One of the goals in the Strategic Plan was to provide opportunities for people to promote tourism in the Sisseton area. On of the ways that we can build tourism is to have friendly, knowledgeable people working in our local businesses. A training was recently offered for high school students to learn more about serving the public.
We all want Sisseton to be an attractive, welcoming place. One of the Spring Sweep goals is to work on combating crime and graffiti. Several representatives of the city, city police department, probation officers, and concerned citizens have been meeting to come up with plans to help home and business owners deal with the problem of graffiti in our community.
Fresh Air Week is coming up! Horizons is working with the local radio station, KBWS to provide a week worth of radio ads to promote community pride, good attitudes and to continue the clean up efforts around town. The radio spots will also highlight some of the great assets that Sisseton has including parks, cultural attractions, businesses and the great people who call this place home.
Sisseton was part of the Design:SD project. Here’s some background from their website:
Design South Dakota is a newway to help rural communities create a better future by design. In April, 2008, a team of design and community development professionals will spend two intense days (called a design “charrette”) working with the people in the Sisseton, SD region to gather and illustrate local ideas. The event will help Sisseton to build a shared vision for the future, and to demonstrate ways to turn those ideas into reality in their regional community.
The completed concept boards will be delivered to the community soon and will probably be displayed somewhere in the community. More information to come…
Paint South Dakota is a community service program provided by the South Dakota Housing Development Authority. Each year community groups are encouraged to apply for the grant project. SDHDA provides primer and paint and a local community group provides the volunteer labor to paint the house. People can self nominate or can be chosen by a local group to participate. The requirements are:
1. The Nominee must own and currently live in the home to be painted. It cannot be a business, rental house, contain rental units or property used for other purposes besides a primary residence.
2. The Nominee must need their home repainted and would otherwise not be able to paint the house on their own due to financial or physical difficulty.
A group from Grace Lutheran Church will be painting a house in Sisseton this year. For more information or to get involved, contact Jeff Gregg.
The idea for the swap is to keep good, usable items out of the land fill and also to provide people in our community with free items that they can make use of. Lots of people were able to get rid of their C.R.U.D! (That’s Community Recycling of Usable Discards!)
This first swap was real success with 200+ items swapped and just a few things left over! There was everything from A to Z that people brought to swap including beds and bed frames, computers and scanners, bicycles, chairs, toilets, carpets, Christmas decorations, child booster and car seats and many other things! It’s amazing what people brought and what other people needed. It was a great event and more may be planned in the future.
Thanks to all who participated in the Swap, and thanks to Lindy Staub and the Sisseton Swimming Pool for all their help in arranging the event and providing the space for the swap.
Several community residents came together over a two-day period to help clean up Sisseton as part of the Spring Sweep. Several dumpsters, truck beds and trailers were filled with trash, trees and brush from the Cedar Park area and around the community.
Over 70 people were involved with the clean up including individuals and members of several community groups, such a 4-H Clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Church groups.Thanks to all who helped with this community clean up!
Everyone who participated in the clean up received a $4 gift certificate from Horizons to a local restaurant. Garbage bags for the clean up were provided by Dakota Western Corporation at Agency Village. A big thanks to them for this donation!
Horizons has partnered with the A & C Variety store to provide community residents with brooms and rakes at a discounted price. The project is meant to encourage people to take pride in their community and to promote shopping locally. Community members were encouraged to stop by A & C and pick up a broom or rake for just $2. We’ve already seen some community members out and about using their red handled brooms! Each person also received information about the Horizons projects and the action ideas being planned for the future to make Sisseton a great place for all its residents.
A BIG THANKS!to the folks at A & C for partnering with us to make this event a success!
Over 120 brooms will be delivered to Sisseton businesses as a way to say thanks for keeping Sisseton a clean, great place to live. The campaign is to encourage community businesses to take pride in their community and to lend a helping hand to make the community a clean, appealing place for the residents. We’ve heard a lot of good feedback from business owners, who were excited to accept the brooms and were grateful to be included as a valuable member of the community. The broms were provided as part fo the Horizons project and were the kick off to the 6 week Spring Sweep. The brooms are still being delivered, so if you haven’t gotten yours yet, don’t worry the Horizons group is still working.
Plans are being made for a 6 week community clean up effort in Sisseton. Each week will focus in on a different community action to help clean up the community and get people thinking about being involved and building community pride. The tentative projects include:
Week 1: Kick-Off
1. Brooms for Businesses to promote a clean sweep.
2. Brooms, Rakes and Recycle Bins available at A&C Variety at a discounted price to promote clean up and shopping downtown.
3. Coordinate with parks board, older youth and adults to clear walking trail area.
4. Begin recycling efforts
5. Possibly hold kick-off event
Week 2: Community Clean Up
1. Set up collection sites for electronic recycling
2. Set up area for Sisseton Swap - were people bring items (not clothing) that they no longer need/want. Later in the campaign it will be open for people to take what they need/want.
3. Coordinate with various youth groups/organizations and volunteers to pick up trash on streets, parks & hwy 10. We will need garbage bags and gloves. Volunteers would be given a beverage and certificate to use at local business for a treat.
Week 3: Fresh Air - promote positive attitudes
1. Radio ad campaign re: community pride, keep it clean, etc.
2. Promote walking, use of city parks, outdoor activities
3. Promote Free Family Fun Events - multi-cultural
Week 4: Community Swap
1. Open swap area for people to bring/take
2. Radio ads to promote recycling, reuse, reduce, repurpose
3. Add recycling bins and garbage cans around town
Week 5: Community Graffiti Combat Plan
1. Research possibility of treating brick buildings in downtown and area churches with chemical pre-wash to prevent graffiti
2. Purchase and Promote paint/supplies available at City Hall for local businesses to use when tagged.
3. Work with Police Department to create youth task force on gang and graffiti awareness
Week 6: City Wide Rummage Sales
1. Support project that is coordinated by Chamber
2. Promote programs/organizations that will take good used items that do not sell (instead of taking to the dump)
3. Host Celebration Event to evaluate (and celebrate) what we have accomplished and plan for future
To get involved contact Jennie or Sandi at 698-7642.
A five member Resource Team came to Sisseton in April 2007 as part of the South Dakota Rural Development Council’s Community Assessment program. The team spent 3 days in Sisseton holding listening sessions with several community groups, all together about 150 people participated in the listening sessions. Sisseton was then given a report of the feedback from the listening sessions along with suggestions for action and several recources to help with technical assistance, funding and ideas of how othe communities have tackled the same issues.
Sisseton is working on the Community Assessment in tandem with the ongoing Horizons projects including Study Circles which occured in Winter 2007 and LeadershipPlenty in Summer 2007. To read a copy of the Community Assessment click the link below:
We asked the Horizons participants to give us their feedback about how their community is changing in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Increasing Leadership and Community Change. The next few posts are the responses to questions about each of those topics…
How will your community make decisions about seeking further resources to support its plans?
We asked the Horizons participants to give us their feedback about how their community is changing in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Increasing Leadership and Community Change. The next few posts are the responses to questions about each of those topics…
How can your community sustain the changes it has already made in its leadership?
We asked the Horizons participants to give us their feedback about how their community is changing in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Increasing Leadership and Community Change. The next few posts are the responses to questions about each of those topics…
In what new or expanded ways are people contributing to your community?
I have seen many new people get involved over the last few months attending community improvement meetings that I haven’t seen in the past. It was always the same people attending all of the meetings so it is nice to see new faces with an outgoing attitude and new ideas offering some help and input.
What structures have been created or changed that will help your community?
The addition of the Pamida store on E. Hwy 10 and the Dollar Store have been a nice additions to Sisseton. Hopefully with more retail stores, our community members will think twice before leaving town to shop and can do more of their shopping locally. The Middle School is officially closed and the new Middle School addition at the High School has been a good move I feel. The school has been very aggressive and continues to plan for the future with more additions. The remodel of the old church building on W. Hwy 10 into a restaurant has eliminated an eye sore for our Hwy 10 travelers and we look forward to them opening for business. The owners of the trailer part on E. Hwy 10 are emptying these lots by June 2008 which will be a great thing. This has turned into another eye sore for highway travelers and will be a great improvement once it is complete.
Written by Katy
We asked the Horizons participants to give us their feedback about how their community is changing in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Increasing Leadership and Community Change. The next few posts are the responses to questions about each of those topics…
What changes are you seeing in the way community leadership is exercised or carried out?
How is it different?
How has your community changed after LeadershipPlenty training?
In what ways have leadership skills been improved/enhanced?
What is different?
What changes are you seeing in the way leadership is carried out?
How decisions get made in your community?
What difference does the involvement of low income people make in community leadership?
Something that the Sisseton High School has done in the past few weeks/months have been to set up a positive school system. Today our school brought up the ideal of having a “be respectful, be responsible, be positive, and be here” day. Each student in their 5 hour class took part in activities of knowing which was good or which was bad about the situation that they were given. It was a learning experience for all and I hope in the future that students in our school system will be more positive, more responsible, more respectful, and be in school. With these skills they will learn to treat people and property with respect and with a positive outlook on life.
I placed this under community action for the fact that our school made an action to help make the school a better place, but I also think that it could make our community a better place to be and live.