Year: 2020

An overview of Center for Rural Policy and Development’s cost of living and wage comparison tool. June 2020 By Kelly Asche, Research Associate For a printable version of this report, click here. To see a 5 minute video summarising this research, click here. On July 15th, 2020, we hosted a webinar, “The Case for Living ...

EXCERPT: “The course of the Covid-19 pandemic in rural Mower County, Minnesota, is hand-written across six easel-sized sheets of paper affixed to the wall of the local Emergency Operations Center. Six cases and no deaths were recorded on March 22, the first entry. Pam Kellogg, Mower County’s community health division manager, points to the fourth sheet, covering ...

By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research Since the middle of March, that old Irish blessing/curse has been bouncing around in my head:  “May you live in interesting times.” I really, truly understand its full meaning now. The first half of 2020 has been interesting, to say the least. Never would I have guessed back in ...

An economic and demographic update of rural Minnesota By Kelly Asche, Research Associate & Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research For a printable version of the report, click here. Each year, the Center for Rural Policy and Development provides a brief update on various economic and demographic data pertaining to rural Minnesota. As policy discussions concerning ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced today that it has awarded $919,522 in grants to infrastructure projects in Greater Minnesota. The funding awarded from DEED’s Greater Minnesota Business Development Public Infrastructure Grant Program (BDPI) was approved for International Falls, Pequot Lakes, Princeton and Winsted. It is expected to retain and create ...

EXCERPT: “Because she’s a fan of small towns and the people who populate them, psychologist Kristi K. Phillips wants to talk openly about the mental health issues that plague rural communities. As chair of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Committee on Rural Health, Phillips, who lives with her family in Litchfield and works for Meeker Memorial Hospitals and Clinics, has a ...

EXCERPT: “Rural hospitals are more likely than urban facilities to have access to telehealth, a once-underused service that now is playing a key role in treating COVID-19 patients, according to research by two health administration professors in Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business. Drs. Neeraj Puro and Scott Feyereisen say the research can help U.S. hospitals understand the ...

EXCERPT: “Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan announced a public-private partnership to help meet the technology and connectivity needs of families with school-aged children. According to a release from the governor’s office, the state is working with Best Buy, Comcast, Blandin Foundation, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and the Minnesota Business Partnership ...

Neela Mollgaard has spent the last twenty years helping entrepreneurs in Greater Minnesota get their business ideas off the ground, first with Red Wing Ignite and now with LaunchMN, a new effort from the state to foster high-tech startups. We talk about what worked with Red Wing Ignite and now what LaunchMN is doing with ...