Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “Dozens of small- and mid-sized communities in Minnesota are about to get a big boost from the state’s housing board of directors. Minnesota Housing announced Friday that $38.7 million will soon go toward building new rental properties across Greater Minnesota. The agency said the nearly $40 million investment will create 832 market-rate rental units ...

EXCERPT: “At the September 23 meeting of the Rushford City Countil, Elizabeth Wefel, attorney and lobbyist with Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities (CGMC), provided the council with a summary of the coalition’s work in the last legislative session. Rushford is a longtime member of the coalition, made up of more than 100 cities across the ...

EXCERPT: “Northern Access, a Treatment and Government Organizations coalition, held their bi-monthly meeting at the Beltrami County Administration Building in Bemidji. They met with several other nonprofit organizations to discuss homeless and addiction recovery access throughout northern Minnesota. Many representatives from different organizations met at their bi-monthly meeting in Bemidji to address rural disparities and issues ...

EXCERPT: “In the past five years, over 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies, contributing to the 57% of rural U.S. hospitals that lack labor and delivery services. This finding comes from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. Its July report details the number of rural hospitals by state that lack maternity care services, those ...

EXCERPT: “The U.S. Postal Service is planning to make changes that could result in slower service to rural areas. The proposal, announced Aug. 22, would adjust mail delivery times while maintaining a commitment to a maximum five-day delivery for the flagship Ground Advantage program nationwide and a maximum three-day delivery for local first-class mail. USPS said the ...

EXCERPT: “Paulette Johnson described her brother John’s move from one nursing home to another as ‘traumatic.’ John Johnson had lived in the Meadow Lane Restorative Care Center in Benson for about five years before he had to leave when the center announced its closure last summer. Since the COVID pandemic, nursing homes across Minnesota have been closing ...

EXCERPT: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving grants to 86 projects in Greater Minnesota that will increase access to clean energy and increase the production of biofuels, according to a press release. A combined $26.8 million be disbursed through two programs — $9.2 million from the Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP, and $17.5 ...

EXCERPT: “Ever since Mary Hartman started her small business in Kasson 15 miles west of Rochester, she has felt a severe disparity in the availability of grants and mentorship opportunities that are needed to be successful. ‘That continues to be a problem in the rural sector,’ she said. Hartman got some needed help when she connected ...

EXCERPT: “Amazon.com is reaching into the remote corners of America to deliver its packages quicker to customers in rural areas, a push that represents its last frontier of ultrafast delivery in the U.S. The retail giant is expanding its one- to two-day delivery capabilities throughout the country as it seeks to boost sales in less-populated ...