New York Mills, MN

I want to thank everyone who came to our Round Table discussion last week.  I think we had about 20 participants to discuss leadership, volunteerism, and youth involvement.  It was a great discussion with the ultimate goal of deciding on an action item for the Volunteer and Leadership Future Squads to work on.  We needed something tangible (like a Community Garden or Farmer’s Market).  After some awesome brainstorming, it was decided to form a youth council.  I don’t have all of the specifics (Victoria gathered all of the sheets from that night and I’m sure will be adding an entry here soon) but the Youth Council will plan activities for kids to participate in.

 Again, thanks to everyone who participated in the Round Table discussion.  It was a very energizing night!

Please join us for a Round Table Discussion focusing on these topics:

Leadership ~ Volunteerism ~ Youth Involvement

Thursday, April 3 – 6:30 to 8:30 pm @ the NYM City Hall Ballroom

Everyone is invited!   Please RSVP horizonsteam@gmail.com.

Sponsored by the Horizons Team Volunteerism & Leadership Future Squads

If you have questions, please call 385-2436 or email jadams@newyorkmills.lib.mn.us.

We want YOU to join us for a Round Table Discussion focusing on these topics: 

Volunteers–how do we get them and keep them? 

Leaders—how does a leader become a leader? 

Youth—how do we get them involved? 

We want to hear from you on what works and what doesn’t.  We want you to share with others your ideas on how we continue to make our community strong. 

When: Thursday, April 3 – 6:30 to 8:30 pm 

Where: NYM City Hall Ballroom 

Snacks & refreshments will be provided

Free childcare available provided by certified babysitters 

Spread the word–everyone is invited!

Reminder to all involved with in the Leadership and Volunteerism Future Squads:

We will meet on Monday, March 10, at 4 :30 pm, in the NYM Public Library Meeting Room. 

We will be discussing plans for the Round Table Discussion to be held on April 3.  More information to follow soon with more details.

Horizons Meeting
Monday, February 11, 2008, 5:30 pm,
NYM High School Media Center

Present: Pat Fredley, Lori Rothstein, Julie Adams, Lynn Kasma, Pam Robinson, Janet Malone, Heather Cassidy, Elise Korentayer, Karen Oelschlager, Pat Buerkle, Victoria McWane-Creek, Kevin Cederstrom, Connie Warner, Bill Warner, Todd Cameron, Michelle Helmeke, Beverly Backstrom

Meeting began at 5:40 pm, Todd Cameron welcomed everyone.

Because Pat Fredley had to leave the meeting early, the Economy Future Squad report was moved up in the agenda. Pat reported that the Economy Future Squad has three new members and met two weeks ago. They met with Dallas Flynn from the Detroit Lakes Farmers Market. He gave them information on grants, an outline on how to set up a Farmers Market, etc. Their goal is to have the Farmers Market up and running mid-to-late summer. They have 3 more meetings scheduled, the next one being February 18, 10 am, at Subway. Their main goal will be to find a location and to find 4 or 5 committed vendors. They are writing a grant for signage.

Lori Rothstein gave an overview of the Horizons program.

The minutes from the last Horizons Team meeting on Friday, January 11, 2008 were reviewed.

Todd and Lori gave information on the financial structure and the process for allocating funds. There is $1,729.03 in the account, $1,500 of which is the first part of the $10,000 Northwest Area Foundation grant to be used for the final Work Plan. The remaining $8,500 is coming later. The $2,000 in Barrier Elimination Funds is expected soon. Lynn Kasma also reported that a $1,000.00 grant in conjunction with Youth Service Day was received. This grant will be administered through IMPACT to be used for the Community Garden by the Quality of Life Future Squad. Todd said there is a one page requisition form for Future Squad members to use when requesting funds. All allotments will be signed off by the Horizons Team.

Different aspects of marketing the Horizons program were discussed. Lynn will be organizing a booth for the Trade Show coming up on March 29th. Victoria McWane-Creek handed out copies of the brochure she put together. After discussing how many to print and for what reason, it was decided that Victoria will look into getting a modified quote. Julie Adams discussed how each Horizons Team member plans to meet with an organization or two in the community to discuss the Horizons Program. Todd will be on “Talk of the Town” on Lakes Radio next week. Kevin Cederstrom writes articles pertaining to Horizons as the need comes up.

Lori showed the group the Horizon’s sponsored Minnesota blog http://minnesota.communityblogs.us  and explained the different features. Julie showed the group the New York Mills blog at http://newyorkmills.communityblogs.us. Lori explained that it is very important for us to blog all of our activities as the Northwest Area Foundation uses the blog to track the activities of each Horizon community. Julie gave a brief outline on how to use igoogle to see the latest entries in the blog.

Future Squads Updates:
Economy—report was given earlier
Quality of Life—Lynn reported that they have narrowed their focus to working on the Community Garden. They have written an Action Plan and have received a Youth Service Learning grant. They want to start the Community Garden this spring. Right now they are looking at locations. They also hope in incorporate the school and the Cultural Center in on some activities such as having “green” classes, canning classes, and art classes using items from the garden. Todd suggested that he would be interested in teaching a “square foot gardening” class. Their next meeting will be soon.
Leadership—Julie reported that they have met and are looking at sponsoring Leadership Plenty, but in a modified form. Lori had agreed to help teach if her schedule allows. Julie reported that Denise Peltier has been doing research into mentoring programs.
Volunteerism—Victoria reported that her and Connie Warner have met and are putting together a form that will be mailed to all the organizations in the community. They information gathered from the form will help them but together a registry so that connecting people to volunteer opportunities will be easier. They are trying to include youth in on their project. Victoria asked if it is possible if students could get Service Learning credit for volunteering.

Lori reported there will be regional training sponsored by Horizons coming up this spring—the dates and location is to be determined. The topics they hope to cover are Non-Profit 101, Youth Engagement, Resources, and Committees that Work. Lori will get more information out to us as soon as possible.

Lori also reported on the Community Education Fund. There is $1500 in that fund. There is a form to fill out and can be used for trainings and workshops to help the Future Squads jumpstart their work. The applications for those funds go to Lori.

Discussion about the status of the Thrift Store idea that had come from the Study Circles—it was decided that it would be a project that the community would support, so if we find the right person to start this, it could be very successful.

The date for the next Horizons Team meeting was not decided.

The meeting adjourned at 7:05 pm, with the room available for any Future Squads that wanted to meet.

The next Leadership Future Squad meeting will be on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, at 12:30 pm, at Mills Lanes.  Everyone is invited!

Written by Kevin Cederstrom, New York Mills Herald
Published Thursday, January 31, 2008

Community growth and capital improvement projects highlighted Mayor Larry Hodgson’s State of the City address at last week’s Civic & Commerce Association annual meeting.

Hodgson opened the address by speaking about his first year as Mayor of New York Mills. “To say the least, it has been quite an experience,” he said. “There have been times when it has been very rewarding, there were times when it was exciting, there were times when it was disappointing, and for most of the time it has been very challenging.” Hodgson told the group he did not realize the commitment of time the position required, but after attending over 100 meetings this past year relating to the operation of the city that requirement “has now become a reality.”

Hodgson pointed out along with the time commitment was the requirement to learn a new government-based language. Having to know what Gap Financing, TIF Financing, PFA Loans, SCDP grant funds, and Crossover Funding were all about was easy compared to understanding the meaning of all the acronyms and abbreviations such as: AURI, COLA, GMHF, LCSC, MCFOA, MHFA, MPCA, OTWCAC, WWTF and WCI.

In this time of an economy reportedly facing recession and the housing market down with mortgage companies forecasting foreclosures, Hodgson does not believe that paints a complete picture in NY Mills. In each of the past five years NY Mills has seen new construction and renovation costs in the city exceeding $1 million per year. This past year (2007) the city received 24 requests for building permits, granted three variances and exceeded $800,000 in new construction/renovation costs. “Sure we didn’t hit the million dollar mark, but we still did pretty well during this so called depressed economic period,” Hodgson said.

Hodgson went on to recognize a number of “key and dedicated members of the city staff”, who retired the past year. “Our first loss was the retirement of Russ Jacobson from the Zoning Committee where he served for approximately 45 years. Then Gene Imsande chose to retire from the Economic Development Committee where he also served for 35 years. Next was Sandy Barthel who retired as Liquor Store manager at the end of the year with, again, 30-plus years of service, and finally Chief of Police Brian Nelson who chose to end his service duties after 10 years with New York Mills and continue on as Perham’s Chief of Police. These people will surely be missed and it is amazing that total years of community service by these four individuals exceeds 120 years. Now that is what I call dedication to community service.”

Hodgson asked what the future held for NY Mills, and reported the Country View Estates Phase II is 99.9 percent completed and opens up a new area for 18 additional homes. To assist in getting people interested in building a new home in Country View the city is creating the New York Mills Workforce Housing Partnership, which is seeking grant monies through various state agencies that would assist potential homeowners with items like gap financing, down payment assistance, homebuyer education and credit counseling.

Hodgson also stated the $4 million wastewater treatment facility upgrade is slated for final completion this spring. One of two retention ponds is online, with the second set for this spring. The ponds have a holding capacity of approximately 30 million gallons. Once the system is online for waste collection the MPCA will lift the moratorium on new home/business construction.

The next major project for the city will be painting the water tower at a cost of about $280,000. The project will be more than just repainting the tower. Removing the old paint, selecting color and logo, priming and painting, inspecting the interior and maintaining a necessary water supply during this process all play into the cost of this project. The water tower project is the beginning of a 5-year Capital Improvement Plan laid out for city improvements.

Hodgson informed the group, in addition to the tower there are plans for a new city well, and four street and infrastructure improvements showing a projected cost in excess of $5 million. Other projects Hodgson mentioned included renovation to both the Senior Citizens Center and Liquor Store. The city determined it was eligible for funding through the Small Cities Grant Program, which will pick up 75 percent of the cost of the renovation.

In closing, Hodgson said: “I hope that I have been able to enlighten you as to what has transpired during this past year and what are some of the future plans for the city of New York Mills. Our goal was and continues to be for growth and development of the city. Hopefully by working closely with your city council, I will be able to continue with that emphasis as our main objective.”

The New York Mills Workforce Housing Partnership has been working to determine if it should put together an application for the upcoming Greater MN Housing Fund grant cycle.  This collaboration started in November with participants from City Government, Local Financing, Community Orgs, Local Businesses along with reps from both Greater MN Housing and MN Housing Finance Agency attending a meeting at OTWCAC.  

The decision was made to conduct a survey to see what type of housing was needed to accommodate the workforce and other residents interested in living in NYM.  The survey (NYMWFHP Survey) was created, delivered and received with much support in December.  We had a terrific response. 

Quick summary: 2614 surveys out (1000 in the paper), 153 surveys in (10 from the paper).  48 replying they want to move to NYM.  See survey summary NYMWFHP Survey Summary .  

Many respondents are interested in Saving for Downpayment, Homebuyer Eduation and Financial Literacy .  Since homeownership is one of the best asset building vehicles out there, it is critical to help as many people who want to own a home become mortgage ready as this will go a long way towards reducing poverty.  Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.