2024, Family, Kids, Uncategorized

Progress

34 Comments

I was happy to read in the Luverne paper this week that construction has started on a 7.5 million dollar child care center in town.

A couple of years ago, residents expressed concern about dwindling child care options, and the city responded by securing funding for a municipal child care center to serve over 100 children ages birth to 12. The city just had to secure a $1,000,000 city match from community members. Well, that took only six months, and they exceeded the goal.

In Dickinson, child care is getting harder and harder to find, especially for infants. We recenly lost a terrific mental health tech because she had no daycare for her infant daughter. It is so good to hear the progress in Luverne, and I only wish Dickinson would follow suit.

What progressive things are happening in your community? Did you ever have babysitters, either when you were a child or for your own children ?

34 thoughts on “Progress”

  1. Owatonna has a brand new high school ($110 million–ouch),a rebuilt 3-block section of Cedar Ave. in downtown, a new Marriot hotel, a new Italian restaurant (very good!), several new small businesses coming to downtown, 5-6 large apartment buildings that are supposedly “affordable,” an expanded wastewater treatment plan that should be done in the next year or so, a refurbished City Hall, and lots of other projects in the works.

    Putting it all together over the past few years, I realize Owatonna is not standing still but trying to grow at a reasonable pace and maintain a high quality of life for residents. Not sure if we’re keeping up with “the Joneses” but most of what I’m seeing is either good or necessary.

    Chris in Owatonna

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      1. Yes. He delivered the State of the State address there a few weeks ago. Owatonna (Steele Cty) also hosted the Governor’s Pheasant hunting opener last fall (?). I just hope all that attention doesn’t start attracting the riff raff. 😉

        Chris

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  3. Rise and Shine, Baboons, 

    Good for the Luverne community. I think that kind of joint effort is what keeps a community of any size vibrant. Some person or business there must have shown some leadership to organize that. 

    About 10 years ago Eden Prairie expanded and remodelled the Community Center. Prior to that time the people on the board who planned it, were on the Cheap-o plan–“We don’t need that!” meaning accessibility features which they labelled as luxuries.  I knew one of those board-members from church and I never liked how she approached such projects. She lost her influence due to some of her attitudes. When the new board planned the Community Center they expanded the water facilities so that everything is handicap accessible, child friendly (they now have a sensory swim for autistic people), family friendly with family dressing rooms where both mom and dad can help the kiddos, and atuned to needs of the geriatric community, which now includes me. 

    I am so grateful. I have participated in Water Aerobics there which has helped my physical condition. Several other family members in Iowa need something similar but they cannot find accessible services, even in the Des Moines area. After we get Lou’s diagnostic work done, he may participate in a swim session for arthritis and Parkinsons Disease.

    When my mother had to go back to work following my Dad’s diagnosis of MS, our babysitter was Mrs. Winters. I LOVED her. She really stabilized a difficult situation for our family.

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  4. Two of our babysitters were daughters of family friends in town. When I reached junior high school, I babysat for their children – one had 2 kids, the other had 5. One of the boys grew up to be a mortician/funeral director and he took care of our mom when she died. Such are small town connections.

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  5. I remember a few babysitters from my childhood – “Mrs. Pete” who lived in a small apartment across the street from us, and a high school Mary McN. A high school neighbor girl stayed with Joel sometimes…

    Winona is a bit disappointing lately – there are new buildings going up, when what we really need is more affordable housing. One will be a high rise motel on the river, taking up a parking lot and blocking river views and access for many. A “state of the art” concert hall is going up that will be accessible to the upper class – some of us feel there are already several good concert hall options.

    At least some well-spoken citizens convinced the City Council to not tear down a beloved East End Rec building…

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  7. I must have had babysitters but I don’t remember any of them. What I do remember is my parents taking me with them when they went to a neighborhood party or “Bridge night” and putting me to sleep on a bed with the coats.

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  8. Charlene was my babysitter in brainerd at age 2

    I remember counting her petticoats usually 7

    i suspect she wore extras just for me

    neighborhood sitters here in the big city of bloomington were $.25 per hour with Mrs Harland who taught

    a tiskit a taskit

    ring around the rosey

    little boy blue etc

    taught me to build a house of cards

    and we had Mrs Larson and her daughter colleen who were great and Mrs schoen and Mrs herbalist who were witches

    my daughter with the 3 kids hasn’t been able to go back to work because daycare is way more than she’d earn

    oldest son expecting twins in October needs daycare in February and 2 infants is tough to find and is about $4000 per month

    what the hell

    my community is the rich burb with all the Somali intents so it’s interesting

    not overly progressive but they have most everything here it just the rich guys trying to keep the welfare beggars from getting to them

    the world is in a terrible place right now

    hope better times are ahead

    I’m thinking the US are to be looking after the world and helping with starvation and impoverishment and instead you need to back off and realize that they’re not interested in taking care of the inner city and or any problem situations that we have

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    1. My brother (the conservative) said something about the US being the greatest country in the world with the worst political choices imaginable. What a mess.

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        2. Qolka ugu xasillan oo and haysid.

          Nothing to do with hovercraft full of eels.

          In the ’90s, Moorhead, Mn had many Somali guests. I still have my Somali dictionaries.

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  9. We had Lori. She was four years older than me. She had long blond hair, a fringed suede purse, peasant tops and bell bottomed jeans. She played guitar and rode horses. She taught me Mr. Bojangles on guitar and we rode our horses together in the pet parade. We dressed up in cowboy hats and western shirts and rode our horses all the way into town (5 miles) to ride in the pet parade, then rode home. She was goofy and fun and loved our dog, Gus, a Norwegian elkhound. I totally loved her. I called her my sister. She called me her little sister. When I was older and needed help, she was there for me. Everyone loved her. She was a stabilizing influence for me in a fairly unstable family life.

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  10. I think Northfield is a progressive town. That’s what I like about living here. They still have to push to get some things done though, like funding for new schools. That’s a tough one. Property taxes are high here but comparable, I think, to the metro area. People raise a lot of fuss about it.

    There’s a lot getting done though. There are new dedicated bike lanes all over town, and some streets were narrowed to add a concrete barrier with a bicycle commuter street to one side. It’s really easy to commute on a bike anywhere in town and that is nothing but a great thing. More are being put in. There is a lot of vocal opposition to it. The actual users of it are mostly silent – they are out there riding their bikes to school or work. Also, the park system in town has interconnected asphalt trails. I think they’re doing a great job with regard to accessibility and multiple uses. There are charging stations for e-vehicles in some locations too.

    FiftyNorth is starting an expansion project. There will be even more space for working out, playing sports, doing dance and yoga; a larger fitness room and separate strength and flexibility training room, and more classrooms. I’m not sure about the pool. I hope they make it larger. I do like lap swimming and it’s hard sometimes to get your own lane. They are also going to improve the locker rooms and shower areas. Some funding that FiftyNorth has raised will be matched by City funds. The building that FiftyNorth is in now is a lot like a school building. There is a branch of the city library in it, which is nice, and the Citizens’ Action Council has offices and food shelf and Meals on Wheels programs in the back. So there is a lot there already and it’s going to get better.

    They’re trying to build a new high school (voted down twice) and a new ice arena. I know these things are expensive but we have to think of future needs and I usually support them. Community things like this improve everyone’s lives.

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  12. YA went to daycare when she was younger not babysitters. The reason for that was that I needed to have someone there all the time for her. I couldn’t afford to have to take time off if a babysitter was sick or had an emergency. When she wasn’t at daycare, she almost never stayed with a sitter because I could never afford to do anything back then!!

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  13. I complained before, but there are positive things about this (fairly progressive) town – there’s a large artistic community, and alternatives like the food co-op… two universities and all the festivals for entertainment. The Lyons Club built a marvelous handicap accessible playground down by the lake a few years ago… There’s a very active Sanctuary support system – I think we have found homes for at least three families now.

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  14. Franklin, Ohio has great plans to make our downtown a destination. The old town by the river is currently an absolute mess. The few establishments there have been crippled. There is much skepticism. A brewery is to be built but I cannot support it myself. I’ll try.

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  15. The only “babysitter” I remember, was really more of a housekeeper we had the first couple of years in Stubbekøbing. Her name was Miss Jensen, but we all called her tante, which means aunt. She was what seemed like an old woman to me, she was in her forties. She was a kind and gentle woman, and both Randi and I adored her. She died from breast cancer when I was five years old, and I remember believing that it was my fault that she died. I had wanted to go visit an old couple on our way home from grocery shopping, and had cried and thrown a tantrum when tante wouldn’t let me. Shortly after that she got sick, and stopped working for us; surely it was my fault. I carried that guilt around for years; a pretty heavy burden for a little kid.

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