Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “If employers thought they were having a hard time hiring this year, companies looking for seasonal holiday workers are expecting an even tougher time finding help. According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, there are more job vacancies in greater Minnesota than unemployed people for the first time since DEED started tracking job ...

EXCERPT: “The views of Minnesota’s future provided by its major candidates for governor could hardly be more different. During a 90-minute forum Tuesday in Willmar, they stuck to some main themes. Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Tim Walz returned frequently to his plan to build coalitions and find solutions to problems that work for the state as a whole. Republican ...

EXCERPT: “Practice is still on for this late-summer weekday afternoon, despite barely escaping a rainstorm that passed through this southern Minnesota city of 13,000 people in the last few hours. Nearly 60 teenage boys are already here, stretching and getting ready to begin. The school’s girls soccer team, of which about 50 students showed up ...

EXCERPT: “A new report from the national nonprofit Environmental Working Group says the problem of nitrate contamination in drinking water is hitting small, rural communities like Randall the hardest — and they are the ones least able to afford treatment costs. Randall addressed the problem by digging a new well at the same location, but in ...

EXCERPT: “You would expect to look up to see Frontier Communications telephone lines in the town of Ceylon, neatly swaying from traditional wood utility poles. But in parts of town, look down. There they are — black cables snaking through the grass. ‘There’s three lines there, that are just laying across the ground,’ said John Gibeau, ...

EXCERPT: “The decline in Local Government Aid for East Grand Forks has caught the attention of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. The lobbying arm for rural Minnesota says a fix in the complicated L-G-A formula is needed during the 2019 legislative session. The Coalition’s Marty Siefert told city council members this week – it’s ...

EXCERPT: “Not all that long ago, the central Minnesota community of Long Prairie was in a period of decline. The town, anchored for years by agriculture and local employers like Long Prairie Packing, and Dan’s Prize, was struggling. Many downtown businesses were closed, homes were up for sale and, at the local school district, always a bellwether of the economy, ...

EXCERPT: “For women in rural areas, having a baby has become more complicated than it used to be. For years, more rural hospitals have been shutting down maternity units, forcing expectant mothers in small rural and farming communities to travel longer distances to deliver their babies. It didn’t used to be this way. ‘Virtually every ...

EXCERPT: “With a number of regional highway projects — like U.S. Highway 71 north of Willmar — just finishing up, and funding approved for the state Highway 23 four-lane project between Willmar and St. Cloud, transportation officials say there’s much to be thankful for. ‘But there are ongoing needs,’ said Margaret Donahoe, executive director of ...