At the February 8 Rushford council meeting, details were discussed of a new community news program put together by Kristin Burdey and her teenage daughter, Annika Bakkum-Ekern, and sponsored by the city of Rushford. The program goal is to keep the community informed, while promoting events in the area. It highlights information and news pertaining to city government, local businesses, Rushford-Peterson School District, civic organizations, and non-profit organizations. A bi-weekly production, a new episode will premier every other Thursday with the first episode having premiered on February 4.
Rushford-Peterson Valley Chamber of Commerce Director Jen Hengel and Mayor Terri Benson were both featured in the initial episode. Benson is expected to be featured in each episode in a feature dubbed, “A Minute with the Mayor.” The program also features Oliva Thompson. It will be broadcasted several times a day on the city’s public access channel, as well as on the chamber website, YouTube channel, and the RP Valley Voice Facebook page.
After discussion, the council unanimously approved the contracting of services with Burdey and Bakkum-Ekern for ongoing creation and production of the program in coordination with the chamber. Each will be paid $50 per episode. Funding for the services will be paid through Public Education and Governmental (PEG) fees collected through the city’s franchise agreement with AcenTek and Mediacom. These fees can only be used for public, educational, and governmental media and broadcasting, as well as expenditures related to maintenance and improvement costs of these services.
Since the program is geared to all three cities within the Rushford Peterson Valley, the option to receive additional funding through sponsorship by the City of Rushford Village and the City of Peterson was also discussed. Rushford Village entered into a franchise agreement with AcenTek in February of last year and therefore should also be receiving PEG fees. It’s unclear whether or not the City of Peterson has a similar franchise agreement.
“It’s a good opportunity to keep people informed,” noted Benson.
“I enjoyed it,” echoed Councilor Jim O’Donnell. “I thought it was really well done.”
While advertising can’t be sold for the program, Hengel noted sponsorships can be accepted. “There’s a fine line there,” added O’Donnell.
“At this point, it’s us supporting it; us being the City of Rushford,” stated Benson. “We have an opportunity to show commonality between Rushford, Rushford Village, and Peterson. It’s a great showcase. There are a lot of options and opportunities. Let’s keep that door open, if they see the value in it.”
“Once it’s up and running and we can show some value in it,” echoed City Administrator Tony Chladek. “There’s a benefit for our citizens to see what’s in our neighboring communities. There’s still an opportunity for them.”
The first episode of the program can be found on the chamber website at rushfordpetersonvalley.com/rp-valley-voice-2-4-21/.
In other news, the council discussed the Economic Development Authority (EDA) Strategic Plan. Reviewed annually, it covers both immediate and long-term goals related to housing, development, downtown vitality, and marketing.
“While these goals and strategies are on the forefront, the main goal of EDA is to provide assistance to existing businesses. I don’t ever want to lose sight of that,” stressed Benson. It was also noted that the EDA Revolving Loan Fund is a gap financing tool to assist with economic and community development.
“We’re concentrating a lot on housing and housing improvement, but have you checked on our businesses to make sure they’re healthy and viable during this time, too?” asked O’Donnell.
Councilor Leigh Volkman echoed the same concern. “It’s a little excessive on the housing side. In the future, I think we should focus on any ideas helping businesses downtown. I feel like that’s negative for everyone if we have businesses downtown with sale signs. It looks like things are headed south and that’s concerning for everyone. I’d like to find a way to utilize those businesses.” One of the ideas offered by Volkman was to utilize vacant buildings as possible sites for business incubators. “It would ease the burden on someone wanting to start a business and help them start in a visible location.”
“I think it’s finding those that are interested. Maybe they don’t know we have all these tools available,” added Benson.
“There’s a lot of dynamics here,” said Chladek. “Who we have and what we have; we need to concentrate on taking care of them, but I don’t take that as we aren’t aware of other needs.”
Progress at Rushford Municipal Airport was also discussed. The airport is still in the thick of recovery following an October 2019 fire that caused several aspects of damage, including a complete loss of a hangar. City staff and members of the Airport Commission are meeting with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) representatives to determine the process going forward. Insurance proceeds and federal funding will largely cover construction of a new ten-unit hangar, however, if the city cannot find renters for each of the hangars, plans will have to be reduced and modified. There is a 20-month timeline on the process, but at this point, ongoing unknowns are slowing things down. Engineering firm Mead & Hunt is assisting the city with the process.
“We can keep that place in really good shape. It’s self-supporting, but we wouldn’t be able to afford big, fancy projects without that federal money,” cautioned City Clerk Kathy Zacher. “They’re trying to keep us viable. They don’t want to lose an airport.”
“Both the FAA and state would like to help us get airport hangars built so we can meet their National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems requirement of based aircraft so we can continue to draw on the FAA money for large improvement projects. We have to crunch numbers to see what we can build with insurance money available, but we also have to find new renters/tenants to fill the space,” she clarified later.
Lastly, the council approved a resolution sent to lawmakers stressing the importance of the state budget to include Local Government Aid to cities, on time and in full. While the governor’s budget currently includes no LGA changes, House and Senate proposals are still forthcoming. The city relies on the funding to support the public library, maintenance of the levee system, police and fire equipment, maintaining infrastructure, and funding to the EDA. It also enables the city to “maintain a fair and steady tax levy for our tax payers,” as noted in the resolution.
The next regularly scheduled council meeting is Monday, February 22 and will be held virtually. It is open to the public and those wanting to attend should contact city hall.
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