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Look for the Fillmore County Winter Sports section in today’s Journal
Keep OPEC out of economy page
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Spring Valley hears from committee page
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Volume 27 Issue 11
Chatfield discusses 2012 levy page
Bells have started ringing
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Canton l Chatfield l Fountain l Harmony l Lanesboro l Mabel l Ostrander l Peterson l Preston l Rushford l Rushford Village l Spring Valley l Whalan l Wykoff
Harmony Chamber and EDA hears from Tim Penny By Jade Wangen jwangen@fillmorecountyjournal.com
The Harmony Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Authority (EDA) shared a round table meeting and dinner together on November 29 at the Golf Club in Harmony. The annual meeting is a chance for the group to get together and discuss the past year, as well as plans for the future. Tim Penny, the CEO of Southeastern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF), was at the meeting to talk about the foundation and some of the things it could offer Harmony. Penny explained that half of what SMIF does is work with early childhood. “Many of the programs are cash-strapped,” said Penny. “We feel the limited resources we have can make a difference to young people.” Grant money has moved
many communities toward their early childhood goals. “We give away hundreds of books a year to early childhood settings,” said Penny. The other half of the work done by SMIF is entrepreneurship. Their vision includes promoting regional economic growth. Helping out businesses, especially small businesses in small towns, has always been a priority for the foundation. SMIF has invested $89,889,249 in 20 counties in southern Minnesota over the last 25 years. In a Power Point presentation, Penny showed that 25 percent of that was grants, 25 percent loans, and 50 percent programmatic activity. They have provided countless Incentive Grants, as well as a Small Enterprise Loan and Revolving Loan Program. SMIF was established 25 years ago by the Minnesotabased McKnight Foundation, while Penny was representing
southern Minnesota in Congress. The McKnight Foundation supports SMIF with a million dollars a year. Another million a year comes from an endowment fund with donations made by local investors. Penny also talked about communities that are invested in SMIF, including Preston and Rushford. He encouraged Harmony to think about investing as well. SMIF offers a no-fee service to communities, acting as the non-profit organization for them. According to Penny, there is a $14/$1 average return investment. Disaster relief is another service SMIF has provided for communities. Penny said after the 2007 flood in Rushford, SMIF helped 117 businesses with grants to get their doors open again. SMIF has invested in many businesses in local communities See HARMONY Page 23
Tim Penny, CEO of Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, recently spoke to the Harmony Chamber of Commerce and the EDA. Photo by Jade Wangen
Judge hears eminent domain case Many attend Rushford public hearing By K aren R eisner
kreisner@fillmorecountyjournal.com
The city of Preston exercised their power of eminent domain to acquire 5.99 acres that they deemed necessary to construct the Preston-Forestville Recreational Trail system on March 2, 2009. The trail had been planned to be a segment of the Blufflands Trail System. The process to acquire properties for the planned route started nearly fifteen years ago. By 2005, seventeen properties from different landowners had been acquired for the trail right of way. Properties owned by the John Snyder family and the Vernon Ristau
family were the only properties not acquired. Negotiations to acquire these properties has been ongoing through the years. The trail is proposed to be about 10 miles long, ten feet wide, with a 60 foot right-of-way. The parcels needed to complete the land acquisition include a 2.18 acre parcel owned by John and Bernadette Snyder, and a total of 3.81 acres owned by Vernon and Kay Ristau. In October 2009, the Snyders and Ristaus commenced a lawsuit against the DNR and the city of Preston. Since the the beginning of the eminent domain proceedings, the ensuing lawsuit and proceedings
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involving environmental issues, a portion of this trail has been built, possibly a mile or so, west of Preston which includes one bridge. On Monday, November 28 in a packed courtroom, attorneys David Joerg and Dwight Luhmann representing the city of Preston, and Larry Peterson and Brent Kleffman (Peterson, Logren, and Kilbury, P.A.) representing the Snyder and Ristau families presented evidence supporting their cases. The evidentiary hearing had been scheduled for three days, but was completed by about 3:00 p.m. Monday. The hearing See EMINENT Page 2
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By K irsten Zoellner kzoellner@fillmorecountyjournal.com
The house was packed Monday, November 28 as the city council conducted two public hearings and delved into a full agenda. The majority of the public, who was left standing in doorways and sitting on tables, was in attendance with questions or concerns regarding property assessments for the south portion of Phase One, 2011 Street and Utility Improvement Project. Otomo Engineering gave a concise presentation before answering
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questions that ranged from the reasoning and details of certain upgrades and repairs to credits given to certain properties, as well as assessments to individuals rather than the city as a whole. The goal of the project portion was to either upgrade or replace damaged water and sewer mains and connections. While not all of the pipes were problematic cast iron or orangeburg, instead of the desired PVC, few had the desired gasket joints, which prevent infiltration into the city’s waste water treatment plant, and See RUSHFORD Page 13
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