St. James, MN

Another community-building resource is coming to St. James, but pay attention to see how it works.

The Northwest Area Foundation funds Horizons, which is run by the University of Minnesota Extension service. Another program of Northwest Area Foundation is called “Creating a Value Added Community” (CVAC). Both Horizons and CVAC are designed to reduce poverty in rural areas.
Now CVAC has teamed up with the Madelia Model to bring the CVAC program and the Madelia Model bioenergy projects to the communities surrounding Madelia. The CVAC portion is being implemented by Renewing the Countryside. One goal is to incorporate existing community programs like Horizons and Bridging Brown County, so that we are all working together on a regional level.

The next meeting will be Tuesday, March 25, from 1-4 p.m. at the St. James Library, because they want to move the meetings around. They are looking for more people to get involved and learn how to Create a Value Added Community. To get involved, contact Linda Meschke at Rural Advantage.

Based on discussions at St. James Green Team Future Squad meetings, Mark Anderson drew up the following green vision for St. James. This is meant to be a preliminary discussion of what a green St. James would look like, so please add any comments or suggestions. If you would like to become part of the Green Team, contact Jill Henderson at Wilcon or Mark Anderson at the St. James Plaindealer.

Green Team vision:

Recycling
Short term goals:
• Support Youth Council projects, support city-wide recycling.

Long term goals:
• Reduce the need for recycling by promoting reusable containers.
• Begin recycling building materials.

End goal:
• Have a recycling center in St. James.
Could be for anything or everything: containers, paper, electronics, batteries, all building materials …

Energy Conservation / Reduce Consumption
• Promote energy-saving light bulbs, Energy Star appliances, and other household energy saving practices.

• Reduce the use of air conditioning in the summer, and winterize homes to reduce heating costs.
• Promote use of reusable grocery and shopping bags.
Land Use
Short term goals:
• Start working with the Madelia Model to explore bringing a bio-energy industry to St. James. The Madelia Model combines natural prairie plantings with the latest technologies, such as pyrolisis and gasification. It also works with existing industry to use waste or excess heat to produce electricity.

Long term goals:
• Wind generators
• Locally-produced food
• We implement the Madelia Model so thoroughly that it becomes known as the St. James Model:
-All farmland near streams and ditches will be prairie grassland, eliminating much agricultural runoff.
-All St. James industries will find ways to reuse waste, excess heat, or other by-products to create energy.

End goal:
• Through wind, bioenergy, and solar conversion, St. James will produce more energy than it uses. We will have vast swaths of natural prairie along our waterways, sandy soil and sloped land, which will be used not just for energy, but for hunting, fishing, hiking, birdwatching, education, and science.
Education
Short term goals:
• Put the St. James Green Team logo on environmentally friendly products in stores or projects around town.
• Get schools more involved in environmental teaching, like a district-wide Earth Day project.
• Set up a “Green Corner” at the library, with Green Team materials and pertinent books and magazines.
• Work with the schools to find a “No Child Left Inside” project.

Long term goals:
• A majority of St. James people and businesses will implement new sustainable practices.
• Build nature areas into the school playgrounds so children have daily access to nature.
• Schools will put environmental science and environmental projects into curriculum.

End goal:
• All St. James decisions will be made with a 100-year or more basis in mind.
• Every school will have large nature areas for daily access to nature. The Northside/ High school campus will still have beautiful athletic fields, but there will be nature trails running around them. There will be a permanent nature trail leading to the Meadowlark Environmental Learning
Green building
Short term goals:
• Get green building projects started in St. James, using the Minnesota Green Communities, Green Playbook, or other programs.
• When building, the people of St. James will look at lifetime costs rather than up-front costs.

Long term goals:
• Area buildings will be filled with strong insulation, energy-efficient heating systems, native landscaping, and nearby access to nature trails.
• More construction people in St. James will become LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified.
• Building centers will sell more green products and natural building materials.
• Green Team will expand to projects for a green lifestyle: green transportation, green design, green banking, green retailers, green clothing…

End goal:
• Transform from green building to a green city. All St. James neighborhoods will be energy-efficient and built with natural materials. Neighborhoods will be planned for social health, environmental health and economic health for the whole city, not just for one household.
• A greenway will run around and through St. James, connecting parks, allowing for hiking, biking and daily access to nature, no matter what neighborhood you live in.
Other Green Team projects:

• Do an Earth Day project (April 22)
• Get educational videos made for public access TV

Please take our Vision Statement Survey

It will ask you about the vision statement developed at a St. James Horizons meeting.
Here is the vision statement:

We envision St. James to be a friendly and energetic community that
- Celebrates diversity
- Supports new endeavors that create a thriving community
- Has strong infrastructure, healthy institutions and active citizens
- Welcomes new opportunities and entrepreneurs, and supports local businesses
- Ensures everyone has access to quality education, health care, support systems, and safe, affordable housing
- Is committed to protecting our environment
- Makes decisions for the long-term good

The survey will ask just three questions: Does this match your vision for St. James? Can St. James achieve this vision? What can you and the organizations you work with do to make this vision a reality?

Again, the survey is at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1yDhyMA0ULsWngdhhRrpyQ_3d_3d

Four possible future scenarios for St. James were presented at the end of the Scenario Planning meeting.

Scenario A -Big Brains, No Heart. This was based on a presumption that St. James would grow their skills and assets, but lose community cohesion and responsiveness to change. The characteristics were:
• Highly skilled commuter culture
• People have low interest in activism and involvement in the community and there are fewer service organizations
• Crime rate is higher due to a lack of community connection
• More duplication/competition among churches, schools, etc.
• Existing businesses will struggle and new business will not be attracted
• Entertainment industry increases

Scenario B - Saintopia or “I will do it”. Presumed St. James would grow skills and assets for the future, and also increase community cohesion and responsiveness to change. Characteristics were:
• Community supports new endeavors of all kinds
• People work together instead of being territorial, there is great community strength, energy and purpose
• Infrastructure is in place to serve as a fertile ground for new opportunities and expansion of existing resources
• All people in St. James receive a good education
• Residents are committed to being ‘green’

Scenario C - Good Attitude, No Action. Presumed St. James would not improve skills and assets for the future, but would increase community cohesion. Characteristics were:
• Population will age, younger people will move away
• As a result of changing demographics, school system will struggle
• Businesses and investments will come from outside, not within the community
• New businesses will struggle to find work force
• Community will continue to look the same, but as the world changes, St. James will miss major economic opportunities

Scenario D - Double Negative. No improvement in skills, no improvement in cohesion. Characteristics were:
• Lack of public funding and decay of infrastructure – roads, health, education all suffer and associated jobs are lost
• Increased community fragmentation – crime, drug use, social unrest increases.
• Major manufacturing and retail industries will be lost; jobs will primarily be in bars and other entertainment venues, care for elderly, etc.
• Little intercultural communication or ‘neighborly’ behavior, public gathering places suffer
• Bio-energy may be developed, but it will drain our water, pollute our land and be owned outside the community

Early responses showed that people prefer Scenario B, Saintopia or “I Will Do It”. So people were asked “What can you and the organizations you work with do to make that scenario a reality?” Here are the responses and the number of people with similar responses:
• Work together – this isn’t one person’s community (30)
• Get more people involved – get active in the community – So Get Up St. James!!! (26)
• Set an example — make a personal commitment to do what needs to be done (12)
• Support existing institutions (businesses, groups, churches..) (9)
• Set concrete goals particularly in education and being green - -be more proactive (8)
• Get different people to stand up and talk, participate in community discussions, listen to youth (6)
• Fundraise, find more dollars (6)
• More diverse businesses working toward same community goals; find more jobs for people (5)
• Bridge the cultural gaps that occur in the workplace, embrace our cultural diversity (3)
• Come back to St. James (2)

During the October 26 meeting, several topics came up in discussion:
• There is a strong interest in bridging cultural gaps and making diversity a community asset.
• St. James is seen as being well-positioned to capitalize on increasing demand for green energy.
• Participants agreed that making the community appealing to young people, both culturally and economically, is essential.
• The strong traditional institutions in St. James must grow with the community if they are to continue to serve as the community’s ‘backbone’.
• Participants saw education as an important part of the community’s investment in the future.
• Growing access to technology could lead to greater isolation or greater connection in the community.

Three pizzas, six water bottles and a big can of Jolt fueled seven St. James students as they poured over a stack of applications to the St. James Youth Council.
The students, Erik Romsdahl, Hilario Alvarado, Julio Zelaya, Anna Asendorf, Josie Oliver, Tory Clark and Irma Marquez, were not just looking for the best resumé or the most popular applicants. Instead, they kept talking about finding unlikely leaders, looking for people who wanted to get involved.
The applications were excellent. Many of them said they wanted to change the way peer pressure was controlling what kids did in and out of school.
It will be fund to find out who the seven leaders selected for the Youth Council. Hopefully, when things get going, the Youth Council members will blog about their activities.