2022 Panhandle Rural Fellows Introduction

Jenny Nixon Author

10/04/2024 Added

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Some of the 2022 Panhandle rural fellows introduce themselves and their projects. Recorded 6/8/2022.

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[00:00:00.620]There we go. So good morning. We've got a lot of new people on today so I think let's do a set of introductions, just because we have so many new people and give a little name and then where you're from and what you do that would be awesome.
[00:00:15.840]So I'm Jenny Nixon, I work for the University of Nebraska Extension as a rural prosperity educator, and I'm in the very northwest corner you can see Mexico is ahead of me but that's that's my sign, the sign in the community that I work in, and it happens to be facing south it's not spelled quite right but it's just the humor of the community that I work in and I love that.
[00:00:41.640]I work across the North panhandle so Sudha, Sheridan, Cherry.
[00:00:45.620]Box Butte counties and down into the central Sandhills as well.
[00:00:50.620]All right, I'm going to kind of go come and call on folks so Jamie since you were the nice person to host this open the host session tell us who you are.
[00:01:00.620]I am Jenny's counterpart in the southern panhandle I'm an extension educator for rural prosperity Nebraska, my offices in Sydney but I cover nine counties.
[00:01:13.620]And Chelsea.
[00:01:15.620]Chelsea harrian I'm the executive director of box view Development Corporation, and also a community host to three fellows.
[00:01:26.620]Mike are you got a minute.
[00:01:30.620]Yes.
[00:01:31.620]Mike virgin Valentine, I am the economic development director although Dr. Grace and Karen my question that because I think since they came on board I've probably been gone more than I've been here.
[00:01:42.620]And now I'm here, I'm back.
[00:01:44.620]And grace and Karen are on there with Dr. Grace's picture and everything there so we'll let them introduce themselves but we're getting things underway with the two world fellows and I'm excited to see the things that they are going to get done with us for this
[00:01:59.620]summer.
[00:02:01.620]Dr. Grace go go right ahead and introduce yourself.
[00:02:08.620]I am grace grace my Bella, I'm a medical doctor.
[00:02:13.620]And I'm actually an MPH student at UNMC role fellow in Valentine. We are with the big mic here.
[00:02:24.620]And who's with you then.
[00:02:26.620]Okay, I'm Corrine and I'm a senior at TNN.
[00:02:32.620]And is Valentine treating you well.
[00:02:35.620]Yes, we are gaining weight here.
[00:02:39.620]Awesome. Awesome.
[00:02:42.620]Let's introduce the people in your screen.
[00:02:48.620]So I'm sure a two. I'm the small business outreach and PR coordinator here with the city of Scottsbluff, and we are a host community to to will actually six but we have two of our own role fellows here with us today and I'll let them make their own
[00:03:02.620]introductions. Yeah, so I'm Lauren Campbell I go to you and K, and spending my summer in Scottsbluff and getting.
[00:03:11.620]So, I'm Esther in W just and I'm here working with Sharon and Lauren in Scottsbluff and Gary.
[00:03:21.620]Excellent. Stacey you're next on my screen.
[00:03:25.620]I'm Stacey Pafford I'm with Phelps County Development Corporation, and we do economic development for Phelps County.
[00:03:33.620]Ben wash.
[00:03:35.620]I see you next.
[00:03:38.620]Yeah, my name is been walking down by.
[00:03:40.620]So, I'm, I'm a good to you I know I'm a senior there and I'm working with faith here in Chadron Nebraska, along with Jenny K.
[00:03:53.620]And very, very. Yeah, so we are the, like, we're like real students here and we're having some pretty good summer projects, working guy. And, yeah, excited to been a good journey so far.
[00:04:09.620]Awesome faith, how about you.
[00:04:14.620]Hi, I'm faith. I'm working with Ben who just introduced himself and working under Jenny and Carrie and Terry, and I shared and ensued counties and, yeah, I think Ben covered what we're doing pretty well excited for the summer.
[00:04:31.620]Yeah.
[00:04:35.620]Deb Cotty is the director for Northwest Nebraska Development Corporation.
[00:04:38.620]And I've had the pleasure of meeting both of the interns that are going to be here this summer.
[00:04:43.620]We're looking forward to having a good year. It's beautiful weather we finally have some summer and some sunshine so happy to see all the new faces spending some time in Western Nebraska this year.
[00:04:57.620]Eric.
[00:05:00.620]Hi, my name is Eric Pulver. I'm a MPH student at UNMC, like Grace.
[00:05:07.620]I'm here in alliance with Chelsea, and two other rural fellows who aren't here. Currently, Elizabeth and Landon there on that Arc Tour.
[00:05:16.620]And so I'm working with Chelsea, and I'm doing some work at the Alliance Recreation Center.
[00:05:23.620]Connie.
[00:05:31.620]Connie Shell, there we go. Yep. Okay, I'm Connie Shell and I'm the mayor of Crawford Nebraska.
[00:05:36.620]Brandy.
[00:05:41.620]Hi everybody, my name is Brandy O'Malley I am the SourceLink Nebraska Network Navigator, and we are housed here out of Nebraska Business Development Center at UNO in Omaha.
[00:05:55.620]Lauren.
[00:06:01.620]Good morning, Lauren Sheridan Simonson with the city of Neely Village of Clearwater
[00:06:05.620]and I do economic development in both those communities and try to assist in the county efforts as well.
[00:06:14.620]We have @JeremyHL.
[00:06:18.620]Hey Jenny, Professor Jeremy Lipshultz here. Sorry I'm on the phone.
[00:06:22.620]We had a nasty hailstorm last night in Midtown Omaha and I had a river of hail running down the front of the property here.
[00:06:32.620]So I've been out cleaning up.
[00:06:34.620]I'm not fit for camera right now, but at any rate, there are a couple of rural fellows up in Stanton, Nebraska.
[00:06:40.620]And we're working as kind of a subject matter expert through the UNO Social Media Lab to help businesses there up their game in terms of Google presence and social media engagement.
[00:06:55.620]Awesome. And so you are also the phone number that I'm seeing.
[00:07:00.620]That is probably correct. I guess I'm not logged in through UNO.
[00:07:03.620]I know I didn't. I just jumped in the house to hear this.
[00:07:06.620]And so I'm just on my phone right now. Excellent.
[00:07:11.620]All right. Well, I'd like to have Benoit and Faith give us just a little background on there.
[00:07:16.620]They've had, what, a week here in town. And so they have jumped in with two feet and started lots of stuff.
[00:07:25.620]So between the two of you, what would you say is something that you're really excited about working on?
[00:07:32.620]I can start. I'm just really excited about all of our projects that we're working on.
[00:07:39.620]Specifically, we're working under Terry Haynes, doing some stuff with the ESU that I'm excited about,
[00:07:45.620]that I'm working on currently because we're doing a lot of brochure design and stuff like that.
[00:07:50.620]And if you know me, you know that I like designing things. So in my major is ag communications.
[00:07:57.620]So it's a very easy way that I can apply some of the things that I've been learning in classes.
[00:08:01.620]But all of the projects that we've been doing, they all have a certain way for me to be a little creative and let that love for designing things kind of flow while also helping our community.
[00:08:13.620]So, yeah, I'm excited for everything, but I've really just been enjoying the brochures currently.
[00:08:20.620]And what are you thinking? Yeah.
[00:08:25.620]So my projects right now I'm working on is to create maps.
[00:08:30.620]Maps that are used by tourists that come here in Shadran and like farmers market trails or any other touristic apps or like maps that people need to use.
[00:08:45.620]So I've been working on them and all I'm trying to do is just to make something modern and representable, but also accessible by the society.
[00:08:59.620]And at the end of the day, we don't want to make things that are too complicated for people to use.
[00:09:04.620]We will want to use some good maps, good looking or good design maps, but also that are user friendly.
[00:09:14.620]And that's going to help boost the tourist of the touristic department or activities here in Shadran.
[00:09:23.620]Thanks. So Ben, would you give your background too?
[00:09:28.620]We know that you are exceedingly skilled in a lot of these things, but also why did you come to a community to work for the summer?
[00:09:41.620]Yeah, I came from East Africa, a country called Rwanda, so I'm a national student at UNL.
[00:09:47.620]And my major is conservation agriculture with a concentration in computer science and leadership.
[00:09:57.620]I've been having internships that had to do with conservation agriculture or computer science, but I haven't really had some sort of experience with my leadership or have a place to apply the skills that I've learned in my leadership and communication.
[00:10:19.620]So I needed a perfect or a good design program that would help me.
[00:10:26.620]Get myself into a community where I can have a place to just apply all the skills that I've learned. So, it happens that this program was an ideal program for me and a perfect one.
[00:10:40.620]So, yeah, I've been living in like in just Lincoln.
[00:10:46.620]Also on campus since my freshman year so I haven't lived in the community so it was the first experience to me.
[00:10:55.620]And it was kind of like, I wasn't even just well prepared to be in it but you know, I've had good people here.
[00:11:05.620]I've got an opportunity to meet to be introduced to different community members I've met with Deb and yeah other different good people here so which kind of helped me you know get myself in the community, you know, and get to start working with people
[00:11:21.620]so it's been a good experience and eye opening.
[00:11:24.620]There's, you know, good stuff here so yeah.
[00:11:29.620]What was eye opening for you.
[00:11:32.620]I'm actually the culture, how people cut very different from back home, maybe how the way people leave.
[00:11:43.620]I was telling faith that here like everyone is like waving at you know like you pass by the road and everyone is like, you know, so, but that good people and very welcoming.
[00:11:53.620]So, it's a different culture different environment to different people.
[00:11:58.620]I had to twist my articulation a little bit for people to be able to understand me you know. So, yeah, all this fun experience.
[00:12:09.620]Awesome. Faith I want to have you give a little background from your perspective as well so and what made you want to come to a rural community.
[00:12:20.620]Yeah, so I actually grew up in a rural community.
[00:12:22.620]I actually grew up in a rural community in northeast Nebraska called Carol. It's home to about 240 people so I went to school in Wayne, but I'm currently studying at UNL and Lincoln.
[00:12:34.620]And although there are definitely some conveniences of being in Lincoln for the whole school year. I definitely just found myself getting tired of seeing buildings.
[00:12:44.620]I would tell my friends and family about that all the time. And they're like, well, you need to make sure you get out of Lincoln for the summer.
[00:12:51.620]And then I discovered the Rural Fellows internship. I thought it was a great opportunity for me just because, you know, I knew that I would be in a rural community and I would be able just to kind of get back into the lifestyle that I love and just have missed while I've been at school while also being placed in a community that I can contribute to with my skill set that I've been developing in college.
[00:13:15.620]I'm still kind of deciding on what I want to do after graduation.
[00:13:20.620]So I thought this is a really cool opportunity for me to get to serve communities, and like the lifestyle that I love while also getting experience in like a potential area that I could work in in the future, and also like not having to make a big decision
[00:13:34.620]on like what type of internship I want to do kind of left it up to be decided for me to get that experience. So then I could experience something that maybe I won't have thought of.
[00:13:45.620]So have you seen anything eye opening even though you come from a rural Nebraska community.
[00:13:49.620]I'm going to have to agree with Ben the culture out here is definitely different than it is at home and definitely different than it is in Lincoln.
[00:14:00.620]I don't know. I don't know how to describe it but like, it's different than Lincoln because like Ben said everyone waves to you. And like if I go out on a bike ride during the evenings, people will stop me and talk to me.
[00:14:13.620]That doesn't happen in Lincoln if that happened in Lincoln I would be scared.
[00:14:18.620]Yeah, that's something that I've really enjoyed here.
[00:14:21.620]And at home, I feel like people are like, I don't know, I feel like it's more like I get to work at my own pace, and like, do what I need to out here which is really nice, like the working culture is different, but it's a nice type of different,
[00:14:39.620]because at home, there's like so many like hard deadlines and like you're just going going going here if I need to take longer time for a project.
[00:14:47.620]I have the freedom to do that and I think that's really nice. And I don't know I've just really enjoyed the atmosphere while I've been out here it's been a lot different than I expected it to be I kind of expected it to be like at home because Wayne's about the
[00:15:01.620]same size as Shadron, but it's different in culture, and just how everyone interacts but it's a good kind of different and I really enjoy it.
[00:15:12.620]Awesome.
[00:15:14.620]So I'm wondering if there are any other real fellows who might have questions.
[00:15:16.620]There are several fellows who might have experiences they'd like to share with the group today.
[00:15:25.620]I guess I can speak on that. So, I'm Elizabeth Prenticek, this is Landon Bish, and we're in Alliance Boxview County. We actually just got back and joined a little late, we were at the arc so the Alliance Rec Center and we were getting floor plans so we can help,
[00:15:43.620]hopefully, help them with
[00:15:45.620]possible expansions and renovations, helping them see what they have where they want to go.
[00:15:52.620]Let me see so I am also from a rural community, I'm from Brainerd, 350 people. So that's kind of what pushed me to do Rural Fellows was kind of returning back to my roots, getting out of the city for a while like Faith said, and I'm just very excited.
[00:16:12.620]I've loved Alliance so far.
[00:16:14.620]It reminds me of the smaller towns around my house like Seward, David City, and everyone here is just like so friendly we went on a little scooter rides the other night and some people stopped us like they're sitting on their front porch and they asked us how our ride was.
[00:16:29.620]And they want to hear all about it things we saw, we said we were new to town. So everyone has been so welcoming, even though they don't even know that we're new to town.
[00:16:39.620]Enjoying it.
[00:16:42.620]And you in particular are working with.
[00:16:43.620]You in particular are working with the College of Architecture. And so maybe that's a little different than some of the other role fellows in that you have a professor that you've worked under before you've had in class, and is who is helping to direct some
[00:16:56.620]of the, the work that you do. Is that correct.
[00:16:59.620]Yep. So, but Shana felt is really helping us kind of get direction with where we need to go, because since we've only done two years of architecture. There's not a whole lot that we can do in terms of.
[00:17:12.620]Actual proposals and floor plans and stuff like that but it's great having that that guidance.
[00:17:18.620]In addition to the host team here in the lines.
[00:17:25.620]So Eric you are also in alliance, and you, you're coming from a little different direction you want to give us some of that background.
[00:17:33.620]Yeah, sure.
[00:17:35.620]So, unlike faith and Elizabeth and land and I am not from a small town at all.
[00:17:41.620]I have lived in Omaha my almost my entire life.
[00:17:46.620]I lived in Miller Western Omaha until I was about 22, and then for the last decade, I've lived in near South Omaha near downtown.
[00:17:57.620]And so, coming to a rural community is a very large culture difference for me.
[00:18:06.620]And, but as I've been here, one of the things that I've kind of at least.
[00:18:10.620]It's a way for me to understand a little better as I kind of see alliances just a really big neighborhood.
[00:18:17.620]And, you know, everyone sort of knows each other and like you know you have all of the things that a normal neighborhood would have, and back in Omaha, you know a lot of people talk about living in the big city but they don't leave their neighborhoods.
[00:18:31.620]And so, you know, one of one of the things I always kind of joke about is that I very rarely go west of 72nd Street anymore.
[00:18:39.620]I have in the last 10 years, and you know, Omaha goes out to, I think, 250th Street at this point.
[00:18:46.620]And so, you know, it was a little bit different but I've kind of been able to adapt into a pretty well.
[00:18:54.620]And the difference between Elizabeth and Landon and myself is that I actually am working on some emergency preparedness stuff.
[00:19:04.620]Currently, working on a continuity plan for the Alliance Recreation Center.
[00:19:08.620]The Alliance Recreation Center the arc.
[00:19:11.620]And I'm also working on a personal preparedness activity for their summer camp, so they've got about 60 K through fifth grade kids at their summer camp and I'm kind of creating a little 30 minute activity.
[00:19:24.620]And at the end of July. I'm going to go back to Omaha pick my dog up and all his preparedness items that I have for him and bring him back here so that he can kind of give a little bit more of an.
[00:19:37.620]A little bit more of an fun part to this activity because, like I say, I'm in emergency preparedness, and, you know, I would be bored to tears to have to listen to personal preparedness for half an hour so I can't imagine how much a K through fifth
[00:19:51.620]graders are going to feel.
[00:19:53.620]So, so yeah so that's what I'm kind of doing.
[00:19:57.620]And anything else, anything that sort of Elizabeth and Landon might need, you know I kind of can help them there but yeah, we're kind of running two different paths.
[00:20:06.620]We're running two different paths out here, but we're getting a lot of stuff done.
[00:20:13.620]Okay.
[00:20:14.620]What about the other ones of you who haven't had a chance to speak up who would like to give us a little view of their summer plans.
[00:20:23.620]That's what will go up the girls kind of explain a little bit. Yeah. So, for a week since that stuff here we're working with the proposed creative district, and we're going around the downtown community
[00:20:35.620]and working with local businesses to gather information through surveys. And once we've gathered all that information we're going to create a database to help, like, making plans with the creative district after we leave and that kind of thing.
[00:20:56.620]And they just started that on Monday and they're hitting the ground running as well so they're gathering a lot of great Intel for us so they've been fabulous.
[00:21:04.620]Excellent. How about Valentine.
[00:21:13.620]So where should I start.
[00:21:16.620]So tell us why you wanted to come to Valentine on this opportunity.
[00:21:20.620]Okay, so, first of all, I, I decided to come in Valentine, because I before coming in the US, I was working as a medical doctor with riff in the refugee camp.
[00:21:33.620]In the rural area of my, of my country in Central Africa, Republic of Congo so I always been interesting rural communities because I in my country, which, which now is I think it's the same in the US, you have a F disparity between the urban
[00:21:56.620]community and the rural community, for instance, we only have in one of the rural communities.
[00:22:02.620]One of the rural community where I was working only one healthcare center for more than 1000 people, which is not a lot. So, we have an issue when it comes to workforce, you don't have a lot of people working there.
[00:22:16.620]You don't have enough opportunities so that's why I always consider myself as an advocate of rural cause. So, when I had the announcement at UNMC
[00:22:31.620]about the Rural Fellow, I wanted to come and see if my experience in rural Africa will be the same as in rural Nebraska.
[00:22:41.620]So, it's a little bit different because in the US, the expectations are different, but we still have the same issue.
[00:22:50.620]For example, the project that I'm working on right now is about a community childcare center because we have an issue in Valentine.
[00:23:00.620]We don't have high quality care when it's come to childcare and that's as a public health, it's not impacting not only the kids, because they don't have a community appropriate community care, but it's also going to impact the whole community.
[00:23:19.620]Because if you have a job here and you have a big family but you don't have access to the childcare for your children, you might leave the town.
[00:23:29.620]And if you leave the town, it's a low workforce for Valentine, which will have a negative impact on the economic development.
[00:23:38.620]So I think working on the childcare for me as a maternal and child health student, it's a way for me to improve the health of the town.
[00:23:49.620]So I think I'm gaining double, first of all, as an experience to work in a rural area in the US,
[00:23:58.620]but also as an MPH student to apply all the knowledge that I've gained for my first year.
[00:24:07.620]Are you both working on that childcare issues?
[00:24:10.620]No, I'm just working on the recreation trades.
[00:24:17.620]And what is your background?
[00:24:20.620]I'm from Rwanda and I'm a student at UNL.
[00:24:27.620]And also the reason that I chose to come here is because I like to work in a peaceful place and Valentine is the best place to live in.
[00:24:40.620]And I also wanted to add some value in developing some little areas.
[00:24:48.620]So you both said you were gaining weight. Are they just feeding you too much?
[00:24:56.620]They're not feeding us too much, but it was a bit difficult after work.
[00:25:01.620]Corinne and I, we don't really have extra, I can say, curricular activities.
[00:25:06.620]So most of the time when we end up after five, we don't really have any activity.
[00:25:11.620]We don't go out late at night. So we we just stay in our in our house and watching a lot of Netflix.
[00:25:20.620]So I think that's why we are gaining weight. But because, Corinne,
[00:25:24.400]on recreation and parks, so I think we will start working out a bit.
[00:25:29.200]Yeah, you might actually have to kayak down the river, and I don't know, you got any wild
[00:25:36.960]cows that need ridden, Mike?
[00:25:40.440]Actually, they canceled the wild cow riding over at Bassett next week because they didn't
[00:25:45.460]have enough teams.
[00:25:46.460]I never thought about signing these guys up, but they have some other things going on.
[00:25:51.560]But I have to apologize to Grace and Corinne because we got here, we went through pre-academy,
[00:25:58.220]and then I left on Friday and was gone for a week.
[00:26:02.620]And so we tried to line them out with a few things to get going.
[00:26:05.900]And Kyle, who is our mayor and the co-lead on this project, was during academy, let's
[00:26:12.680]say he was gone to Costa Rica for a week.
[00:26:16.320]So we've kind of left them out there just on their own to figure out what the heck's
[00:26:20.560]going on.
[00:26:21.560]But now I'm back and we'll be meeting later today and kind of get things lined up.
[00:26:25.880]But Grace has already hit the ground with visiting with the CEO of the hospital a couple
[00:26:30.180]of times.
[00:26:31.180]And Corinne, we have a grant to plan some recreation trails through the National Park
[00:26:36.980]Service and they're coming.
[00:26:39.960]I think that meeting's next week, isn't it?
[00:26:42.560]Corinne, we've got a Zoom call and then we're going to start doing some pre-work on logging
[00:26:48.160]trails and finding out how many miles of trails we have.
[00:26:51.560]What kind of condition they're in, if they're dirt or they're paved or whatever.
[00:26:55.860]And we'll start putting some of that together ahead of Cat Shiffler from the Park Service
[00:27:04.780]in Lincoln will be coming up.
[00:27:06.920]And so then we'll start GPSing some things and getting trails lined out.
[00:27:12.000]And then also places where maybe we could do some pocket parks or improvements to our
[00:27:17.300]parks.
[00:27:18.300]A couple of years ago, we had the landscape schools.
[00:27:21.560]Couple of architecture students here with Kim Wilson, and they laid out some plans for
[00:27:25.400]our city park area that I think would be doable.
[00:27:28.760]So we'll start looking to see if we can implement some things like that in the city park and
[00:27:34.620]other parks that we have around town and make it more improved quality of life issues, I
[00:27:39.440]guess, is what we're looking at.
[00:27:41.800]So I'm wondering if any other community folks want to ask questions or if you've got or
[00:27:47.320]explain a little bit more about the projects the students are working on.
[00:27:51.560]I may just comment that all of the students, whether they're from Nebraska or another country
[00:28:02.480]like Grace and Corinne, I admire them for being able to step out of a foreign country
[00:28:09.880]and come to the middle of Nebraska and then not only from Lincoln, but come out to Valentine
[00:28:15.440]and Alliance and Chatham areas.
[00:28:18.000]And I mean, when I was a young person.
[00:28:21.400]Something like that.
[00:28:22.400]I don't know if I would have had the bravery to go to a different country and do all that.
[00:28:26.640]So I admire all of them for being able to step out and do that.
[00:28:30.460]And I think it gives us in rural Nebraska a new perspective that we learn from them
[00:28:36.320]as much as they learn and help us out in the community.
[00:28:39.280]So thanks to all of you fellows.
[00:28:42.160]And I noticed you bribed them pretty well because they said Valentine was the best place.
[00:28:48.160]So I heard that the rest of us are going to have to work on that.
[00:28:51.240]I heard that too, Mike.
[00:28:53.700]How much did you pay him?
[00:28:55.480]That's a secret.
[00:28:58.020]Chelsea, do you want to add any more about maybe some of the thought process going on
[00:29:06.900]in Alliance?
[00:29:07.900]Oh, well, this has just been an ongoing process, started the end of last year.
[00:29:18.180]You know, I couldn't let Valentine have all the fun.
[00:29:21.080]With placemaking.
[00:29:22.080]So I reached out to Jenny and she connected me with the College of Architect and Design.
[00:29:28.180]So Bud and Kim.
[00:29:30.400]And so here we are, we're working away.
[00:29:33.460]We have a couple of different projects that have been going on.
[00:29:38.860]It's just right now, there's a lot of focus on the rec center for the time being so.
[00:29:47.480]And Grace I've been thinking, we actually have a new.
[00:29:50.920]Rural prosperity educator in Nebraska she's from Mexico, and she is a doctor as well.
[00:29:58.100]And very, very much wanting to understand how rural health can be more efficient for
[00:30:06.580]people in in rural areas and so she's so awesome she she actually went to work as a community
[00:30:11.740]person like me, and is coming at that the community work from that health perspective
[00:30:17.940]and sometime we might just have to get you.
[00:30:20.760]Her together to talk a little bit. Yeah, I would love to. Thank you. Awesome.
[00:30:29.240]Others jump in with what you're up to sure I know you've got a ton of stuff going on
[00:30:33.520]as well and and tell us what's got fluff and gearing are really looking to get out of this.
[00:30:40.380]Yeah, well, as Lauren kind of mentioned earlier they're working on surveys, just going around
[00:30:46.360]to all the small businesses within the proposed creative district.
[00:30:50.600]And Scott's bluff and if anybody's looked at the workbook that it takes to create a
[00:30:56.320]creative district it's pretty tedious, and we're just so thankful that we have these
[00:31:00.920]girls to kind of help us with a lot of that heavy leg work and get a lot of that tedious
[00:31:07.320]work done so that's what we're excited to have them here and Scott's bluff and then
[00:31:11.540]I know that when they move over to gearing in five weeks, they will be kind of looking
[00:31:16.120]at some grants and different options to beautify the Scott's bluff during corridor.
[00:31:20.440]So I know Carlos really excited to have them there for that but they've been doing great
[00:31:25.300]work with us so far so we're just chipping away slowly.
[00:31:27.680]It'll be a process but they started on Monday and they're getting a lot of great feedback
[00:31:32.080]so it's exciting and we have a steering committee committee meeting tomorrow so it'll be really
[00:31:37.840]great to bring a lot of that great positive feedback to that meeting and just get to moving
[00:31:42.740]forward with it.
[00:31:43.560]So that arts designation, the arts district designation is a new one by the Nebraska Arts
[00:31:49.760]Council, right?
[00:31:50.760]Yes, yes it is.
[00:31:51.840]Yeah, and Jamie's been a part of a lot of our community meetings so she's been great
[00:31:57.140]help with that as well.
[00:31:58.140]But it is newer so Nebraska is a little bit behind the eight ball with the all of that
[00:32:03.000]but we're getting there so we're excited.
[00:32:04.700]Shattern has been working on theirs as well we started just ahead of you guys and Faith
[00:32:11.620]I thought you were, are you going to help out with a little bit of that art district
[00:32:15.160]stuff too?
[00:32:16.140]Yeah, I think so.
[00:32:20.280]One of our projects that we're working on that kind of artsy is we're making a barn
[00:32:24.620]quilt trail, starting out in Harrison and hopefully eventually it'll move Eastern more
[00:32:31.380]into like Crawford and Shattern.
[00:32:33.060]And we're working with Rose Maple she's done barn quilt trails all over Nebraska and I
[00:32:41.680]think she's working she's hoping to eventually have it be like all across Nebraska there's
[00:32:45.900]barn quilt trails.
[00:32:46.640]So we're actually going out to Harrison tomorrow.
[00:32:50.140]And we will be contacting businesses and seeing who's interested in making a barn quilt and
[00:32:56.360]we will host a workshop for them.
[00:32:57.960]And then the end goal is to make like an interactive map that tourists can pull up on their
[00:33:05.500]phone or their tablet or wherever.
[00:33:07.840]And then they can like follow the trail to the different barn quilts and see them and
[00:33:12.280]hopefully get some tourists into downtown of the small communities and get some business
[00:33:18.020]down there.
[00:33:20.000]And are you going to be painting on one of the buildings, what, this weekend?
[00:33:23.060]Yeah.
[00:33:24.840]One of our volunteer opportunities that we can do is helping paint murals in Shadron.
[00:33:31.280]There's an art alley where I think they make two or three murals each year throughout the
[00:33:37.120]summer.
[00:33:37.380]And I got to help with one last Saturday and it was like actually on top of a building.
[00:33:42.720]It was kind of interesting.
[00:33:43.740]It was a fun time trying to find the building to paint the mural, but so we finished up
[00:33:49.540]one.
[00:33:49.860]Last weekend.
[00:33:50.460]And then we're going to be working on one this weekend as well.
[00:33:54.540]And yeah, if you ever find your way out to Shadron, you should come out and look at the
[00:33:58.400]murals.
[00:33:58.740]They're beautiful.
[00:33:59.420]I am amazed at the talent in this town.
[00:34:01.740]That's really cool that you get to be a part of creating those as well.
[00:34:05.280]But that's a lot of fun for you.
[00:34:06.960]Yeah.
[00:34:08.400]It's kind of like I explained it to my friends as a big paint by number and it's very stress
[00:34:13.320]relieving, you know, I'm like, I will, I will do it.
[00:34:17.380]Love that.
[00:34:19.160]That's great.
[00:34:19.820]Mm-hmm.
[00:34:21.360]Jamie, are you also working with maybe a remote rural fellow?
[00:34:27.940]Yes.
[00:34:29.380]Jordan and I are sharing two remote rural fellows and I didn't get them on today's meeting.
[00:34:35.860]That's my fault.
[00:34:36.940]One will be helping me a little bit with the Sydney Creative District project.
[00:34:41.820]She is just going to collect the demographic piece for me since she's working remotely.
[00:34:48.820]I'm still trying to figure out how that's going to work remote.
[00:34:52.620]I had someone who was going to be in person, so I had to shift some projects around.
[00:34:56.980]But they are also working on a design project with Kim Wilson and Bud a little bit in Kimball County.
[00:35:06.500]That's through the Citizens Institute on Rural Design.
[00:35:09.820]They're doing some placemaking projects in Bushnell, Kimball, and Dix.
[00:35:14.960]And I think the fellows will mostly be helping with looking.
[00:35:18.780]For grants and collecting information for that.
[00:35:21.880]And then through Jordan, they are working on some leadership projects,
[00:35:26.580]collecting information on leadership programs around the state
[00:35:30.580]and how we can adapt those and pull the best pieces to create
[00:35:35.580]some really good programs to promote in our smaller communities.
[00:35:39.620]Then whatever other random projects we can find for them to do
[00:35:44.540]just to learn a little bit about community development.
[00:35:47.780]They're both
[00:35:48.720]interested in working in community development in rural areas in the future.
[00:35:53.080]Awesome.
[00:35:55.780]Questions, guys.
[00:35:58.360]Do you have any thoughts or questions or comments for for anybody?
[00:36:02.420]The third project, Jamie, that you're talking about in Kimball,
[00:36:14.780]Valentine also had a third grant, which is
[00:36:18.760]national and the endowments for the arts grant.
[00:36:22.620]And it's a creative process that was
[00:36:26.100]pretty much had a lot of latitude in how we set it up.
[00:36:30.300]And we did that a couple of years ago based around how Valentine is going to
[00:36:35.660]survive as we go through the process of tearing out
[00:36:39.920]the main street, which is underway right now.
[00:36:42.820]So we worked with
[00:36:44.100]architects and economic development people from
[00:36:49.000]actually all over the nation.
[00:36:50.400]And one guy was from Canada.
[00:36:51.940]So you're able to pull people in from a long distance away and really provide
[00:36:56.640]some great fodder for thinking about
[00:37:00.660]how Main Street businesses are going to be able to to survive during this.
[00:37:04.760]And Mike, actually, you said that,
[00:37:06.560]you know, you thought no one would be on Main Street,
[00:37:08.240]but everyone comes to watch the progress.
[00:37:11.100]Is that still true?
[00:37:12.060]You know, I think the newness of the construction
[00:37:15.300]is kind of worn off in some aspects, but
[00:37:18.540]I talked to the businesses and they're doing fine.
[00:37:22.140]There's still a sidewalk in front of all of them.
[00:37:24.100]They can park on the side street and walk down there.
[00:37:26.320]And they're actually,
[00:37:27.500]I would say like a month ahead of schedule on it.
[00:37:31.340]And they haven't found any dead bodies
[00:37:33.940]digging up the street.
[00:37:34.860]They haven't found any caches of bootleg whiskey
[00:37:38.280]from the roaring twenties or anything like that.
[00:37:40.880]But we're supposed to be doing,
[00:37:43.660]I think the first block and a half
[00:37:46.560]was gonna be done by, they wanted to
[00:37:48.480]be done by July 4th.
[00:37:50.160]And they're already three blocks into it.
[00:37:53.940]And they're starting to pave on the north part of it
[00:37:56.440]and put things back to open that up.
[00:37:59.480]So there was a rumor from some of the construction people
[00:38:03.160]that they thought if it keeps going this well,
[00:38:05.780]knock on wood, they could be done this fall.
[00:38:08.900]If the weather would hold,
[00:38:09.800]they could do a two year project in one year.
[00:38:12.580]So still a lot to do, but it's going really well.
[00:38:16.940]But that surge process,
[00:38:18.420]it was a lot of work,
[00:38:19.620]but it really helped us lay a foundation
[00:38:22.200]for what we want on the Main Street
[00:38:24.020]when we put things back.
[00:38:25.720]And when somebody comes up and complains
[00:38:27.900]about putting trees on Main Street now,
[00:38:30.100]we can go, you know,
[00:38:31.220]and by the way, that was 2018, we did that, Jenny.
[00:38:34.380]So it's been four years ago, we've been planning for this.
[00:38:37.340]And basically you just say, you know,
[00:38:38.680]we had a whole vetted process for four years.
[00:38:41.860]This is the plan, this is what we're doing.
[00:38:43.600]We're not changing it at this point.
[00:38:45.860]So, you know, that kind of,
[00:38:48.360]what the mayor's standpoint has been on it.
[00:38:50.380]If they come to the council and complain about something,
[00:38:52.920]he lets them say their piece and says,
[00:38:54.860]we're not changing the plan.
[00:38:55.960]If we're wrong, we'll say we're wrong later
[00:38:58.200]and we'll change it.
[00:38:59.040]But for right now, this is how we're doing it.
[00:39:01.080]But we had a great participation.
[00:39:04.580]I think we had almost 200 people
[00:39:07.820]that attended over three days of meetings.
[00:39:11.420]And then we also had a survey that was a community survey
[00:39:14.020]that was taken by, we had almost 250 responses
[00:39:18.300]to some surveys that we put on like Survey Monkey
[00:39:22.080]or whatever.
[00:39:23.180]And then they helped us tabulate all that up
[00:39:25.980]and put that together.
[00:39:26.820]So anyway, yeah, the CERD process was pretty interesting.
[00:39:30.780]It was fun and we learned a lot about stuff
[00:39:32.680]and set out a good plan.
[00:39:34.240]- That's one other thing I'm going to have
[00:39:39.520]our rural fellows work on is create a survey
[00:39:41.940]to put out for that CERD process.
[00:39:44.700]I think that'll be helpful.
[00:39:46.520]And Mike, I need to talk to you sometime
[00:39:48.240]about the trees because Bridgeport would like
[00:39:51.520]to put trees in their downtown
[00:39:54.040]and they've gotten some pushback from DOT, but.
[00:39:57.440]- From DOT?
[00:40:00.720]- That's who they told me they ran into issues with.
[00:40:04.480]- See, we engaged DOT early on.
[00:40:07.160]They were at all of our meetings and, you know,
[00:40:10.760]everybody kept saying, oh, you can't do this
[00:40:12.440]and you can't do that.
[00:40:13.260]And we turned to the DOT guys and say, can we do that?
[00:40:15.320]And they go, yeah, nobody's asked.
[00:40:18.180]Nobody's asked us before, but we can do that.
[00:40:20.660]And so, yeah, it's gonna cost the city
[00:40:22.740]a little bit more money to do things the way we want to
[00:40:26.460]when they put it back and make it look special,
[00:40:29.000]not just the galvanized street lights, you know,
[00:40:31.680]that come up overhead,
[00:40:32.680]but put on some decorative street lights
[00:40:36.300]and those kinds of things that meet DOT requirements
[00:40:40.100]and everything.
[00:40:41.600]But almost anything we wanted to do, they were like,
[00:40:45.000]yeah, we can do that.
[00:40:45.840]You wanna leave a hole in the concrete and the sidewalk
[00:40:48.120]and a tree, we'll do that.
[00:40:50.400]So yeah, I'm surprised that they were pushing back on trees
[00:40:56.300]'cause the DOT was not the pushback that they had on trees.
[00:40:59.620]We had a couple of business owners that just insisted
[00:41:01.860]that it was gonna block their signage.
[00:41:04.160]They were gonna track in leaves into their store.
[00:41:07.540]It was gonna be dirty.
[00:41:08.480]The birds were gonna poop on cars
[00:41:10.500]that parked underneath them.
[00:41:12.120]And I said, well, first of all, these are six foot trees.
[00:41:14.640]Nobody's parking underneath them for the next 15 years.
[00:41:18.060]It's gonna take a while to get to that point.
[00:41:20.240]But, and there's still some people,
[00:41:22.360]one of the most adamant anti-tree people the other day
[00:41:27.360]cornered me at the Baumgart store and he goes,
[00:41:30.720]I need to talk to you, which is never a good sign with him.
[00:41:33.540]But he said, you know, if you're gonna do trees,
[00:41:36.320]you're missing the boat if you don't put in a watering system
[00:41:38.800]for all that right up front while they're redoing it.
[00:41:41.500]And so he's come along to the point where, all right,
[00:41:44.520]you know, we're gonna have trees, trees and vegetation.
[00:41:47.440]So you might as well do it.
[00:41:48.000]We'll do it right.
[00:41:48.940]And I said, I'm a hundred percent behind you.
[00:41:51.380]You know, I agree.
[00:41:53.480]We need to go back to the city and say,
[00:41:55.060]we need an extra, how many ever thousands of dollars
[00:41:57.880]it would take to put in some type of watering system.
[00:41:59.980]So it takes less city time to go take care of trees
[00:42:04.240]and water them every week or whatever, but.
[00:42:07.140]- That's good to know.
[00:42:09.260]I might reach out to DOT directly
[00:42:12.720]and see if there was just a miscommunication there.
[00:42:16.220]- Yeah, I don't know who your district manager is.
[00:42:17.940]- Our district manager is out there.
[00:42:18.880]Ours is Mark Kovar from Ainsworth.
[00:42:21.480]And we actually had,
[00:42:24.340]Mark was here at about all the meetings that,
[00:42:27.160]it was Sean Weiss, was that his name, Jenny,
[00:42:29.900]that was the head of the DOT at the time.
[00:42:32.100]There's a new guy there now, but he did not come,
[00:42:35.440]but we did talk to him during the process a couple of times
[00:42:38.620]and he said his second in command was there
[00:42:41.500]for most all of the meetings.
[00:42:43.840]And the ones that we got pushback from, it wasn't DOT,
[00:42:47.880]it was the engineers who designed.
[00:42:50.240]And that was with Olson and Associates,
[00:42:54.200]was the guy that was designing it.
[00:42:55.700]And they were the ones that were kind of like,
[00:42:57.900]"Oh, wow, we can't do that."
[00:42:59.620]And then they turned to the DOT and they'd go,
[00:43:01.820]"Well, yeah, we can do that."
[00:43:02.980]"Well, all right, we'll do that."
[00:43:05.240]But I think they wanted to design it as fast and easy
[00:43:08.620]and template design with nothing new and changing in it.
[00:43:13.080]And it made them get out of their comfort zone
[00:43:15.060]a little bit, but it still worked, so.
[00:43:17.820]Yeah, that was an awesome process.
[00:43:20.760]And we can certainly link you up with some people that
[00:43:24.680]helped sort that out and how did we
[00:43:27.960]get those people at the table.
[00:43:30.340]And now that they've done it, I think
[00:43:31.960]DOT sees that that's really something
[00:43:34.200]they need to be doing in communities that
[00:43:35.860]are really interested.
[00:43:39.280]Awesome.
[00:43:42.360]Other comments, other questions?
[00:43:47.760]What's one thing that all of you ROW
[00:43:50.360]fellows want to do before the end of the summer?
[00:43:52.440]What's something that's on your list to get done?
[00:43:55.820]Fun, not work.
[00:43:58.880]These girls have something to add with that.
[00:44:01.400]Yes, we've been making plans to hike the monument in Scotts Bluff.
[00:44:05.740]So we're excited to do that.
[00:44:08.200]They want to avoid the rattlesnakes at all costs.
[00:44:10.620]They said yesterday that's their only thing.
[00:44:12.660]So lots of hiking plan for the summer.
[00:44:16.320]I think Ben,
[00:44:17.700]was a little frightened by one of our spring rainstorms.
[00:44:21.840]We took them out to Toadstool, my husband and I,
[00:44:24.020]and we're watching the rain.
[00:44:26.540]I mean, we knew where it was and watch, watch, watch.
[00:44:28.840]And before it hit, we got in the car,
[00:44:30.940]got back to the pavement and then pretty soon, whoosh,
[00:44:33.800]you know, a little more storm than he was ready for.
[00:44:38.800]- We have a whole list of things for Grace and Corrine to do,
[00:44:47.640]river trips and lake trips and, you know,
[00:44:50.820]some of those kinds of outdoor recreational things
[00:44:53.040]that we're going to teach them to play golf.
[00:44:55.240]- Cowboy Fast Draw.
[00:44:58.500]- We'll get them to Cowboy Fast Draw
[00:45:00.400]and we're going to teach them to drive.
[00:45:03.360]My son already started lessons.
[00:45:06.240]So yeah, it's, they're going to be,
[00:45:12.280]we're going to keep them busy now that I'm back
[00:45:15.280]to keep a high hand on things, we're going to
[00:45:17.580]try to keep them involved in the more stuff.
[00:45:19.260]So you're not starting with a manual
[00:45:21.260]transmission, are you?
[00:45:22.200]No, I don't have anything with a manual
[00:45:25.620]transmission.
[00:45:26.220]That's how I learned to drive with a, with
[00:45:30.480]a trailer full of horses on for the first
[00:45:32.460]time.
[00:45:32.880]Oh, really?
[00:45:33.420]No pressure.
[00:45:34.460]No, it's going to.
[00:45:37.420]So anyway, yeah, we've got some fun things
[00:45:39.220]lined up that I'm fortunate that I have all
[00:45:43.420]three of my children live here that are adults
[00:45:45.520]from, I don't know, the oldest ones
[00:45:47.520]38 and the youngest ones 31 or whatever.
[00:45:49.640]And so there's some other contacts here
[00:45:53.760]in the in the area that they've met.
[00:45:56.320]I think they might not have met Timber,
[00:45:58.640]our middle son.
[00:45:59.780]But anyway, so well, you know, they've got
[00:46:03.020]people to reach out to to partake in some
[00:46:05.860]activities and that kind of stuff, too.
[00:46:07.520]I just kind of abandoned them for the
[00:46:12.400]first week.
[00:46:13.240]So.
[00:46:14.420]Well, you guys can always reach
[00:46:17.460]out over here and I'm thinking we might
[00:46:19.320]have to have a little road trip to
[00:46:20.580]Valentine just because it sounds like so
[00:46:22.160]much fun and you guys are certainly
[00:46:24.440]welcome to come to Shattern as well.
[00:46:26.160]I can tell Chelsea and Jenny that I had
[00:46:33.760]a guy that we shoot Cowboy Fast Draw with
[00:46:35.500]the other day and said he works for TK
[00:46:38.300]Angus and every year they have a
[00:46:40.380]production sale, but they they go
[00:46:42.940]through this time of the year and they
[00:46:44.400]they sort out the bulls that aren't going
[00:46:47.400]to make the production sale, the ones
[00:46:48.840]that don't have form and stuff that they
[00:46:51.040]want. So then they make them not bulls
[00:46:53.360]anymore. And so he called the other day
[00:46:57.920]and he goes, hey, he said, are you
[00:46:59.020]interested in some mountain oysters?
[00:47:01.440]And I'm like, hmm, this will be
[00:47:05.600]interesting. So, yes, I have a supply
[00:47:07.680]that you guys come over and we'll do a
[00:47:10.140]mountain oyster feed. I'm in.
[00:47:12.140]Now, I think Faith comes from a dairy farm
[00:47:17.340]and so I'm pretty sure she's got a good
[00:47:19.340]handle on that. Ben may have to Google it
[00:47:22.720]or something. I was going to say, you
[00:47:24.120]might have to explain that for some of
[00:47:26.300]them. No, I'm going to let them Google it.
[00:47:28.200]I'm going to let them get their phone
[00:47:30.860]out. I was just explaining that to these
[00:47:33.000]girls. We're going to have to take them
[00:47:35.300]out and try some as well. The original
[00:47:38.640]sack lunch is how Valentine's restaurants
[00:47:41.180]promote it. Yes. Not exactly a topic for
[00:47:46.660]a rural rendezvous.
[00:47:47.280]But it's always fun. They're getting the
[00:47:52.340]full rural experience. That's right.
[00:47:55.380]That's right. I think Bud, Kim's been
[00:47:59.860]there, but Bud hasn't been there yet. So
[00:48:01.500]maybe Bud needs a little experience too.
[00:48:03.380]Yeah, he says he's going to pitch a tent
[00:48:06.220]on my ranch and sleep under the stars
[00:48:08.960]with the cows. So it's all exciting and
[00:48:14.340]you guys are in the most exciting place
[00:48:16.400]in the world.
[00:48:17.220]I guarantee it. You're going to have so
[00:48:18.860]much fun all summer long.
[00:48:20.340]Anything else you want to contribute to
[00:48:25.380]the group? Anybody?
[00:48:26.620]Sean, you were awfully quiet this time.
[00:48:33.460]Bingo.
[00:48:34.100]No, I'm taking it all in. I was myself a
[00:48:38.440]fellow in grad school and an overseas
[00:48:40.760]fellow in Papua New Guinea. So I've had
[00:48:42.440]both experiences interning with these
[00:48:45.460]types of things overseas and abroad
[00:48:47.160]and abroad. So really glad to see the
[00:48:49.940]international flavor. This is great for
[00:48:51.680]our communities and it's great for the
[00:48:53.120]students. And I'm a resource as well. I'm
[00:48:58.300]like Jenny and Jamie on the phone for
[00:49:01.360]the students. I am a extension educator
[00:49:03.660]based out of Broken Bow, which is on the
[00:49:06.300]eastern edge of the Sandhills. And so
[00:49:09.360]you can see by my office today down in
[00:49:11.720]the basement of the courthouse. So with
[00:49:14.800]the paneling on the wall. And
[00:49:17.100]yeah, like Jamie had offered and Jenny,
[00:49:19.880]we're here as a resource, especially if
[00:49:21.820]you're doing background research for a
[00:49:23.360]project and you need data. I'm kind of a
[00:49:25.420]data nerd. So reach out to me in that
[00:49:28.060]respects. And we have another resource,
[00:49:29.540]Caitlin Plesak, with extension that
[00:49:32.140]kind of can help with that as well. So
[00:49:33.920]Jeremy, you're you're invited to get out
[00:49:37.800]of Omaha and come west. Well, I'm going
[00:49:45.540]up to Stanton at the end of the
[00:49:47.040]month. They had a demolition derby up
[00:49:50.520]there on the weekend, and I didn't get up
[00:49:52.900]to that. I'm going to get up to Stanton.
[00:49:55.060]Got one in Harrison. We got one in
[00:49:57.760]Chadron. We got we got many coming up. So
[00:50:00.520]you can come and get your fill of those
[00:50:03.020]rodeos and and Western events.
[00:50:05.860]Ranch Rodeo in Kimball is this weekend
[00:50:11.500]for anyone who would like to attend. They
[00:50:13.940]have some fun events like Wild Cow Milk
[00:50:16.980]King.
[00:50:17.420]And they're not kidding. That is a real
[00:50:20.940]thing.
[00:50:21.280]Yeah.
[00:50:22.880]All righty, guys, I think you're looking
[00:50:28.960]for a really awesome time this summer
[00:50:32.480]and we will be seeing more of you in the
[00:50:35.940]future.
[00:50:36.280]All right. We'll see you in a month, guys.
[00:50:40.680]All right. Thank you, everybody.
[00:50:42.340]Thank you.
[00:50:46.920]- Thanks.
[00:50:47.760]Thank you.

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2022 Panhandle Rural Fellows Introduction

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