EXCERPT: “Rural counties — particularly in the Midwest and Northeast of the U.S. — are losing people due to higher death rates than birth rates and more people moving away than moving in. The outlook: The 2020 census is likely to show the extent of this drastic trend. ‘Barring a significant reversal in the next few years,’ ...

  Ashley Hanson, founder of the Department of Public Transformation and the director of PlaySpace Theater, joins us again to talk about their latest endeavor, a countywide production in Otter Tail County. Ashley and her group have done performances in small communities all around the state, so Jim asks the pertinent question: “How do you ...

EXCERPT: “Just outside tiny Sheffield, Iowa, a modern steel and glass office building has sprung up next to a cornfield. Behind it, there’s a plant that employs almost 700 workers making Sukup brand steel grain bins. The factory provides an economic anchor for Sheffield, population 1,125. Charles Sukup, the company’s president, says that even though workers ...

EXCERPT: “City Administrator Dana Lietzau looked out the window of her office and counted the empty buildings along First Avenue, the street that runs through the business district of Gibbon. Twelve buildings, four of them empty. ‘Our downtown is really struggling and has been for a while,’ she said. ‘The question is: ‘How do you find businesses to ...

EXCERPT: “A green giant in a loin cloth would seem an unlikely indicator for what some describe as a revolution under way in the heart of America. But the Jolly Green Giant statue on Highway 169 in rural Minnesota wears a 48-inch (1.2m) smile for a reason. Accompanied by the slogan Dream Big, he typifies a sense ...

EXCERPT: “Broadband providers and the people who use—or would like to be able to use—those services in rural America are invited to offer their perspectives on enhancing e-connectivity at a listening session June 19. The Upper Midwest Listening Session of the project, What’s on the Horizon for E-Connectivity in Rural America, will be 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. June ...

  Rural Minnesota artist Ashley Hanson joins us this week to talk about how she uses theater to help rural folks come together, get to know their communities better and to celebrate small town life. Ashley is the founder of the Department of Public Transformation and PlaySpace Productions and was one of only 20 people ...

EXCERPT: “A contractor building high-end houses in Minneapolis swung by Greg Hull’s sawmill on Friday, a timber operation located in deeply rural Lake County, Minnesota. The builder had seen Hull’s website and driven nearly 250 miles to the mill to inspect Hull’s high-end lumber as potential building material for his homes. These days that’s not unusual. ...

EXCERPT: “The University of Minnesota Morris Center for Small Towns (CST) has been awarded an operating support grant for 2018-2019 by the Otto Bremer Trust. This award will help further CST’s work with small towns and community groups across Minnesota . . . CST provides research, education, and program support to Minnesota communities of fewer than 5,000. ...

EXCERPT: “Two extra lanes for safety and commerce. That’s what a recently funded project promises for stretches of Minnesota Highway 23 around Paynesville. Local businesses and governments joined together and lobbied hard for the upgrade in the last year. Lawmakers and Gov. Mark Dayton granted bonding money to the project in May . . . ‘This is an ...