Recent policy decisions are being carried out to improve the lives of Minnesota's rural communities. A national coalition says despite the progress, more moves are needed to help small towns thrive. The new 2023 Rural Policy Action report contains input from nearly 30 organizations. The authors say there are four main areas federal lawmakers should focus on to ensure rural communities are set up for success. They include infrastructure investments, taking on corporate mergers, and protecting democracy and natural resources.

Erik Hatlestad, energy democracy program manager with the Minnesota group Clean Up the River Environment, said small-town America remains overlooked.

"We did make some really great progress in the Inflation Reduction Act and [the] bipartisan infrastructure law and others. But we still have a long way to go - we have many decades of disinvestment and under-investment to make up for," he said.

Hatlestad contributed to the report, and added federal incentives will leverage tens of billions of dollars for rural
electric cooperatives and communities as they transition to clean energy sources. But he likens it to a down payment, noting more investments are needed to cover every rural utility. House Republicans are prioritizing spending cuts, and he warns some of these policies could be undone.

As for the resources that are currently available, Hatlestad said rural governments need some technical guidance in getting their hands on grants that could transform their communities.

"I think that is still a really big concern, and continuing to clear pathways for federal investment to reach rural communities needs to be a big priority," he explained.

Infrastructure goes beyond roads, bridges and broadband upgrades, the report said. Small, rural towns are also in desperate need of healthcare access, less expensive childcare, and a larger stock of safe and affordable housing to improve the quality of life for residents. The Minnesota Legislature helped this past session, other states should follow suit in filling gaps, Hatlestad added.

Traveling around rural Minnesota can be difficult but in more than half the state, nonprofit transit systems are helping people get where they need to go. Now, the system is expanding.

Arrowhead Transit will begin service in the Hibbing area on Aug. 1. The system already delivers fixed route and on-demand services to residents across northeastern Minnesota, from the Canadian border to the north suburbs of Minneapolis. A different service, Tri-CAP, provides service in five east-central counties.

Dominick Olivanti, marketing and public relations director for Arrowhead Transit, said they are committed to serving rural Minnesotans.

"We are the largest rural transportation system in the state of Minnesota, and the second-largest in the country by land miles," Olivanti pointed out. "We cover over 23,000 square miles, which is larger than the state of Vermont."

The services are operated under the authority of the Federal Transportation Administration, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The Hibbing service kicks off Aug. 1 with a ribbon-cutting at city hall at 1 p.m.

The transit systems are under the general auspices of the Minnesota Community Action Partnership, an umbrella organization with 24 Community Action Agencies and 11 tribal nations serving all 87 counties. In addition to transportation, the partnership provides a variety of programs and services designed to fight poverty.

Lori Schultz, executive director of the Minnesota Community Action Partnership, said transit services are important to the lives of rural Minnesotans.

"With public transit, medical appointments, getting to employment, getting to work," Schultz outlined. "Public transit does a lot of rides around that and then, just daily basic needs that we all have, whether we have our own car or not."

She added the systems run larger buses on fixed routes and smaller buses equipped with wheelchair lifts on dial-a-ride services. All systems charge fares to most passengers on a sliding scale, depending on age or other factors.

Alabama officials have announced critical infrastructure improvements in Selma this week, paving the way for a new river walk.

The "Selma 14 Project" to reduce erosion near the city's historic train depot is now complete. About 10 years ago, city officials planned to build a river walk near the Edmund Pettus Bridge to connect the area with downtown Selma.

James Perkins, mayor of Selma, told people at the ribbon-cutting ceremony the project faced unexpected obstacles.

"During 2014, there was this idea of moving forward with a river walk," Perkins recounted. "And as that project was being conceptualized, it was determined that the river bank was not stable enough."

He pointed out funding the project was not easy for the small, rural city but with funds from the state and federal government, they were finally able to complete it a decade later. Perkins thanked the Biden Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers from the Mobile district for making the $1.7 million preservation project possible.

The project involved clearing, grading and protecting a 215-foot section of land along the Alabama River. The Army Corps of Engineers also replaced 250 feet of existing sidewalk, lighting and fencing. Perkins emphasized the work is only the beginning of a larger project.

"This is just the first phase of what we envision happening in our downtown riverbank project," Perkins added. "There's more to come."

Upcoming phases of the riverbank stabilization project will focus on the areas where some of Selma's historic buildings are literally at risk of collapsing into the river.


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By Kristi Eaton for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Freda Ross for Texas News Service Service for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration

An unexpected volunteer, a geographic information system (GIS) mapping expert helped a rural community in Texas establish its broadband connection.

Bernie South is the GIS volunteer who mapped the data using information from the Census, school district hotpost addresses and areas of growth in the county. A former U.S. Navy electronics technician and geoscientist at Exxon Mobil, South has been retired for about a decade.

South began volunteering with Bastrop County Cares during the pandemic to vaccinate people, he said. Since the pandemic in 2020, Bastrop County Cares, a nonprofit organization, has been working to bring broadband to more individuals and families in rural Texas.

"I've been doing things for broadband - to support that," he told the Daily Yonder in a Zoom interview. "I was sort of a recognized company expert at Exxon Mobil in the use of GIS. And I kind of bring that level of expertise to this project that I've been working on."

Using the data and maps, the task force has been convening different stakeholders to identify areas of need to help develop solutions to address the broadband shortage, Bastrop County Cares Executive Director Norma Mercado told the Daily Yonder in Zoom and email interviews.

"Bernie South's expertise in data science and geospatial analysis has been instrumental in pinpointing the areas with the greatest need for broadband access in Bastrop County..." she said, "...significantly advancing the mission of Bastrop County Cares to bring people together to collaboratively tackle large community challenges and improve the conditions where our neighbors live, work, pray and play."

Using data from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Census data and other data sources, South provided detailed maps of where the highest need for broadband was located.

"Basically, I've been able to convert all that data together to give them a coherent picture of where the needs are, and where we need to focus the efforts. So a lot of the project has been driven by that data analysis," he said.

For example, South examined hotspots that students used during the pandemic. "That's kind of a direct indicator of where you have deficiencies in broadband coverage," he added.

Thanks to the assistance of South and others, Bastrop County Cares has been able to identify an antenna where S.O.S Communications will be able to provide broadband access to the 700-person community of McDade at a reasonable cost, Mercado said.

Debbie Bresette, the retired CEO of Bastrop County Cares and now a volunteer with the organization, said broadband will be a game-changer for the McDade community.

"They have four churches in this small town. They can hold their church services if need be, both online and in person," she told the Daily Yonder in a Zoom interview. "It means their kids can have access to better quality education. And if they have to be at home, they can do it at home. It means that the seniors in that community who are pretty far from doctors can do telehealth visits."

Bresette said the maps South has created will help the community in a multitude of ways.

"We now know where people who really struggled to make ends meet live. So we could do some small business development, help people do small business development in certain areas," she said. "We know where the majority of children under certain ages are. So we could do special programming in those communities so those kids start school ready to learn. The applications that we're using for broadband can be used for a wide variety of things."

Across the country, volunteers are helping to support efforts to bring broadband to their local communities. In Vermont, a community-based solution known as Communications Union Districts brings organizations of two or more towns together to build communication infrastructure together. Volunteers from electric co-ops have also brought supplies and line crews to the Navajo Nation.

South has not only focused on broadband-related maps but on maps related to other subjects as well. He has also mapped police calls to domestic disputes, which he said, showed a correlation between calls and economic stressors. Additionally, he has mapped rural hospital closures and the impact on low-income residents and other demographic data.

South said the biggest challenge to Bastrop County is people educating themselves as to how to think and work with a system like the one he worked with.

"That's always been the biggest challenge to me," he said. "People don't know what they don't know about what can be done."


Kristi Eaton wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.


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