Terry, Erickson vie for Brainerd Ward 1
- by Brainerd Dispatch
- Oct 13, 2024
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October 13, 2024 at 2:57 PM
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BRAINERD — Kara Terry and Tad Erickson are running for the Ward 1 seat on Brainerd City Council.
Ward 1 includes the southwestern portion of Brainerd, covering primarily the area south of Washington Street/Highway 210 between the Mississippi River and South Sixth Street. The ward also includes the area south of Willow Street and north of Wright Street, up to the trail on the eastern side of Bane Park.
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Terry is the incumbent, running for her first full term after having been elected in 2022 to finish up the last two years of the term vacated by Dave Pritschet upon his resignation.
Erickson served on the City Council from 2019 through 2022, after having been appointed in 2019 to fill the vacancy left by Sue Hilgart upon her resignation. He was then elected in 2020 to finish out the final two years of Hilgart’s term. Instead of seeking re-election two years ago, Erickson put in a bid for Crow Wing County Board, falling to incumbent Steve Barrows in District 3.
Kara Terry
After just under two years on the Brainerd City Council, Kara Terry feels like she has more to offer her community.
Kara Terry
“I haven’t had a chance to do all I can for the community yet, it doesn’t feel like,” Terry said during an interview Oct. 3. “I’ve got more to give.”
The work she has done so far includes a mental health initiative to support emergency personnel like police officers, firefighters and first responders, many of whom, she noted, can develop post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms related to their work.
“There’s this whole, ‘You’ve got to be a tough firefighter or police officer’ persona that kind of makes it difficult for them to seek help,” she said. “So I’m proud to have helped put that into place.”
She’s also proud to see John Davis step into the role of police chief, which he took over following the retirement of Mike Bestul last year.
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“He has made such a positive impact, not only on the department itself, but also in the community,” Terry said of Davis. “He partners so well with different entities, not only in the city, but across the county.”
Other work over the past two years Terry pointed to is working with the Parks Board to budget and plan for the future of the city’s parks, along with a variety of street projects in Ward 1 and the opening of new businesses, like Dunkin’.
Looking at the next four years, Terry is focused on housing and economic development. She hopes to see the redevelopment project through at the old Thrifty White building downtown. The project is called Eight05 Laurel and includes plans to turn the property into a 78-unit apartment complex, complete with commercial space and underground parking. She’d also like to look at rehabilitation opportunities on older houses to keep them as viable options and then figure out how to bring contractors into Brainerd to construct new homes.
“Not only single-family, but apartments as well,” she said. “We just have such a significant shortage of housing that it impacts people coming here because there’s no place for them to live.”
The city has opportunities, she said, to partner with organizations like Minnesota Housing, the Housing and Redevelopment Authority and other state and local grant programs. While there can sometimes be controversy around terms like “affordable housing” or “workforce housing,” Terry said her focus is to look at what the specific needs are in Brainerd.
“What we know is that rents are very expensive, rentals are hard to find, first-time home buyers are struggling,” she said. “So how do we get past the terms, or the terminology, and just actually assess what it is that we need and work with developers to make that happen.”
While Terry said she doesn’t have all the answers on housing, she’s looking forward to working with people like HRA Director Eric Charpentier and former City Administrator Jennifer Bergman, who now serves as director of Local Government Housing programs for the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
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She also wants to continue supporting small businesses in Brainerd and entice new businesses to start up in the city. She pointed to the council’s recently created central business district incentive policy, which essentially expands the 2019 River to Rails initiatives and offers incentives for new businesses to come into certain commercial districts.
Terry said she is excited to continue working with the Brainerd Area Economic Development Corporation and Visit Brainerd to draw in more businesses to the downtown area.
“We’ve got some amazing stores down there, and so how do we entice other businesses to come into our community?” she said. “And again, that comes down to housing, though, and day care and bringing in new folks to our community.”
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