Produced in Staples Members of the Staples Economic Development Authority (SEDA) board toured the three businesses currently housed in the Staples Industrial Building on August 25. One of them was Tom Dunrud's Accura Tool and Engineering, where Dunrud (second from left) explained the type of molds and other products his firm produces. The group also toured Widmer and Associates and PCM products. (Staples World photo by Tom Crawford) Members of the Staples Economic Development Authority (SEDA) last week toured three separate operations now housed in the Staples Industrial Building prior to holding their regular monthly board meeting.

SEDA members saw rubber pieces for processing sugarbeets being cut, stamped and molded at PCM Products, watched as workers used CNC machines and surface grinders to produce molds at Accura Tool and Engineering and then walked through Widmer and Associates engineering firm where a scale model of a patrol boat they are designing and planning to produce for the Navy is in the design and development stages.

Bill Paulson, from PCM (Paulson Custom Molding) described the product that he was turning out as a piece that is attached to a machine for mowing off the tops of sugar beets just prior to harvest. It was a rubber flail that has been very successful for sugar beet producers. That is just one of several rubber products his firm has developed and sold to both machinery manufacturers and individual farmers.

Paulson has only been in the building in the Staples Industrial Park for a month, with a part of his firm still in operation in rural Menahga.

Tom Dunrud, owner of Accura Tool, noted that he has been in the building for ten years. He has a variety of equipment used in the molding operations, producing molds and/or products for firms such as Minnesota snowmobile manufacturers. In recent months, that recreational market has been slower than normal due to the economic downturn. But Dunrud said he's received an order or two recently f rom snow machine makers.

Widmer, who has about four people employed as designers and draftsmen, as well as an engine mechanic, is on his second significant grant from the Navy's Offi- cer of Naval Research. The Navy recently advised him they wanted to switch from an unmanned to manned boat, meaning they had to add space for two boat operators.

He has a scale model mockup of the boat to be made using his patented thermo-plastic 'kiss-off' design that he says makes his boat unsinkable.

They have a wooden full size model of the boat that is now at a Wisconsin plant. The next big step will be actual building of the boat hull using a rotational blow molding device. There are only a handful of these machines big enough to build at 25 foot long hull. The Navy is also considering a larger boat, from 40 to 50 feet long, but so far there is not a rotational blow mold machine big enough to make one that large.

Following the tour, the EDA met for their business meeting. Among other items, the EDA board:

o APPROVED a request from Ron Riisager, owner of Liberty Machine in the Staples Industrial Park (former Widmer building) to make interest-only payments for three months on his EDA loan.

o APPROVED a request from Tom Hofius (co-owner of Giovanni's Pizza) for the EDA to release its security position on equipment in the Giovanni's Brainerd location.

o APPROVED unanimously Stan Carlson's motion to "respectfully decline" the request from the Initiative Foundation to contribute $2,100 to the IF from the city EDA. Carlson noted other funds are going to the IF from the Staples Community Foundation. "It's no reflection on how we feel about this very worthy organization," Carlson said. He has consistently questioned if this is a proper expense for the city.

o HEARD a report from Jerel Nelsen, executive director, that he found about nine of 52 apartments in four of the larger apartment complexes in the city were vacant. His unscientific survey was in response to questions last month from Carlson about his time being spent on job creation versus housing, with Carlson stating

afterward his opinion that "More efforts should be in

job creation rather than housing."

o HEARD Nelsen report on the Broadband collaborative process, the application for federal stimulus funding and other related work. The federal guidelines are changing as the grant application is being prepared, making it diffi cult to fit the guidelines; that state rules for using recent state bonding funds of $300,000 for right of way acquisition for the proposed north-south corridor have been cleared up, with significant help from State Sen. Dan Skogen; and that five downtown building-owners are working with the city's awning and facade program under the Small Cities downtown redevelopment grant. Nelsen noted Dec. 31 is the deadline for getting projects started under this plan. All awnings on the west side of the 100 block of Fourth Street will likely be coming down this fall, but the east side may take longer. With the south two blocks of Fourth Street getting dug up next summer on the Highway 10 turnback project, all the awning supports well be history.