Owatonna...Oweee..!! I love this Town!..I been here since 1997! I came here when I was six years old and as I was growing up I discovered so much from this town. This place use to be lame, now we have hot spots to hang out and be with friends and family. I am so happy we have our first Somali restaurant. It is great because, we as Muslims do not have to worry about if a food product contains some kind of pork because, pork is not allowed in my religion. I am also happy about the water park because, West hills as a lame ass pool. I am glad to been here throughout all the changes. Sucks, though because, I am leaving to Mankato for college. It is OK thought because, I know I will come back here in there future and I will be more proud to see more changes =). All in all I am grateful for what Owatonna has to offer!
Owatonna has definitely made tons of changes throughout the century. We have expanded in population and business. As a whole we are booming to a better and brighter future. I feel as though, Owatonna might become a huge city one day!
We use to have an old Hy vee in Owatonna, but new we have a bigger and better Hy vee. The plan came about 2007 and the project ended this year of March. This new Hy vee is a third bigger then the old Hy vee. Director of Hy vee Max Dains said "the new store is 72,000 square feet, a 48,000 square-foot box. " Dains said he also hired an extra 150 people and will be hiring more later on in the year. Wow! thats amazing, because it took a lot to make this new Hy vee and now they are hiring extra people. Looks like Hy vee as a brighter future. They are also planning on building a gas station. I retrieved my information from http://www.owatonna.com/news.php?viewStory=32640
Jostens and Federated Owatonna's biggest employers. I thought Viracon was? Dave Strand, Owatonna Development Director said that even though we are in a recession some businesses in Owatonna are growing and expanding. Dan sayner with SPX Corporation (10 years of woking with SPX) was asked since there is cutbacks on manufatucring will SPX close in Owatonna close in the future? He said "There are never any guarantees given how rapidly our market can change, but our Owatonna operations are SPX’s only remaining manufacturing sites for automotive-related products in North America. This is too large of a market to abandon or underserve our customers. As long as we remain flexible and competitive, we have an investment here in Owatonna that makes good business sense"........Wow! I did not realize Owatonna was doing well with ther busniesses. All my information was provided by http://www.owatonnadevelopment.com/business/documents/44020_GrowingOwatonna_prf.pdf
