Steele, ND

The wonderful thing about small town living is the level of commitment and excitement that is generated when a few people who are passionate about change meet together.  Positive change is not always visible to the naked eye but the warmth of it penetrates the cold, dismal attitude of community naysayers who sing the sad song of “we’ve never done it that way before.”  And mysteriously, somehow, they find themselves  becoming “ayesaysers” instead of naysayers.

The Economic Development group is on a mission to recruit people who want to take the next step beyond positive to passionate.  Not just people from Steele, but people from the county who want to see our rural North Dakota communities thrive.

Housing Needs: At the the last meeting the group discussed conducting a regional housing assessment survey of the communities along I-94; Sterling, Driscoll, Steele, Dawson and Tappen.  Alva Schoepp will contact the NDHA for direction.

ND Department of Commerce:  Paul Erdelt has arranged to have the Department of Commerce visit Steele to give us a brief overview of what they have to offer small communities.  That meeting will be Friday, May 30 starting at 12:00 noon at the Cottonwood Golf Course.  Lunch will be provided by the Steele Horizons group. A tour of various businesses is planned for later in the day.

Kidder County Fair:  The Kidder County Fair Board Association expressed their sincere appreciation for all the community support they have received to help renovate the fair barn. The cold  hard cash was wonderful and now all they need are a few warm bodies to help with the work. The fair this year will be held July 9-12.

Cher Hursrud: Alva is working on re-scheduling a workshop with Cher Hursrud on establishing a community foundation.

Community Promotion:  Larry Hermanson from the KXMB TV sales department presented a community promotion package to the ED group.  While last year’s promotion concentrated on selling lots in the new housing district this year’s promotion will concentrate on promoting community events like the county fair and Winterfest.

The next meeting of the ED is May 30 at the golf course for lunch.  See you there!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 9:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.