Chamber hires strategic plan’s organizer

Published 12:00 am Friday, August 15, 2003

After interviewing three applicants to organize Albert Lea’s strategic plan, the chamber of commerce has made a choice, one which chamber President Marge Hamersly hopes will be effective and neutral in helping the city to complete the first phase of their plan.

Ed Henschel of Virchow, Krause and Co. has been hired to complete the project, at a cost of just under $40,000.

The chamber, in cooperation with other local groups, began working toward the strategic plan February. The goal is to develop a five-year plan for the community, which will be based on community input from many different resources. The plan will be policy based rather than implementation based.

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Basically, it will serve as a gauge for what the public feels is most important in moving forward.

The chamber, in a statement, said Henschel was the best candidate for that kind of plan.

Hamersly said Henschel was picked because he didn’t come into the interviews with pre-conceived notions on what the strategic plan would look like and understood that he would be the facilitator who got ideas from the public.

Virchow and Krause is a large, 900-employee company that deals mainly in accounting, but also does consulting work for companies and municipal governments.

Hamersly said Henschel comes with an experienced background in strategic planning and working with cities.

Some thought that the if the chamber were taking on the strategic planning process, they shouldn’t be afraid to spend a lot of money on it.

Henschel is expected to being working soon on the plan, along with advisers who are based out of Virchow and Krause’s Minneapolis office.

Henschel was unavailable for comment at press time.

(Contact Peter Cox at peter.cox @albertleatribune.com or 379-3439.)