Lead for Nebraska

Jenny Nixon Author

02/04/2025 Added

4 Plays

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Presentation from Lead for Nebraska. Recorded August 11, 2021.

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[00:00:00.000]Thank you.
[00:00:29.980]Thank you.
[00:00:59.960]Thanks again.
[00:01:00.300]Sean, are you running the show today, or is Jenny?
[00:01:02.860]I don't recall Jenny asking me.
[00:01:07.420]What's the agenda?
[00:01:09.660]Are you sharing with Jesse?
[00:01:11.480]So I can do whatever I need to, but I didn't think Jenny asked me.
[00:01:16.860]So I'm guessing she's on, but I can do what Jenny needs to do.
[00:01:19.540]Well, I just wondered.
[00:01:22.580]I don't see Jenny on there, so I just wondered who initiated this whole mess.
[00:01:29.340]And I don't think she sent out an email this time, so I couldn't remember if she said she was going to cancel because of there or if there was something going on.
[00:01:44.240]Well, that's what I was just, Brianna here is a fellow with AmeriCorps, and so we were going to sit in and see what was going on today.
[00:01:54.520]And I was just hanging in, and usually Jenny's got everything set up and going before.
[00:01:59.280]So who initiated the call? Did she just set it up and we all joined vicariously or what?
[00:02:06.160]I think it's an auto setup.
[00:02:08.600]Recall seeing a message cancellation, though.
[00:02:13.280]Do any of you got any sort of?
[00:02:15.580]So, I mean, it's auto set up every two weeks, but I thought there, like you, I thought there was mention of, she said, canceling this one, but I don't see where it was canceled on her end.
[00:02:28.780]So, it's, was there an agenda topic that, I mean, did you want to, I guess, seeing your student there, talk about what you're doing on our, because I think, didn't we have some of the Dawson interns talk the last time?
[00:02:44.300]And then, Mike, I guess if you wanted, since we're here, you could talk a little bit about what you had coming up with your interns.
[00:02:52.000]Well, our interns or the rural fellows left last year.
[00:02:58.000]Last Thursday, almost a week ago, was their final project day and everything.
[00:03:03.220]And then Brianna Wirth, who's from Mead, Nebraska, is through with AmeriCorps fellow, and she started Monday.
[00:03:11.220]So we're in the process of finding her where she's going to work out of an office and those kind of things.
[00:03:18.700]She'll be here for one year and then with an option to renew if we treat her nice for a second year through Lead for Nebraska, Lead for America program.
[00:03:27.980]So trying to be really nice to her for the first 300 days of her intern. It's not an internship, it's a fellow, but maybe what would be good is if you guys wanted to introduce yourselves and then we'll have Brianna just talk a little bit about what she's doing and we can talk a little bit about what the project scope we have for her and stuff.
[00:03:48.780]Julia, do you want to start?
[00:03:52.200]Yeah, I can start. My name is Julia Hertaus.
[00:03:57.120]I'm with Panhandle Area Development District.
[00:04:00.400]My office is located in Scotts Bluff, but I serve all 11 of the Panhandle counties.
[00:04:06.400]So anything Sheridan, Garden, and Dual West.
[00:04:13.420]And I'm the community planner.
[00:04:16.760]Who wants to jump up and be next?
[00:04:26.260]I'll go to Sean.
[00:04:28.060]And I'm an extension educator with the Rural Prosperity Nebraska Initiative.
[00:04:34.180]And I have a couple or at least one new colleague that I'll introduce yourself soon.
[00:04:38.660]And I focus a lot.
[00:04:41.660]I used to be an economic development director like Mike and some other folks in Sherman County.
[00:04:47.160]And then I used to be an entrepreneurship center director.
[00:04:49.440]And I still care a lot about rural economic development and being able to support communities
[00:04:55.400]in an eight-county area that I serve in central Nebraska.
[00:04:57.760]Amanda.
[00:05:01.740]Sure.
[00:05:04.240]I'm also new.
[00:05:05.760]So I'm Amanda Kowalewski.
[00:05:06.900]I just started last week with Rural Prosperity Nebraska, kind of in northeast Nebraska.
[00:05:13.040]So I work out of Pierce and then have nine counties kind of in the northeast part of
[00:05:18.120]the state.
[00:05:18.440]So I'm also learning and figuring out what my role looks like specifically.
[00:05:23.100]But welcome aboard.
[00:05:24.860]I'm sure you're going to have a great at least year, hopefully two years.
[00:05:27.960]Jamie.
[00:05:31.720]I'm Jamie Bright.
[00:05:34.880]I work with SourceLink Nebraska.
[00:05:36.860]My office is in Kimball, but I cover the whole state.
[00:05:40.260]I'm trying to switch my glasses.
[00:05:43.320]I thought these would be less glary, but they're not bothering me.
[00:05:46.980]I am also an AmeriCorps alum, so I always like seeing AmeriCorps people.
[00:05:52.880]I did both NCCC.
[00:05:54.680]And Vista several years ago.
[00:05:57.620]Marla.
[00:06:01.920]I was an AmeriCorps intern, too.
[00:06:04.620]Sorry.
[00:06:04.940]Really?
[00:06:06.100]Okay.
[00:06:06.700]Hi, I'm Marla Marks, and I work for USDA Rural Development.
[00:06:12.980]I'm trying to get my video to work, and it's not working.
[00:06:16.480]Oh, there it goes.
[00:06:17.260]Now you can see the top of my head.
[00:06:18.480]I'm in my basement today.
[00:06:19.720]I work for USDA Rural Development.
[00:06:22.840]I cover the 11 counties in the Panhandle and the 12 counties in the southwest corner.
[00:06:27.720]I work with businesses and banks to do business expansions, transfer of ownership, new businesses.
[00:06:38.340]I also work with communities to do energy efficiency improvements for small businesses
[00:06:45.980]and ag producers, and I get to dabble in economic development with all the communities.
[00:06:53.020]So, fun job and used to get to do a lot of traveling, have been sitting either in my basement
[00:06:59.940]or my family room for the last year and a half.
[00:07:03.380]So, hopefully someday.
[00:07:04.880]Getting tired of Zoom calls, but it's nice to see you guys.
[00:07:09.360]I'm having issues with my internet, so I'm going to have to shut my video back off.
[00:07:13.720]All right.
[00:07:15.460]Thanks, Marla.
[00:07:16.340]And Don.
[00:07:22.320]Good morning, everybody.
[00:07:23.720]I'm Don Lease with Nebraska Strong Recovery Project.
[00:07:28.000]We were designed to help people find resources in communities that they live in because of
[00:07:37.680]COVID, essentially.
[00:07:38.680]We're going to be around until the end of December of this year, continuing that work
[00:07:47.580]and also working with some other things in the behavioral health.
[00:07:51.880]Health arena, trying to help folks.
[00:07:55.880]So that's kind of what we do.
[00:07:58.900]How many of you are going to be?
[00:08:02.520]You'll notice in the background, that's actually a virtual picture of the fire that was last
[00:08:08.980]year in Banner County.
[00:08:10.040]I could just step out the door and flip the camera and you could see what it looks like
[00:08:14.860]up close now.
[00:08:15.740]This year, we were involved pretty heavily in the fire that occurred here.
[00:08:21.820]Over the weekend.
[00:08:23.140]They've pretty much got that under control now, don't they, Don?
[00:08:27.760]They do.
[00:08:29.680]It is officially, I believe, contained, which means it's more likely to start a new fire
[00:08:35.560]with lightning than it is to start a fire from within the burned area.
[00:08:40.840]Yep.
[00:08:42.520]It was quite a project.
[00:08:45.100]Sean, did you just switch to a picture of a fire?
[00:08:48.460]No.
[00:08:50.480]My father.
[00:08:51.800]I saw it in the last place on the Middle Loop River.
[00:08:53.360]It looked, oh, it's cloud.
[00:08:55.180]It must be cloud.
[00:08:56.080]I thought it looked like fire.
[00:08:57.160]Are we showing fire pictures now?
[00:08:59.240]No fire pictures, just the sunrise.
[00:09:02.800]Okay.
[00:09:04.040]How many of you are going to be at NIDA at the end of this month?
[00:09:07.100]A couple.
[00:09:09.580]Sean, you're going to go?
[00:09:10.800]I'm still thinking about it.
[00:09:13.120]If we've got a couple RPN educators going already,
[00:09:15.620]I don't want to overwhelm everyone with our presence.
[00:09:19.360]I know Rex Nelson is going.
[00:09:21.380]And looks like I'm a likely right now.
[00:09:24.940]I'm begging, but I'm not sure I'm going to get to go.
[00:09:30.160]They might not let you out of the basement.
[00:09:33.960]Exactly.
[00:09:35.500]Well, maybe you're going to have to sneak out.
[00:09:38.700]Be the bad girl.
[00:09:39.860]Well, we're going to have Brianna go with us
[00:09:45.000]and help us out with some things out there.
[00:09:48.780]And she's a golfer.
[00:09:50.220]So we're going to put her on our golf team.
[00:09:51.660]So let's have, if Brianna wants to introduce herself
[00:09:56.820]and where she's from and a little bit about her background.
[00:09:59.520]That'd be good for you guys to know.
[00:10:01.740]Hello, everyone.
[00:10:04.220]It is so nice to meet you.
[00:10:05.700]My name is Brianna Worth.
[00:10:07.680]I'm originally from Meade, Nebraska.
[00:10:09.640]It's near Omaha, super small town.
[00:10:12.100]I went to college in Arizona at Grand King University in Phoenix.
[00:10:18.680]I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in Government with an emphasis in state and local public
[00:10:23.220]policy.
[00:10:23.740]I came back here to originally work for Union Pacific Railroad, but luckily, I was offered
[00:10:30.100]this fellowship position with AmeriCorps and Lead for America, and I was placed here
[00:10:35.620]in Valentine to kind of work as the development coordinator and work alongside Mike.
[00:10:40.920]And we're working on broadband infrastructure, health care, and child care.
[00:10:47.920]Workforce development, housing development, and then community public projects within
[00:10:54.540]Valentine. So any way I can honestly assist this community while I'm here,
[00:10:59.660]I am willing to do so, and I'm excited and eager to get started.
[00:11:05.000]So she's got a place to live. We talked to the city this morning about office space and those
[00:11:16.020]kind of things. So we're split.
[00:11:17.900]We're slowly kind of putting things together. And I think the first six months of her fellowship
[00:11:24.600]was kind of designed as a introduce yourself to the community and get, you know, kind of a feel
[00:11:31.260]for the community. But I think she's going to have that down in the first week. So we can jump right
[00:11:36.720]into some project in there. She'll continue. A month ago, I think we had Connor and Victor
[00:11:45.600]that were our rural fellows here.
[00:11:47.880]And they talked about working on daycare and healthcare and a business mentorship program and some of those kind of things. And we're going to have her continue on some of those. Just I'm hoping that two out of the three things they were working on are kind of self-sufficient,
[00:12:02.680]but need just a little feeding and that kind of stuff to keep them going. And then we talked about having her do a little bit of studies on broadband, because that's kind of an AmeriCorps focus right now.
[00:12:15.740]But since we have Aloe and
[00:12:17.860]Aloe and we've had a lot of people in town, we've had really good response to that. Visiting with Brad Moline the other day, they're astounded by how well things have gone here in Valentine. The quickest build they've ever done in a community, they only spent two or three weeks studying it. He's going to have a white paper coming out on that sometime in the near future, I guess.
[00:12:35.920]But she's going to study the donut around Valentine, because we have kind of a mixed of within three to five mile radius. You can get high speed internet from,
[00:12:47.840]you can get like Great Plains communications or CenturyLink can provide it in a certain area outside of town, but there's kind of no man's land, apparently, something around there.
[00:13:00.880]So we're going to have to kind of figure out what that is and how we get broadband to those, because there's a lot of people that want to move to Valentine or have moved to Valentine that live in that donut hole.
[00:13:11.440]Since Deb Cotier has joined us from Chadron.
[00:13:17.820]We want to introduce yourself. This is Brianna Worth, our fellow from AmeriCorps.
[00:13:31.160]Hi Brianna, Deb Cotier with NNDC in Chadron.
[00:13:34.760]I'm actually about to start my 13th year here.
[00:13:39.480]Been in some form of community development for probably 35 years.
[00:13:47.800]Background in working with Governor Nelson and Senator Nelson for a number of years as well as
[00:13:53.000]a seven-year stint at a chamber of commerce, my first dive into community development.
[00:13:59.240]So I've been around Chadron for a long time, have probably worked at some level
[00:14:05.000]in each one of the communities of the folks who attend this on a regular basis.
[00:14:09.080]Happy to have the opportunity to hear a new perspective. I particularly appreciated
[00:14:17.780]working with the UNL fellows this year. They were just exceptional, the ones here in Chadron,
[00:14:24.000]as well as the reports that I heard from across the state. So we're so fortunate to be able to
[00:14:29.300]attract folks like you, Brianna, to come take a look at our community and give us some new eyes
[00:14:36.100]on what it is that we've been doing for a lot of years. So thanks for being here. And I hope you
[00:14:41.020]learn a lot, even though you're kind of stuck with Mike for a period of time. Valentine's
[00:14:47.760]a great community and a great place to spend not only a summer, but a whole year. So good luck to
[00:14:53.620]you. Thank you. Thank you so much. We're trying to make sure that she's got coats for winter
[00:15:01.680]because she spent three years in Arizona. So her blood's a little thin. So we need to get her back
[00:15:07.060]to Nebraska weather stuff. So anyway, Deb, you'll be, I think, at the NIDA conference coming up in
[00:15:14.020]Sydney. How's the attendance looking for that? Do you know what their numbers
[00:15:17.740]look like? I have not heard specific numbers. Most of my colleagues that I talked to at the
[00:15:25.140]governor's conference last week were planning to attend. Certainly the board members, which is
[00:15:30.580]a pretty good core of statewide representation for economic development.
[00:15:35.460]I think the program looks solid. I'm really looking forward to the one that I've been
[00:15:41.480]working on, which is a report from Senator John Stinner, who chairs the Appropriations Committee,
[00:15:47.720]as well as the local Senator Steve Erdman from the 47th Legislative District.
[00:15:54.320]We're going to talk a little bit about what we think will be coming up in 2022.
[00:15:58.740]Obviously, nobody has a crystal ball, but we think there's some opportunity for the
[00:16:05.600]legislature to help better direct where some of those America Recovery Program dollars go.
[00:16:12.380]There might be some additional opportunity in broadband.
[00:16:17.700]That could fit right in with what you're working on there in Valentine.
[00:16:20.900]But NIDA also is really the lead organization to maintain what we already have.
[00:16:27.880]And so we have a couple of programs that appear to have more or less an end date or expiration
[00:16:38.360]date on them.
[00:16:39.340]The Rural Advantage Program, as well as some R&D programs within the department, are set to
[00:16:47.680]sunset December of 2022.
[00:16:51.040]So our organization, the Nebraska Economic Developers Association, will be working with
[00:16:57.100]the state chamber and some other folks to try to figure out how we address that this year.
[00:17:00.860]I'm not sure Senator Stinner is even aware of this at this point, but one of our members
[00:17:06.820]brought it to our attention that those two programs in particular have a clause that
[00:17:12.680]say they're going to stop taking applications.
[00:17:14.620]So if you have worked with...
[00:17:17.660]the Rural Advantage Program in your community or the funding for these R&D projects through
[00:17:24.300]the Department of Economic Development and have a certain opinion, one way or the other,
[00:17:29.160]reach out to me and let me know because the legislative committee within NEDA will be
[00:17:35.300]addressing that this year and hopefully figure out some way to approach it with the legislature.
[00:17:40.700]So has anybody heard...
[00:17:47.640]The state has several hundred million dollars of some pandemic relief money that they're
[00:17:54.900]trying to figure out how to distribute and what programs they go to.
[00:17:58.980]Does anybody know anything about that?
[00:18:00.380]That's exactly what I was referring to, Mike.
[00:18:05.800]You know, when we were right in the throes of the pandemic, the governor took it upon
[00:18:11.660]himself, rightly so, to get those dollars distributed in a judicial way.
[00:18:17.620]In a judicious manner so that they could be out there assisting people.
[00:18:20.300]This round, this last round of funding, has much more lead time in terms of determining
[00:18:27.120]what you do with it.
[00:18:28.140]I think there are some guidelines, at least I have seen a few, that filtered down to the
[00:18:34.720]county or city level as to what you can use those dollars for.
[00:18:38.160]But ultimately, we believe the governor is going to work with the legislature to figure
[00:18:43.720]out, and I heard it was over a billion total for the state of Nebraska.
[00:18:47.600]But some of those dollars will have specific places that they can be used for and things
[00:18:57.480]that they cannot be used for.
[00:18:58.580]For example, in a city or a county, you cannot use those dollars to lessen what your levy,
[00:19:05.980]your mill levy is going to be.
[00:19:07.420]So you can't replace monies that you had been collecting with these federal dollars.
[00:19:13.560]But a one-time project or certain specific things that
[00:19:17.580]COVID impacted, like jobs, some of those things will be eligible,
[00:19:25.240]like broadband deployment, some of those kinds of things.
[00:19:28.220]So we're waiting to see the actual rules and regs that come down with that.
[00:19:35.460]I think there was some talk, and I'm not on the planning committee for the program,
[00:19:41.080]so I'm not certain if it came together or not.
[00:19:43.760]But there's going to be some way to discuss some of that at the NIDA conference,
[00:19:47.560]on the Friday morning, that everybody sort of gets ready to take off and go home.
[00:19:52.300]They were going to bring in a guy from, I think, well, former speaker,
[00:19:57.620]and now works for the community college system.
[00:20:02.160]Greg Adams was going to come in and speak a little bit about what was possible
[00:20:07.700]and what could be used for what.
[00:20:09.800]And if anybody else on the call knows more than that, we're still kind of in a wait-and-see mode,
[00:20:17.540]as far as I'm aware, Mike.
[00:20:18.880]I guess I'll just add, are we talking about the EDA, the $3 billion,
[00:20:24.900]or are we talking about the funds that were specifically to each city?
[00:20:28.520]Those ones, I have some resources I can send to here that kind of has a list of what can be done
[00:20:37.700]because the ARPA funds that were distributed to each village and community
[00:20:42.980]are used a little different than now the programs that the EDA is doing.
[00:20:46.760]So I can pass.
[00:20:47.520]I can pass those along.
[00:20:48.060]That would be great.
[00:20:50.200]So, yeah, well, hopefully we'll get a chance to catch up with you guys out at NEDA.
[00:20:58.280]Valentine's going to put in a bid for hosting 2022 in May.
[00:21:05.940]So if you get a chance to rub shoulders with any of the board members, you know,
[00:21:09.500]smooths on our behalf, would you?
[00:21:11.600]You're shameless.
[00:21:14.100]I know.
[00:21:15.580]It's all about policy.
[00:21:17.500]It's all about politics, right, Deb?
[00:21:18.320]You've been in that realm long enough to get some people on your side.
[00:21:22.040]Well, and I will tell you, without a doubt, if you've not been to a NIDA conference before,
[00:21:26.240]and certainly if you've not been to a NIDA conference that's been held in Valentine,
[00:21:30.080]it's a real treat.
[00:21:32.880]So I'll give that some serious thought, particularly if you have a preference.
[00:21:38.040]I am not aware of who all is going to be making an application.
[00:21:42.640]As a board member, I'll get to help make that decision.
[00:21:47.480]You know, I'll take any, any swag you want to send my way.
[00:21:50.660]Especially if we get to golf at the lodge again, that was awesome.
[00:21:54.420]Well, what we're going to plan on is golf at Frederick Peak,
[00:21:57.900]the new golf course and a river trip planned and a wine tour planned are some
[00:22:03.740]of the things you can do. So, and cowboy fast draw.
[00:22:07.800]We'll have cowboy fast draw again. So I did that. That was fun.
[00:22:11.200]Before you've been drinking. So anyway, so those are,
[00:22:16.440]those are some of the things,
[00:22:17.460]Rhianna is going to help me do that presentation. So
[00:22:19.500]we'll put all that together between now and the 25th. So I, Deb,
[00:22:25.500]I sent a request into Megan to kind of be early enough on the agenda that we
[00:22:29.780]could be out of there by the 11 o'clock golf.
[00:22:31.620]So I don't know if we can do that or not.
[00:22:34.280]Well, I don't really know. Like I said,
[00:22:39.480]I think there will be at least one and maybe two other applicants for hosting
[00:22:44.400]the meeting that year. And generally speaking, they,
[00:22:47.440]they've held those till kind of the end of the meeting. And that's,
[00:22:50.000]that's really not fair to you guys because you want to be participating in
[00:22:53.580]other things. So to my knowledge,
[00:22:56.600]there's not a whole lot of discussion that needs to take place.
[00:23:00.680]The board meeting starts at eight.
[00:23:02.040]I can't imagine we can't be through the whole thing by 11 o'clock.
[00:23:06.140]Is that when you need to go?
[00:23:07.120]I think it starts at 11, wherever the goal,
[00:23:09.840]it shouldn't be too far to get to the golf course.
[00:23:11.600]Yeah. It's, it's less than a mile from the motel to the golf course.
[00:23:15.000]So I'll,
[00:23:17.420]I'll keep that in mind to make sure you don't miss your tee off.
[00:23:19.600]All right. That'd be great.
[00:23:21.020]We're trying to figure out the golf team,
[00:23:23.100]how we can get six people on our golf team,
[00:23:24.940]because we have six of us that want to all golf together.
[00:23:28.100]So maybe we just need to get Sean and somebody else and have that be the
[00:23:32.280]eight people on our, on our group. So.
[00:23:35.940]Yeah. I think you need to split that into two, two foursomes.
[00:23:39.980]Sounds like a plan.
[00:23:41.220]I don't really have anything else to, to ask about or talk about here.
[00:23:47.420]I just want you guys to kind of meet Brianna and visit a little bit about the
[00:23:51.160]need of stuff coming up.
[00:23:52.220]So what else is going on in everybody's communities that we need to see if we
[00:23:57.480]can share or help out with?
[00:23:58.780]I guess before we move on, I'd like to know a little bit more.
[00:24:03.860]If Brianna or you can talk a little bit more, I mean, last session,
[00:24:07.980]we talked a little bit about the RPN fellows that the summer that served and
[00:24:14.600]that was nice. And so this is this new evolution.
[00:24:17.380]And opportunity for interns with Brianna.
[00:24:20.480]And so there's not as much known about the lead for Nebraska program.
[00:24:25.420]And so I don't know if Brianna or Mike,
[00:24:29.280]if you would want to share about, I know there have a recruiting goal.
[00:24:33.580]there's four this year but they wanted to get up to like 17 in the next couple years right
[00:24:38.360]and so um a little bit more about that opportunity because we'll have different
[00:24:42.880]types of interns available we'll have the fellows again the uh the rpn university fellows but then
[00:24:49.520]um we'll have these in nebraska community foundation hometown fellows that's another
[00:24:55.280]opportunity and then now this lead for nebraska um longer term fellow opportunity so could somebody
[00:25:02.300]spend a couple minutes talking about the lead for nebraska fellow opportunity would that be okay
[00:25:07.420]why don't i have brianna talk about what it's like from her her standpoint of you know the
[00:25:15.120]things that they're because she went through kind of an extensive pre-introduction thing and
[00:25:20.200]everything so she she spends quite a bit of time so i'll have her just talk about what it's like
[00:25:24.660]to be the fellow and then maybe i'll say something about what it's like to be the host community or
[00:25:30.320]something yeah
[00:25:31.260]so this previous the past two weeks i was in a larger conference for lead for america as a whole
[00:25:40.320]and basically our mission is to um go into rural communities and communities that need
[00:25:47.660]revitalization or more sustainability efforts and basically help the community to the best of their
[00:25:55.260]to our of our abilities and working with the city um and stakeholders
[00:26:00.820]and just kind of being a bridge between both of them to make sure that we're getting projects
[00:26:06.840]done and the work of the people completed um and then this past week i was in auburn
[00:26:12.880]nebraska completing the lead for nebraska conference um with brett brent comstock and
[00:26:19.520]rebecca johnson and um basically we were meeting with um individuals in
[00:26:25.920]i guess leadership positions all over the state different communities and
[00:26:30.380]they were basically just telling us about um i guess the different issues that they want to
[00:26:36.000]focus on and it was really all focused around broadband that was really the biggest part of
[00:26:42.200]what we were talking about um but we also were just kind of talking about how to make relationships
[00:26:47.440]with the communities um how to talk to individuals and how to create the relationships um among
[00:26:53.980]everyone and so i guess from my point of view this is kind of my way to
[00:26:59.940]get involved with the community and put my full self out there um i ultimately want to represent
[00:27:08.100]my state and being able to come to a new hometown and help the city and the community kind of build
[00:27:15.480]themselves is what i'm here to do um and as you were saying i believe brent is hoping to have
[00:27:23.180]18 of us by november so he has to recruit
[00:27:29.500]14 or 13 more within the next few months so and they will be placed in communities all over
[00:27:36.380]nebraska as they kind of see fit depending on community needs so are you pursuing a graduate
[00:27:44.860]degree um right now brianna or is that required no i am not pursuing a graduate degree right now
[00:27:51.300]this is kind of my um in between through this opportunity um with americorp specifically
[00:27:59.060]i'm sure as you know but now they will give us um scholarships and stipends to go to um grad school
[00:28:08.040]and so that's kind of my hope from it i actually didn't know that i grad school was something that
[00:28:14.920]i wanted to pursue until january of this year and so at that time uh applications were kind of all
[00:28:22.280]coming to a close and i wasn't exactly sure where i wanted to go or what i would want to um get
[00:28:28.620]a graduate degree in so now i have time to kind of um explore those opportunities and especially
[00:28:36.460]now being involved in community development and um in rural communities i guess we could
[00:28:43.340]see if maybe that's something that i would want to build upon with a degree
[00:28:47.580]anyone else have a question for brianna that maybe came up while she was talking
[00:28:58.180]so i'm i i might have missed your original initial um description but what does what
[00:29:05.960]does become solutions or what does brett comstock have to do with this um basically i'm not exactly
[00:29:13.080]sure how the partnership is working um but i do know that lead for nebraska our program director
[00:29:21.380]for nebraska is working out of the auburn office of become so now it's called like the
[00:29:27.740]rural hub initiative um so they're just kind of working together to deploy fellows all over the
[00:29:35.560]state to kind of um help with the reconstruction efforts i guess after the pandemic just to kind
[00:29:41.680]of help communities um are you are you applying through this lead for nebraska
[00:29:48.300]um through his office is he selecting the fellows or recruiting them no um brent just all he
[00:29:57.300]he kind of has played a part in the interview process but he wasn't the one who recruited or
[00:30:04.340]selected me um directly so the lead for america are they are the ones that kind of
[00:30:16.380]review it and then there's a local the community applying or which is it some it's the the sort of
[00:30:23.680]the initial vetting is lead for america and then
[00:30:26.860]um and then brent comes in and then the actual local community applicant in the last stage is
[00:30:32.280]that i guess we're wondering about the process i got the same questions yeah yeah so i guess
[00:30:39.440]i'll explain it from how it kind of happened for me i was reached out to by a recruitment um
[00:30:46.740]the recruitment director for lead for america and lead for america was originally
[00:30:51.560]out of north carolina and now has been moved to
[00:30:56.000]dodge city and i'm in the lead for america and i've been in the lead for america for
[00:30:56.840]Kansas and i was reached out to in march and they just i guess were kind of looking for
[00:31:03.560]individuals who they thought would be a great fit um for the program but more specifically for
[00:31:09.500]nebraska um because this is the first year that nebraska will have fellows under the lead for
[00:31:14.680]america program um so i just went through the application process but i didn't meet brent until
[00:31:21.340]um the very first interview with
[00:31:26.820]lfa to make sure that they thought that i would be a good fit going into um the hometown interviews
[00:31:33.600]with valentine so i am i apologize i actually have no idea how brent got in on lead for nebraska
[00:31:43.700]i think um it was they kind of found him and thought the work that he was doing kind of fit
[00:31:49.820]nicely with lead for america nebraska chapters initiative so they collaborated um and worked to
[00:31:56.800]together i'm not sure if that makes sense i apologize well it doesn't surprise me a bit
[00:32:04.180]that he's involved yeah neither do i that's why i just typed in the chat there he's an entrepreneur
[00:32:10.960]and his way to money and opportunities and i know um from our standpoint i got an email from
[00:32:16.900]kyle one day and he sent me a link and he said what do you think about this
[00:32:20.000]can you set in on a on a call with brent and rebecca johnson and so we set in on a
[00:32:26.780]call and thought it was a good idea um and all i really know about it is we pay fifteen thousand
[00:32:33.500]dollars a year uh and lando lakes corporation is matching that with fifteen thousand a year
[00:32:39.620]and americorps provides um insurance and a living stipend type thing for the fellows
[00:32:47.280]to be in the community so it's a one-year deal and we have the option to renew for a second year
[00:32:52.660]uh so hopefully we get brianna off and running on the phone
[00:32:56.760]enough projects that she can't leave and uh we get her for the full two years but um they kind
[00:33:04.160]of had a focus of broadband as we mentioned earlier but and we do have some broadband issues
[00:33:08.720]but with our our links now with brad and the and the aloe communications people uh that's kind of
[00:33:15.660]taking care of most of the city of valentine and business broadband issues but we also have um i
[00:33:21.880]was thinking when uh you guys were talking about the money coming down the pipe wherever that ends
[00:33:26.740]we have an old gym project that we want to convert into a community center project
[00:33:31.800]and a community facility so we're looking at we've got most of the money i think picked out
[00:33:37.080]where that'll come from to do that um but we're going to have brianna kind of help us out with
[00:33:42.020]some of that um we're also working on uh the school has been trying to implement an internship
[00:33:48.460]program with businesses in the hospital and it's kind of stalled out because businesses are like
[00:33:53.620]i don't have time to mess with a kid two hours a day to teach him
[00:33:56.720]to do you know what i need to have him do or whatever and the hospital has a new administration
[00:34:03.600]now which is making a big difference uh but their legal department says they can't have interns
[00:34:09.880]they can have volunteers so i don't care what we call it but we can have volunteers and so they're
[00:34:15.740]willing to go with volunteers to introduce them into different aspects of whether it's clerical
[00:34:20.520]or medical stuff in the health care industry to try to start creating that pipeline of people
[00:34:25.820]that are interested that we can help them with and so we're working on that and we're working
[00:34:26.700]to stay here and work in the health care industry so she'll be probably meeting most of the
[00:34:32.220]businesses on main street and saying this is why it's good for you to have an intern
[00:34:37.020]even if it doesn't work out for you now one of these people that come along and do this
[00:34:42.500]to show an interest might be the person that buys your business down the road when you're
[00:34:46.600]ready to transition out of it and stuff so she's going to work on some of that internship program
[00:34:51.880]the main street project that got delayed by one year is set to go next
[00:34:56.680]year so she'll be doing our facebook stuff and and public information on what part of
[00:35:02.520]main street's closed what part's open where can you go what can you do uh keeping the public and
[00:35:07.960]the businesses informed on that we just launched a new partially done website for the city of
[00:35:14.520]valentine which is uh they just tell you it was granted you remember does it or not um i think
[00:35:21.300]it's just city of valentine.gov or something like that yeah valentine
[00:35:26.660]ne.gov and so she's going to be filling in some of the blanks on that taking some of the pictures
[00:35:33.020]that connor and victor had done and choosing those and put some of those up there and doing
[00:35:37.600]putting you know transferring the ed program and documents over there and that kind of stuff
[00:35:43.520]she'll continue with the child care and the early childhood development and the health care workforce
[00:35:50.900]and the business mentoring program for new businesses that we got information gathered up under connor
[00:35:56.640]and victor so we'll do a zoom call with them probably next week when they're both available
[00:36:01.180]and they can kind of explain to her what what they were thinking what they were doing where they're at
[00:36:06.660]and those kind of things so um and i think we have enough to keep her busy for a while
[00:36:11.220]hey thanks mike um where you said your two funding sources to pay for the program for having um your
[00:36:19.500]fellow one was local contribution of 15 and then you got land of lakes are they a local employer or
[00:36:26.620]hooked up with the land of lakes deal um that was something that brent brought to the table
[00:36:32.000]that made it very attractive to us because what we would do is they'll invoice us for the 15 000
[00:36:38.240]and then americorps pays brianna for everything so the city doesn't have to be doing payroll and
[00:36:44.460]that kind of stuff on it which the city manager was happy to hear this morning um so we just give
[00:36:49.860]them one lump sum they pay her uh pay brianna to to be working here i don't know how they got land
[00:36:56.600]at the at the table on that so lando lakes is partnered with lead for america
[00:37:01.360]so lead for america went out and they have a bunch of um partnerships and lando lakes microsoft
[00:37:08.540]and then there's a ton more but those are the only two big names that i remember um so yeah
[00:37:15.860]at the national level they got partnered with them and they loved the initiative and especially
[00:37:21.220]all the dollars that are coming down for these different um i guess different policies that
[00:37:26.580]they're wanting to implement from the federal level uh so they were really interested in getting
[00:37:30.560]involved wonderful thank you for the clarification everyone
[00:37:36.580]i'll type that in there um marla it's uh
[00:37:56.560]well brianna this group on the call plus others that'll be at nita in a couple of weeks we're
[00:38:18.660]kind of a tight-knit group and when we saw each other a couple of weeks ago at the governor's
[00:38:23.700]economic development conference it was like going back to school and going back to school
[00:38:26.540]i mean it was so nice to see all the economic development friends so if you have questions
[00:38:32.120]we're going to be able to help you out and direct i'm sure mike's informed you all that
[00:38:36.460]so welcome aboard and that goes to my new colleague amanda as well so thank you i did sign her up
[00:38:46.760]deb for the new new orient new member orientation during nita because i thought she'd probably get
[00:38:52.340]a chance to meet some other people that are kind of new to the game and get some networking
[00:38:56.520]started that that's exactly the intent and and um that'll have great folks leading that i think star
[00:39:04.960]and um star lael from scott's bluff as well as um lance headquist from south sioux city who's been
[00:39:15.160]at this game probably longer than me and um is just a terrific ambassador for
[00:39:21.920]community development in the state of nebraska so you'll get you'll get a a really kind of
[00:39:26.500]a fire hose sort of orientation from everyone that goes to nita um really um encourage you to
[00:39:33.840]to network and get to know some folks because that is where you learn the best and the most
[00:39:39.540]helpful information maybe not in a specific session but at a break or on the golf course or
[00:39:47.980]you know so many people um look at this as as you know a sort of a junket and you get to go play
[00:39:56.480]all of that but um to be perfectly honest there is an awful lot of work that gets done on a golf
[00:40:02.060]course and first you need to know that and and you need to learn how to do that and so
[00:40:07.640]that really important um person-to-person communication piece uh particularly when
[00:40:14.860]it's been so long since we've been able to to talk to each other face-to-face um can't really
[00:40:19.740]overemphasize the importance of getting to know who who it is that you can call on um
[00:40:26.460]and yeah if you don't play golf that's okay because they let me drive the cart once in a
[00:40:31.460]while and i've never swung a golf club in my life so uh you don't have to golf to be on the
[00:40:36.080]golf course either um so yeah i mean that's a great story deb i guess the example that i have
[00:40:45.240]is um when you're trying to get something done and rihanna you're a public policy major until
[00:40:51.260]you actually try to get initiative through let's say local elected officials
[00:40:56.440]you know they've never seen anything like that and maybe there's a history of
[00:41:00.680]negativity towards the proposal there's different tactics about being able to work through
[00:41:06.700]having a relationship with the different elected officials and things like that and
[00:41:12.520]that's the kind of stuff that you'll learn about in these networking sessions about how different
[00:41:16.340]economic development folks have have built relationships and maybe gotten around some
[00:41:22.880]difficult local issues and navigating those things and
[00:41:26.420]that's the kind of stuff that it's really hard to teach in a program but
[00:41:29.640]you can kind of pick that stuff up in these less formal sessions i'll just say
[00:41:34.320]yeah absolutely i would have known star and lance were doing that new orientation i don't
[00:41:42.060]know if i would have signed her up that might be too much i might overload
[00:41:45.220]well you know they clean up pretty good
[00:41:51.100]she'll know star after the golfing event anyway so there you go
[00:41:56.400]yeah so yeah we'll look forward to meeting you guys and more people out at nita
[00:42:01.620]and then hopefully getting a chance to host in 2022 would be great
[00:42:06.460]so we'll see how that all plays out but
[00:42:09.980]other than that we've had a good summer here in valentine it's it's been busy
[00:42:15.680]and i know all the bikers went from here to chadron and north
[00:42:19.800]but they didn't oh my gosh it's just been a constant rumble for about 48 or 72 hours
[00:42:26.380]through here um and then it'll be the same thing for the next week or 10 days as they as they all
[00:42:33.740]go home so it's it's pretty important to our economy um obviously it would be for a town the
[00:42:41.680]size of sturgis but uh just the the number of folks that i know personally that are going to
[00:42:46.920]sturgis and the variety of people that are there um i was telling somebody about this group that i
[00:42:53.240]know um she rides her motorcycle she's older than i am
[00:42:56.360]so she's she's retirement age she rides her harley from lamar colorado to sturgis every year
[00:43:03.060]and the group that she shows pictures of they all camp together they all live in a tent for a week
[00:43:09.440]they ride together they go everywhere together there's probably 30 of them they don't drink
[00:43:14.840]they don't go to the concerts they literally go to the black hills to ride for a week
[00:43:19.260]and so they look exactly like all the rest of them um so you never know when you when you
[00:43:26.340]ride by a biker on the interstate or or headed to sturgis uh exactly what their their purpose is
[00:43:32.620]and and where they come from but um there's an awful lot of great people who spend a week in
[00:43:38.700]sturgis and um and are there for the for all the right reasons so regardless of what you read about
[00:43:44.800]the the banditos or the hells angels or whatever coming to sturgis um it's a lot more um diverse
[00:43:53.160]sort of entity than you'd think and so we're just
[00:43:56.320]thankful that we're on the route and they and they find places to stop in chadron and
[00:44:01.140]spend a little money in our community yeah deb do you um do you track your sales tax
[00:44:07.920]receipts from the department of revenue and do you see a spike in oh yeah oh yeah yeah so
[00:44:14.040]it's crazy so i was just going to say amanda had asked about um community development data sources
[00:44:20.160]and and that was one i did not share with her but um it's usually about the 20
[00:44:26.300]4th 25th of every month the nebraska department of revenue releases uh local sales tax receipts
[00:44:35.300]and they're from months prior probably four months behind though yeah well i don't know
[00:44:40.520]it's that far it's like three months back three months yeah so yeah so deb will be able to see
[00:44:45.700]her change from the september receipts to the august receipts and maybe in three months but
[00:44:51.480]um that's another uh data source that's really interesting for analysis
[00:44:56.280]you haven't think big event you can kind of compare and then if you track it for years you
[00:45:00.620]could see you know how much a percent jump it was from july to august this year versus last year
[00:45:06.600]with covid and it's an interesting comparison that um i could talk about doing that if somebody
[00:45:12.060]was interested later so yeah and that's actually that's cherry county lodging tax over the last
[00:45:20.600]four years with this being the most recent year since
[00:45:26.260]um the prairie club was full this year with they're running rooms at two and three hundred
[00:45:33.520]dollars a night so you add four percent sales time it adds up to a pretty good chunk of change
[00:45:41.760]for the county visitors promotion board yeah i think we'll we'll probably set a record this year
[00:45:48.380]there was a lot of pent-up demand there was um you know this new this new feeling of freedom that uh
[00:45:56.240]folks took advantage of um we'll see how how far into the fall that goes um
[00:46:02.780]the the threat of of shutdown again is really scary i hope that's enough of an incentive for
[00:46:10.040]people to get vaccinated and to do what the cdc suggests they do regardless of what some
[00:46:16.360]politician tells you um if we don't have kids back in in their seats in school districts across
[00:46:22.780]the nation and we don't have college football and we don't have
[00:46:26.220]all of those things that we didn't have last year um we'll be right back in the same boat as last
[00:46:32.420]as last fiscal year in terms of of receipts and so um it really is pretty pretty widespread the
[00:46:41.640]need to to pay attention to that sort of thing um shadwin's dawes county's lodging taxes continue
[00:46:48.540]to grow as well and we are now um also collecting the optional two percent for um
[00:46:56.200]bricks and mortar things and so that really has been a great source of local funding one of the
[00:47:04.060]things that you'll find as an economic developer community development specialist is you can you
[00:47:09.260]can talk all you want about a grant application but nine times out of ten they're going to want
[00:47:13.900]you to come to that application with a little bit of cash to start with
[00:47:17.300]and so to say that you have a source for um seed money if you will to put in a new play
[00:47:26.180]or to do something in your community that your um lodging tax committee can see its way to to help
[00:47:34.640]you with we've used it everything from our downtown plaza to um outfitting our our indoor
[00:47:42.300]swimming pool so that we can host you know regional events all those kinds of things i mean
[00:47:48.360]the visitor industry just encompasses everything we do so if you're not working at that and not
[00:47:56.160]understanding the impact that has on your community go to your lodging tax people and
[00:48:00.200]see what kind of dollars that's bringing into your community every year it's it's a pretty
[00:48:04.720]good chunk of change even if it's a small um you know county that only has a couple three
[00:48:09.960]different communities so important stuff i gotta run balloons are flying over scott's bluff so if
[00:48:19.240]anybody is bored come up and see the balloons taken off we there's 80 balloonists here this
[00:48:26.140]so fun times then if you want to see jamie and i and the balloons uh beer and wine fest is at the
[00:48:33.920]18th street plaza on friday i'll be running around the entire thing not knowing what i'm
[00:48:39.100]doing and jamie will be serving wine so you should come see us awesome is that what source link does
[00:48:46.100]is they a wine vendor i would really like that role all right well yeah deb's got to go
[00:48:56.120]we're going to bolt thank you everybody for your time today and we'll be back
[00:49:01.640]in a couple of weeks and we'll all have a report on the county fairs i guess and sturges

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