Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “Sandy Thielen is still hesitant to reopen her home daycare business after closing at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She misses the kids and the day-to-day routine of the job, she says, but she’s concerned for the safety of her family. Having 10 extra children around, plus their parents at drop-off and pick-up ...

EXCERPT: “It’s a lofty goal. Get internet access and devices necessary for distance learning to 25,000 of Minnesota’s most technologically disconnected students by the end of summer. The ConnectedMN public-private partnership, spearheaded by Best Buy and Gov. Tim Walz, is trying to do just that. But the approximately 25,000 people identified by school districts as ...

EXCERPT: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday it is investing $4 million to build and improve critical community facilities that will benefit nearly 9,000 rural residents in Minnesota. Tracy Ambulance Service in Tracy, Minnesota, Received a $100,000 loan and a $50,000 grant to purchase a new ambulance vehicle and replace a 2009 vehicle that ...

EXCERPT: “Wages in rural Minnesota may lag behind those in the metropolitan area, but they do go farther. When wages are compared to the cost of living, some rural areas of the state actually enjoy an advantage over the Twin Cities metropolitan area, where living costs are much higher. These are the findings released during ...

EXCERPT: “Public water systems in rural Minnesota may be weighing costly upgrades, University of Minnesota researchers told state lawmakers Wednesday, July 15, but private wells are creating issues of their own that regulators currently have no way to address. With agriculture and industry already posing contamination threats to drinking water sources in the state, they ...

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 ...

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 ...