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 ...

Our report, “A brief discussion: Wages can go further in Greater Minnesota”, explored how wages throughout Greater Minnesota can compete with wages in the seven-county metro when taking into account the cost of living. On July 15, 2020, we hosted a webinar where this information was presented. We were joined by Rural Sociologist Ben Winchester ...

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 ...