Todd County’s Key Strategy Meeting

Todd County's Healthy Community Partnership team met again Tuesday to review and refine the clustered desired outcomes from the June 8 visioning session. Economic development and services for senior citizens emerged as the top two areas residents wanted to focus on.

The Initiative Foundation's Don Hickman gave an overview for the group of just over a dozen people who gathered at the Central Lakes College Agricultural Center in Staples. The diversity of the group had broadened over the previous meeting, with more men in attendance. People of color as well as health care representatives and educators were still missing.

Hickman reviewed six key future trends that may affect the community (the community is defined as the greater Todd County area with a focus on the aging population): How the aging population affects the workforce and community infrastructure and services, energy costs, health, ethnic diversity, poverty and communications technology.

After reviewing Todd County's assets and challenges as well as the desired outcomes, the talk turned to ascertaining whether the headings of those outcome lists were most descriptive of the needs and setting priorities.

Key ideas to emerge from the group:

• Todd County is a wonderful base for family life.

• Bilingual projects may aid diversity issues.

• Need for jobs to attract and keep young people.

• High school health careers classes and job shadowing may result in youth staying.

• Producing income versus re-distributing income.

• Help the businesses we have do better

• Small town concerns are different; residents are "more narrow minded."

• Communication and updating of community websites is needed.

• Transportation for elderly.

• The need for ruthless decision making in looking at long-term outcomes.

• A city world view is coming at us from all directions.

• A desire to preserve what we have but new people won't necessarily buy into it.

• New ideas create change.

From the previously identified desired outcomes and the evening's discussion, the following list of key strategic areas or goal choices emerged:

• Transportation and communication

• Youth retention

• Economic development

• Senior services

• Heritage / culture

Each participant categorized these goal choices into columns headed "Yes Now," "Maybe Now" and "Not Now." Further discussion and assigning points to each participant's choices resulted in prioritizing of economic development and senior services as the top two. These were followed fairly closely by youth retention and transportation/communication. Heritage/culture emerged as the lowest rated goal choice for now.

The next step is to come up with a vision statement.

The group will meet again on August 17 at the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls.

• Annandale watches special session for broadband help
• DNR pushes ahead with its groundwater planning
• Broadband providers seek $44 million from state fund
• Shifting rain could be lowering groundwater