From Staff Reports Austin Daily Herald.

Tuesday, November 16, 1999

From Staff Reports

Austin Daily Herald

According to the Star Tribune, the Mayo Clinic announced Monday that it will donate up to $7 million for housing starts, in an employer-assisted housing project, in a 30 mile radius around Rochester. This leaves Mower County just outside the scope of the project, which will help build 875 starter homes in Fillmore, Olmsted, Goodhue, Dodge, Winona and Wabasha counties.

This is a great move on the part of the Mayo Clinic, which is constantly hiring new people from all over the world. Without adequate housing, it is hard to sell a location, and in this worker’s market, it takes more than just a job to bring someone to town.

Austin and Mower County can hope that our branch of the Mayo Clinic – the Austin Medical Center - will get involved in the housing shortage here in the same fashion. And let them be only the first to take such a step. Once upon a time, Hormel built homes for its burgeoning workforce here. Perhaps it is time for employers such as QPP and even Riverland to invest in housing for the kind of employees it would like to attract.