Summit: 09South Haven, Michigan

Friday, November 6, 2009Randy Parry, President

Where is Miner County, SD?

Pierre

Sioux Falls

Miner County, SD

Our Context

Highest outmigration of youth in SD

Highest percentage of elderly in SD

61st out of 66 counties in median home value

51655864

76618560 8376

6836

62685398

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32722884

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Miner Historical Population Trends

Miner County Historical Population Trend

Multi-Dimensional Solutions

Creation of a Long-Term Strategic PlanDo away with “Silo Mentality” LeadershipBroad-based Informed Decision MakingDevelop Regional CollaborationsInvest & Support LocalDevelop a New Economy--Economic

Engines Create Life-Cycle Housing

Placed Based Learning

What is this place we call Home?Researching DataAnalyzing the DataGrassroots Input Creating the Strategic PlanCommunicating the PlanLeaders Making Informed Decisions on

AnalysisTelling the Stories

Inclusiveness Interviews

Everyone Is A Resource

Task Force and Committee Meetings

Over 300

Research and Analysis

County and Surrounding

Counties

Strategic Planning Team

NetworkingCoordinationCooperation

Collaboration

Implementation of Living Plan

People Who Know It Best Call This

Place Home

Diverse and Inclusive Collaborative Planning for the Future

Building Capacity

Communities that invest in themselves are successful◦Financial Capital -- $$$◦Human Capital -- education, health, attitudes

◦Environmental Capital -- natural resources◦Social Capital -- relationships of trust and exchange

◦Courtesy of Daryl Hobbs

Miner County Lessons Learned

Value All PeopleHelp Residents Improve There “Hometown Economy”Build Leadership, Strategic Thinking, and AlliancesBase Decisions on FactsBe Sure Local People LeadUse Grassroots Discussion to Create CommitmentContinually Foster Relationships and ResourcesSeek Broad-Based, Informal and Dedicated LeadershipCommit to the Long-TermShare the Stories

If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.

We were living on our equity,

hoping for change!

Vision

What do we want to: Look Like

Be Like3-5-10 years from now

Transformation vs. Revitalization

Our Story

Grassroots Effort

Multi-Dimensional Approach

Collaborative Partners

Grassroots

Kids spark community understanding

Leadership from within

Strategic community plan

Process

Students Developed

Survey

ResidentsRespond

Students Analyzed

Data

Students Shared Analysis

CommunityBenefited

Investing In & Supporting the Local Economy

• Cash Flow Project

• The actual amount of increased gross sales was $15,600,000.

• It was an overall increase of 41.1% from the previous year.

The Plan

Economic Development

Housing

People & Organizations(capacity building)

Partners

Local Taxing Entities

Business and Industry

Educational Entities

Funding Entities

Government Entities

Vision without action is merely a dream.

Action without vision just passes the time.

Vision with action can change Rural America.

Miner CountyA Growing Community

Community revitalization work began in 1996 at Howard High School

Northwest Area Foundation invested in the work in March of 1999

MCCR, a formal non-profit organization, was formed to lead the community revitalization movement

Focus on a multi-dimensional approach

Miner CountyA Growing Community

247 new jobs have been created in Miner County since 2002

125 jobs have been retained in Miner County

Sales tax figures continue to increase in Howard—from 2007 (a record setting year) to 2008, sales tax grew by 24%

17.61% Job Growth in Miner County compared to -0.27% average in rural SD between 2002-2008

Miner CountyA Growing Community

Total leveraging of assets of over $64 million

Projected population increase by 2010 (SD GOED) for the first time in 90 years

Miner County Population

1990

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2002

2003

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2005

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2010...

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500

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3,500 3,272

2,884 2,8062,629

2,814

Miner County Taxable Growth

0

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Miner County Tax Levies

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Howard Sales Tax Revenue

195,359.92

218,464.71 282,532.51

306,893.22

397,570.84

494,591.49

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1996 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Beyond Miner County

Rural Learning Center founded in 2002-- focused resources on small, rural community capacity building

62 communities and counting have requested the RLC’s assistance—from 14 states

In 2008, MCCR and the Rural Learning Center merged

Dream…

It is not whether or not we are dreaming too big but whether we can afford not to.

That is how important Reimagining Rural is!

It is the rekindling of hope and the developing and sustaining of a sense of place.

Progress

Building diverse economic engines

Building local capacity for success

Economic Engines

Are not understood or underestimated by rural communities

Stimulate and create economic growthImpact positively by employing people,

accessing capital, exporting products and services

Travel beyond the community into the region, nation, and world

Import Sourcing of people, jobs, investment vs. Outsourcing

Miner County ‘s Engines

Renewable Energy

Value Added Agriculture

HealthcareSeniorsEducationRural

Learning Center

A Diversified Economy

Miner County Economic Engines Renewable Energy Kosher Beef Health Care (seniors,

telemedicine) School System Rural Learning

Center

Growing our economy required a multi-dimensional approach—including a look at what kinds of businesses would compliment existing industry and regional skills

Dakota Beef

Processor of kosher beef, including traditional, natural, and organic varieties

Facility opened in Howard in 2003

60 employees

Planned expansion would increase number of cattle processed by more than 10 times and would create 340 new jobs in the Howard region

www.dakotabeefcompany.com

Horizon Healthcare, Inc.

Rural community Health Centers

Telemedicine capabilities connect patients in rural areas with doctors in more urban areas

Headquartered in Howard, SD

www.horizonhealthcare.org/

Miner County Development Corporation (MCDC) dba

Whispering Winds Assisted Living

Wall Street Journal

Jonathan Eig Story appeared in the March 25, 2005 edition of the Wall Street Journal

How it used to be!

South Dakota Wind

South Dakota ranks 4th in potential but 18th in actual production

The average home uses 11,000 kwh of power a year

SD has the potential to provide 117,200 megawatts or enough power for 93.8 million homes

“We old timers knew this years ago”

Archie Moore 105 years old

Growing the Wind Industry

Industry in Demand

Need for 9,000+ new wind technicians in the next two years—currently technical schools are producing 600 each year

Midwest is poised to see significant growth in renewable energy, specifically related to wind development

Currently, Howard has 100 people directly employed in the wind industry

United States Wind Resource Map

Wind Energy Potential

#1. North Dakota#2. Texas#3. Kansas#4. South Dakota#5. Montana#6. Nebraska#7. Wyoming#8. Oklahoma#9. Minnesota#10. Iowa#14. Michigan

United States Depopulation Map

Areas of depopulation between 1970 and 2000 are disproportionally rural areas

These are also the areas that have the greatest wind energy development potential

United States Wind Capacity

United States Wind Capacity

Broadwind Energy/EMS

Energy Maintenance Services was the first wind energy company located in South Dakota

Miner County native, Joe Kolbach, founded EMS

This partnership allowed Howard to become the first municipality in SD to own and operate wind turbines

First renewable energy collaborative training in SD

www.energyms.com

Knight & Carver Wind Group

Wind blade repair and manufacturing

26,000 sq. foot facility opened in Howard in 2007

Currently, 60 employees

Possible expansion would add 300 new employees and a $20 million building with an additional $20 million in robotics equipment

www.knightandcarver.com

Airstreams Renewables, Inc.

Renewable energy training company, currently located in Tehachapi, CA

5 year partnership agreement with the RLC to offer courses in Howard

Troops to Energy Partnership

National Distance Learning Collaborative

Airstreams Renewables, Inc.

Airstreams model is based on short, intensive courses

Wind technician course is a 20 day program

Currently, Airstreams is partnering with community colleges and universities on wind technician curriculum, alongside their private training program

The Path out of the Valley appears when you

choose to see things differently.

Rural Learning Center

Rural Conference Center, Training Classrooms, Restaurant, Hotel

Seeking LEED Platinum certification

Total facility cost= $7.5 million

Public/Private Partnership

Construction set to begin September 2009

www.rurallearningcenter.org

Rural Learning Center

Green Energy Demonstration, showcasing the following:

• Geothermal• Solar• Wind energy • Energy efficiency

technology • Green materials

Job creation at the facility will total 15+ FTE’s

Local economic impact of $6 million per year

www.rurallearningcenter.org

Smart Grid Technology

Citi Foundation

Pam Flaherty, President and CEO of Citi Foundation (NY), and Ken Stork, President of South Dakota CitiBank, present a check for $250,000 to the Maroney Rural Learning Center during the Groundbreaking Celebration on September 2, 2009.

Senate Appropriations 2009

Senator John Thune visiting and discussing wind energy engines in Howard and the future for the state and nation.

"The time is always right to do what is right. "

Change Inevitably Happens

•We can ignore it

•We can deny it

•We can react to it positively or negatively

•We can anticipate it

•We can create it

“It was hard for the people to believe they had the power to change things, but they were the only ones who could.”

For our children & grandchildren!

We never understand the beauty of youth until it’s long faded from mind, and we rarely appreciate the beauty of age until we begin to see our own mortality in another’s eyes. We worry about the future, but the big problems end up being things that never occur to us until we’re blindsided by them on a sunny afternoon.

We can’t plan for life. We can only live it--and appreciate those who play a part in our existence.

What is our gift to them?

Conversations => Trust

Actually, what we are saying is that conversations can build social capital, which in turn helps communities get things done.

Source: Conversation Prism 1.0, Brian Solis/Flickr

www.ReImagineRural.com

Imagine…

Reimagine Rural is a place where our children do not wish to flee but where they dream to return

It is a place where people do not talk about what used to be on Main Street but where they dream about what will be there two decades from now for our children and grandchildren to return to be entrepreneurs.

Make It Happen!

We need to make a decision that luggage is no longer an acceptable gift to high school graduates but the investment of getting them back home is the responsibility of all.

Logic will get you from point A to point B; Imagination can take you wherever you want to go.

Thank You!

Let us ReImagine Rural and become the Architects of Change

Words of Wisdom

John F. Kennedy  “One man can make a difference, but every man should try.”

William Blake   “What is now proved was once only imaged.”

Vince Lombardi “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”

Mark Twain “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do.”

Wayne Gretzky “You know I don’t skate to where the puck is, I skate to where the puck is going to be.”

The Central Challenge: Building an Economic Engine

+

Company with Growth Potential

$Financial Capital

Highly skilled human capital, employeesand technical assistance

$ $ $=Time

to developproducts,

mgmt. skilland market

strength(4-8 years) =+

World class highgrowth company,

increasing communitywealth

Well paidemployees & skilled

managers

Company spinoffs/ regionally reinvested wealth & managementProvided Courtesy of Brian Kelly

• Improving & Communicating Access to credit• Supporting & Facilitating Renewable Energy Industry Development• Supporting & Enhancing Systems of Business Recruitment, Expansion & Retention• Developing & Implementing Community Beautification Programs• Creating & Providing Access to Systems of Affordable Quality Childcare• Facilitating Development & Promotion of Local Tourism• Developing & Building Rural Learning Center

Economic Development