Our research showed that a significant amount of people were planning to shop later in the season. That attributed to continued increase in sales through Christmas and the weekend after.

Apparel retailers were showing strong double-digit increases over last year. Jewelry retailers also showed strong sales,

He showed improvement all season long and that paid off with a trip to the state tournament.

The fact that it came up during strategic planning, we decided to research it further.

We need this planning grant so we can do the research we need to do to prepare a thorough application for permits we need to build this new facility. The grant will help us develop our plans to the point where we can answer the community's questions.

We envision it to be a center for research and life planning that people from all over the state will take as a model and replicate. We are really excited about the project.