. The business provides many cleaning and restoration services for both residen-tial and commercial prop-erties in Albert Lea and the surrounding areas.

“We do just about any type of cleaning service that someone would need,” said co-owner, Tim Smick.

Smick has been work-ing at ServiceMaster for 24 years. Fifteen years ago, Smick and Craig Diegnau began a busi-ness venture as owners of a ServiceMaster Clean. They bought out the previous owner of the Fairmont office who also happened to be Smick’s father-in-law. Smick and his partner began slowly expanding, eventually annexing the Albert Lea office in 2007. Both sites combined cover about 80 miles along Interstate 90. They employ five full-time and six part-time employees.

“We don’t have plans to continue expanding right now,” Smick said. “We cover a large area of southern Minnesota, and sometimes we even get calls from Iowa.”

Smick has been work-

ing at ServiceMaster for 24 years. He and Dieg-nau started their busi-ness venture as owners 15 years ago with the Fairmont office when they bought out the previous owner who also happened to be Smick’s father-in-law. The two began slowly expanding, annexing the Albert Lea office in 2007.

ServiceMaster pro-vides many cleaning and restoration services including water/smoke/fire restoration, carpet and upholstery clean-ing, mold cleaning, odor removal and air duct cleaning.

“We get calls from peo-ple who are selling their homes or retirees who are moving, and we come in with a truck and clean the whole thing from top to bottom,” Smick.

Disaster restoration makes up a large portion of the big jobs the Ser-viceMaster Professionals do around the area.

“We did a lot of clean-ing after the tornadoes in the summer of 2010,” Smick said. “There was water restoration to be done, windows and a variety of other cleaning jobs. And last year we did a lot of ice dam clean outs. ”

One of the biggest jobs Smick and his employ-

ees worked was at the Gateway Computer plant on Sioux City, Iowa. The environment in which the computer parts were being packaged and as-sembled had to be free of dust. The ServiceMaster Professionals had to do a lot of high vacuuming throughout the entire plant.

“We do a couple of big jobs every once in a while, but most of what

we do is day-to-day cleaning,” Smick said.

ServiceMaster Clean offer its services Monday through Friday, but also provides 24-hour emer-gency services.

“We get a call and we come out right away,” Smick said.

— Nya Lony

1988: Smick began working for his father-in-law at the ServiceMaster in Fairmont.

1982: The property at Front Street became a ServiceMaster Clean.

1997: Smick and Diegnau became owners of the ServiceMaster Clean office in Fairmont.

2007: They bought the Albert Lea site at 308 W. Front St.

Timeline

Tim Smick poses for a photo in front of one

of the vans used for cleaning and restora-

tion. — Nya Lony

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Tribune staff cover a wide range of business and industry news

in a year.

Hy-Vee dietitian Amy Pleimling talks about the benefits of “super foods” with customer Sheri Hird last February.

Waitstaff at Green Mill get into the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day.

Contractors install red siding on the new Randy Cirkensa State Farm barn, 324 E. William St., in January.

General Manager Brad Wermedal in front of the new Arnold’s of Alden. Arnold’s is a Case International Harvestor dealership at 110 North Star Road.

Noel Hagen explains to hairstylist Jenna Jo-hanson how she wants her hair cut at Classic Reflections Salon & Spa. The employees were decked out in Vikings garb. Even the capes were purple.

Trice and Trevor Studier of Glenville stand next to a wall of wine and liquor in May at East Side Liquor.

People peruse silent auction items for the annual banquet for the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce in October at Wedgewood Cove Golf Club.

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U.S. Sen Amy Klobuchar examines a box during a tour this month at Minnesota Corrugated Box. Next to her is Albert Lea Mayor Vern Rasmussen.

U.S. Sen. Al Franken speaks with Poet Glenville ethanol plant manager Rick Mummert in April while the farmer owners of the plant and Franken staff mingle during a brief tour of the facility.

Customers pile into Shopko at midnight for the early Black Friday sale. All staff at Shopko were working that day one shift or another.

House District 27A Rep. Rich Murray, bottom left, REG President Daniel Oh and Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce Director

Randy Kehr, along with Chamber Ambassadors and others cut a ribbon in September for the re-opening of the former SoyMor biodiesel plant.

Kathryn Tunheim, adviser to Gov. Mark Dayton, spoke in January at Wedgewood Cove Golf Club at the annual Greater Jobs luncheon.

Mike and Amy Cooper were seen at events through the summer in their new Papa Murphy’s pizza trailer.

Jaden Anderson, left, and Makayla Hansen sell lem-onade on Grand Avenue in Albert Lea last June.

Dentist Rachel Nolander holds a model of teeth and gums in September at Advanced Fam-ily Dental in the Professional Arts Building. She purchased the practice from Robert Harold on Sept. 1.

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz and Innovance CEO Mike Larson listen to Innovance Business Development Manager Doug Olson.

Lily Morales, right, holds a bottle for a calf in September during a tour of the dairy farm of John and Dick Miller in Oakland.

Valerie Kvale, a placement and marketing spe-cialist with Workforce Development, explains a computer program to Albert Lea resident Darik Weitzel in October.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton listens to the chairman of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, Doug Olson, in July, a day before he agreed to a budget deal to end a state shutdown.


1851 Margaretha Ave.Albert Lea, MN 56007

(507) 373-3375

• On site design facility• Experienced professional sales group• Graphic intensive POP solutions• Variable run quantities of corrugated cartons and inner-packing• Extensive Min/Max or JIT Inventory programs

Custom corrugatecapabilities include:

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Call today for a detailed brochure or 2012 mailer507-529-8687 Rochester, MN. 1-866-277-8687

• South Dakota

Our hotel is on Time Square

Washington, DC..............April 14-21...................$1159• Guided tour of Gettysburg• Gettysburg Battlefi eld• Guided city tour of D.C.• National Cathedral• Arlington National Cemetery• Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

• The White House• Ford’s Theatre• Petersen House• Kennedy Center

• World War II• Vietnam Wall• Korean • Iwo Jima• Lincoln • Roosevelt

• Holocaust Museum• Smithsonian’s

Canadian Rockies..........July 7-15.......................$1519

Mystery Tour...................May 2-6...........................$699New York City, NY.........May 20-26.....................$1299

Northwest Circle............July 21-August 3.........$2099

John Deere-Moline........March 29-31...................$329John Deere-Waterloo.....April 5-6.........................$149

Passion Play.....................June 7-15.........................$659

St Louis, MO...................August 16-19..................$599

• Liberty State Park

• Empire State Building

• Ellis Island

• Pocono Mountains

• Ground Zero• Guided tour of New York

• Ferry Ride• Wall Street• Central Park• Midtown• Time Square

• United Nation’s Building

• Lower Manhattan• Rockefeller Center

• Broadway show • Flight 93 National Memorial• and a whole lot more!

• Statue of Liberty

• Mackinac Island • New England• Norsk Hostfest • 4 - Branson Christmas

All of our tours depart from: La Crosse, Winona, Lewiston, St Charles, Rochester, Dexter, Austin, and Albert Lea. (Some tours will also load in Sparta, Tomah and Mauston WI.)

Allweather Roof is one of only four commercial roofing contractors in North

America to receive both Firestone’s Master Contractor Award and Inner Circle of Quality Award every year since the inception of these

programs 25 years ago. These prestigious awards are maintained by our commitment

to exceptional craftsmanship and long-term quality.

Allweather Roof offers a no-cost roof inspec-tion with a written analysis. Whether you

have a roof leak or need a total replacement, please give us a call.

percent, the unemployment rate for Freeborn County, as of December 2011. The state posted 5.7 percent.

percent of the Freeborn County population that speaks English at a level less than “very well.”

square feet in industrial buildings managed by the Albert Lea Economic Devel-opment Agency.

square feet in industrial build-ings managed by the Albert Lea Economic Development Agency available for rent.

acres in industrial parks the Albert Lea Economic Develop-ment Agency available has avail-able for sale.

acres in industrial parks the Albert Lea Economic Develop-ment Agency oversees.

minutes, the mean travel time to work in Freeborn County.

percent of the Freeborn County population age 24 or older with a high school diploma.

percent of the Freeborn County population that is of working age.

5.9

2.6295,00070,000

265485

18

48

57.1people in the labor force in Freeborn County.

dollars equaling the average weekly wage for workers in Freeborn County. The state average is $899.

16,674626

Numbers from Minnesota Depart-ment of Employ-ment and Economic Development and from the Albert Lea Economic Develop-ment Agency.


we interview, train, assess and screen candidates every day who are ready to begin their new career path.

Northbridge Mall • 2564 Bridge Avenue • Albert Lea507-377-7410 • www.us.manpower.com

18 Hole Championship Golf Course

The Wedgewood Restaurant & The Cove Bar & Grill banquet facility seats up to 450 people for

weddings, meetings and parties2200 W. 9th St, Albert Lea, MN 56007

507-373-2007

www.wedgewoodcove.com

By the numbers

Freeborn County industry

dollars of gross sales gener-ated by the food process-ing industry in Freeborn County in 2009.dollars of gross sales generat-ed by the sales of automobiles and parts in Freeborn County in 2009.dollars of gross sales generated by retail sales that occurred at gas stations in Freeborn County in 2009.

dollars of gross sales gener-ated through crop produc-tion agricul-ture in Free-born County in 2009.

dollars of gross sales gener-ated through businesses that support agriculture in 2009.

dollars of gross sales gener-ated through utilities in Freeborn County in 2009.

dollars of gross sales gener-ated through metal fabrica-tion in Free-born County in 2009.

dollars of gross sales gener-ated by the sale of build-ing materials in Freeborn County in 2009.

dollars of gross sales gener-ated at food and beverage stores in Free-born County in 2009.

dollars of gross sales of cloth-ing and cloth-ing accessories in Freeborn County in 2009. dollars of gross sales of furni-ture in Free-born County in 2009.

dollars of gross sales at restau-rants and bars in Freeborn County in 2009.

dollars of gross sales gener-ated by the manufacture of wood prod-ucts in Free-born County in 2009.

dollars of sales and use taxes collected from Free-born County businesses in 2009.

dollars of gross sales of gen-eral merchan-dise in Free-born County in 2009.

212,775,675

125,060,592

104,177,416

19,045,939

14,179,994

57,716,033

67,494,175

67,570,449

58,958,729

10,714,043

11,652,08931,377,5009,062,495

17,623,421

70,123,593

— Tim Engstrom

Numbers from Minnesota Depart-ment of Revenue. The sectors repre-sented are only some among dozens of sectors the department tracks.


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Alamco Wood Products, LLC. is a manufacturer ofenvironmentally-friendly structurally glued laminated

timber beams and arches for many uses.

1410 W. 9th St., Albert Lea, MN 56007507-373-1401 • Fax: 507-373-8166 • 877-679-9663

Visit us at www.alamcowood.com

We are a success thanks to

our employees!

Office Department

Glue Department

Day Finishing Department

Night Finishing Department

Lumber Stores Department

Lumber Prep Department

Maintenaince Department

Edgewater Pavilion

Progress 2012 Agriculture & Industry

Documents

ethanol plant

percent of ethanol

ethanol industry

glenville plant

ethanol pipelines

mn hwy

corn crop

cellulosic ethanol facility