Estelline, SD

Estelline prepares for next 125
Posted: Monday, Feb 25th, 2008
BY: Ashley Allgaier

Estelline marked 125 years as a community in 2007, and at this milestone residents are looking to the “Horizons.” Horizons is a community leadership program that helps small, rural towns help themselves. The Northwest Area Foundation helps communities in eight states by working through local institutions, such as the South Dakota State University Extension Office. The Estelline Historic Society was approached with the project and prepared a proposal to join the program. Estelline was one of 21 South Dakota communities chosen in fall 2006.
 

70 involved in process
Since then, the project has enveloped Estelline, and the community now has more than 70 volunteers involved in the process and several improvement projects already under way.
A vacant building on Main Street was renovated by volunteers, and crews are now awaiting warmer weather to complete construction. After a new cement floor is poured, the building will become a technology center with high-speed wireless Internet and as many as six computers for public space, said David Ebbers, Estelline resident and a member of the strategic planning committee.
When finished, the new technology center will contain a community bulletin board and can also be used as a meeting space for small groups. Future plans might also include community computer classes.
Horizons funds were also used to start a program already earning returns. The city purchased a trailer to collect aluminum cans to be recycled, with money generated used by the city for other projects.
It only took two months to fill the trailer the first time, which earned $229 for the recycled cans, Ebbers said. The money was given to the Estelline Food Pantry for distribution at Christmas time.
The trailer is nearly full of cans again, indicating that it’s possible for the town to keep up the pace and earn roughly $200 every two months.
The Estelline Food Pantry is also a target for improvement in the community. With increased awareness of the impacts of poverty, the city was able to supply a better location for the food bank, he added. Grant money also purchased a freezer for the food pantry, which already had a refrigerator.

Going green
A site has also been plotted for the community garden, a project Linda Svec has been working on as part of the “green committee.”
Access to water and a garden shed with tools is already on site, purchased with Horizons grant money. When the ground thaws, it will be tilled and prepared for a spring planting.
Some of the harvest will become value-added produce at a new commercial kitchen, Svec said. An example she gave was fresh strawberries made into jam or a pie; locally processing the garden’s fruits and vegetables in the regulated environment of the commercial kitchen.
Svec and the green committee are also organizing a farmers’ market to provide local access to a market. The lack of access to market and inability to move value-added products is actually part of the definition of poverty, Svec explained.
The mission of the Horizons program is to reduce poverty in small rural communities. Doing so addresses not only a lack of money, but also an isolated market.
 

Battling poverty
The community garden, food pantry, commercial kitchen and farmer’s market projects all link together to work against poverty, Svec said. Produce grown at the community garden will be given to the food pantry, sold at the farmer’s market or converted into value-added products in the commercial kitchen. Value-added items will also be available at the food pantry and farmer’s market.
The idea is to attack poverty in several ways, by helping raise local incomes, using local sources for those who need help, giving people skills, attracting activity to the community, and creating local jobs.
Improvement projects for the food pantry, technology center, can trailer and community gardening site all were started with grant funds from Horizons. The program gives out chunks of the total fund at different steps in the process, Ebbers said. The idea is to keep people involved and looking for more grants and partnerships that are available.
Arlington used a similar program a few years ago that took on community improvement through leadership training.
 

Building local leadership
The First District Association of Local Governments, based in Watertown, offered free leadership classes to communities, and Arlington, as well as De Smet and Clark, took the group up on the deal.
In the summer of 2005, Arlington identified three top issues: Community betterment and beautification, developing affordable housing, and attracting new and strengthening existing businesses. The top priorities were identified based on resident input at community meetings and an outside assessment by the South Dakota Rural Development Council.
Outcomes included the formation of a chamber of commerce, community beautification of the south entrance to Arlington and new housing.
“There were a lot of positive steps that came out of that assessment and movement in that direction since,” said Randy Jencks, an Arlington resident who was involved in the meetings. First District sponsored leadership classes held weekly in Arlington using the LeadershipPlenty training system.
 

Horizons 18-month process
Activity under way in Estelline is thanks to the Northwest Area Foundation working through the SDSU Extension Office to present the Horizons program. Horizons is an 18-month program with five required segments, one of which is LeadershipPlenty training.
Both programs and communities work toward a goal of community betterment. First District’s approach with Arlington encompassed leadership training, assessment of community assets and identification of improvements
Before Estelline volunteers could get to the LeadershipPlenty stage they first had to organize a base of volunteers, take time to understand poverty, form connections with other communities and conduct community study circles. Next is LeadershipPlenty training, and a community visioning process where residents put together an asset-based strategic plan that leads to community action.
Action has already been taken in several projects, and attention is turning to organizing children’s programs, family activities and community events. That focus has gained a new group of volunteers – organizers of the town’s 125th anniversary celebration.
 

Need ‘kid focus’
Svec said the study circles identified a need to develop something for local kids. With a majority of parents working outside the community, some children are home alone after school and during summer vacation.
The technology center, community garden and commercial kitchen are all possible locations for children’s activities, Svec said. She sees the opportunity for kids to pick up practical skills doing intergenerational activities with adult volunteers.
According to Ebbers, Estelline is also taking a page from Flandreau, working toward establishing a satellite location of a Boys & Girls Club.
The strategic planning committee has also set out long-term goals of increasing housing, creating a multi-generational center and organizing ongoing community celebrations.

Contact Ashley Allgaier at aallgaier@brookingsregister.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 9:57 am and is filed under 01. Poverty: Knowledge and Awareness, 05. Leadership: Knowledge and Awareness, 09. Community: Knowledge and Awareness. 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.