Carrie Moritz, Gazette
On Monday, July 22, Chris Fields officially stepped into the Economic Development Coordinator position for Garretson.
Fields, who is employed with Sioux Metro Growth Alliance (SMGA), will be in Garretson to help facilitate economic growth for the community and further the aims of the Economic Development Board.
SMGA president Tyler Tordsen and Member Relations Specialist Bryce Healy had met with the City Council in closed session in June, and at July's regular meeting, the council approved a $45,000 subsidy to the Economic Development Board to contract with SMGA for the position.
Fields will answer to the Economic Development Board, and will work to facilitate communication between the Board and the City.
He splits his time between Garretson and Salem, another community that has contracted with SMGA for economic development services. Fields will normally be in Garretson on Mondays and Wednesdays, Salem on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at the SMGA offices on Fridays.
Fields originally hails from the Kansas City, Kansas area, and moved to Sioux Falls in 2016. He attended University of Kansas for a degree in Political Science, and later obtained a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He and his wife have a family of five children between the ages of 2 and 17, which he called a beautiful, blended family. He and his wife lead a group at their church focused on blended families, so others, he said, "understand that there's other people who are blended [and] going through the same things."
He started with SMGA in January of this year, and trained with Ryan Solberg, an employee of SMGA who was hired when Lincoln County Economic Development (LCEDA) and Minnehaha County Economic Development (MCEDA) merged and joined SMGA back in 2021. Fields began with Salem under Solberg at the end of February, and said up until he took on Garretson, he had become the de facto SMGA events coordinator, a job duty he will now be delegating to other SMGA employees. He loves event planning, but does not foresee that being a piece of his job duties in Garretson.
"My job is really to just help facilitate growth, take care of the administrative duties of the boards of directors," he said. This means hunting for, and communicating with, potential new businesses, industries, and employers, or other large projects, such as housing developments and bike trails.
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