As you drive down main street in Anamoose you can see the new Anamoose Area Community Fund sign. Dennis Zimmerman made the sign and painted the background. Phyllis Zimmerman and Pam Heim worked on the wording, and Pam spent hours on her hands and knees painting the design. Then Joe Weninger and Dennis dug the post holes and put the sign in place. It was definitely a group effort!
The Anamoose Memorial Day Program, to honor the Veterans, was well attended. The Memorial Address was presented by Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Sells from the Minot Air Force Base. Rachael Rott and Kaya Engen sang “Song for the Unsung Hero” and “Sleep Soldier Boy” and the honor guard marched to the City Park where flags flew at half mask and the gun shots were heard as well as the taps that were played by Andrew Rott and Brandon Rudnick. This was followed with a delicious potluck lunch at the Oswald Wohl VFW Post #6931.
Saturday evening 5/17/08, Anamoose High School celebrated their commencement with 8 graduates. As usual, it was a beautiful ceremony. It has been a tradition for many years that the graduating class invites the 50 year graduates. Eleven members ( and some of the spouses) of the class of 1958 participated. They gathered at the senior center for reacquainting, remembering and conversation, had a delicious meal at the Anamoose Cafe prepared by Connie Rudnick, and then on to graduation. After the ceremony all alumni were invited back to the senior center for cake, coffee and punch.
Thank you graduating seniors for remembering us ( I, too, have been there and done that) on your special night. It also brings back and gives us memories we will forever cherish.
Pictured below are sitting from left to right, Dorothy Berndt Leier, Rose Hornbacher, Frances Lemer Lageson, Gilbert Gienger and Ramona Buxa Bender. Standing are, Eileen Wick, James Essig, Vernon Wick, Dalton Kohlman, Terry Roe and Harold Spletto.
I discovered there are quite a few people in Anamoose who help out the birds-summer and winter. Bonnie Dockter uses a heating device in the winter to keep her bird bath thawed out. Her grandchildren wanted to be in the picture too.
Emanuel Kesler moved this purple martin house over to his yard when Wes Michelson moved to Harvey. He even made a hoist so he can take it up and down to clean it out-or get the sparrows out of it.
Janice Buchholz took this picture of the finches eating from a bird feeder in her back yard.
Phyllis and Dennis Zimmerman have welcomed this rose breasted grosbeak to their feeder. They also have seen a baltimore oriole.
Needless to say, we have caring people in our community who are concerned about the birds.
Our Horizons program sponsored a Joe and Ana-Moose coloring contest. Pam Heim, 3rd and 4th grade teacher, drew a picture of Joe and Ana-Moose with sunflower and tree background. Carrie Bartz, 3rd grade, (picture) won in the 1st-3rd grade group, while Leah Jans, kindergarten, won in the pre-school-kindergarten group. Each girl received a Joe and Ana-Moose t-shirt. The 14 moose pictures are on display in the Anamoose Senior Citizen Center.
That’s what we need to get our Anamoose Area Foundation Fund moving. The Foundation concept is simple-to create a fund where gifts from many people are pooled together and professionally handled through the ND Community Foundation. Each year the income will be used to fund projects in the community. Through a matching grant program in the ND Community Foundation we need to collect $25,000 in the first year, and the ND Community Foundation adds $5,000. In subsequent years, the ND Foundation will match dollar for dollar up to $10,000, with a bonus if we can raise $25,000.
To start, we are using the $10,000 that we will receive at the end of June for our 18 month committment to the Horizons Leadership program. We have received over $7,000 from businesses and individuals, so we have less than $8,000 to go to reach our goal for the year. We have mailed out letters to Anamoose area people and businesses, and made some personal contacts. This week we are mailing out letters to all alumni that graduated before 1971.
Dennis Zimmerman and Bill Goodwin will be putting up a thermometer on Main St. that will keep track of our Foundation Fund. Pam Heim is our artist for the project. .
That is the only way to describe my reaction when I went to Schmaltz’s Greenhouse this morning and saw all the beautiful flowers. Mike has a huge flower pot filled with Vista Bubblegum Petunias that he said “will trail over the pot 3 ft. by the end of July”. The greenhouse is open Monday thru Friday from 9am to 8pm, Saturday from 9am-6pm, and Sunday from 12 noon to 5pm, or “until the last customer leaves”.
Mike employs 4 workers-Monica Schmidt, Tiffani Schmaltz, Rachael Rott, and Brady Schmaltz. Each year Mike supplies 3-4 different greenhouses.
Pictured are: Geranium greenhouse/ assortment of flowers/ Mike & large flower pot ( & his dog Rocky)/ Mike & hanging basket of petunias/ Monica & Tiffani triming flowers/ Begonia baskets.
The city of Anamoose is happy to announce the wedding of Ana and Joe on June 28th, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. at the city park. Ana is at last joining Joe on the welcoming billboard as you come into town. A program is planned with speakers, music, poetry, pictures in the park, mock wedding and a free catered supper. Shirts and buttons will be sold and the proceeds will go to the Anamoose endowment fund. We certainly hope that you will mark this day on your calendar and help us celebrate this great event.
EVERYONE WELCOME!!!!!
I attended the Grant Writing seminar at Devils Lake yesterday. Lynette Krenelka from UND did an excellent job in explaining the difficult process of grant writing. She gave us a big fat folder for our evening reading enjoyment. After the initial planning, the next step (and the hardest) is to find a company that gives grants that fit our needs.
Moose Wally from Walhalla was at the meeting. At least I know there was someone else there that didn’t have a clue before Wednesday on how to write a grant. Liann Zeller, Walhalla, said they are going to have to bring Wally to Anamoose June 28th when Joe and Ana-moose are getting married and maybe Wally can find a girlfriend here. If you have any girl-moose friends please let me know so I can line up a little match making at the wedding.
Pictured are: Grant writing class, Towner County at Grant Writing class, Luann & Wally, Dr. Lynette Krenelka & Wally, myself & Wally
Janice Buchholz & I discovered that Anamoose is not the only community with housing concerns. There were many communities represented at the Housing meeting in Steele yesterday. It was interesting to listen to the towns tell of their housing situations. Hazelton had advertised they would give 2 free lots & a cash incentive to people coming to live there. They got 500 calls! People told them “we want out of the city-the crime, the cost”. If any community needs help with housing they should contact: Jolene Kline, 701-328-8072, or 1-800-292-8621 or email her at jkline@ndhfa.org
In Anamoose right now we have some very nice affordable homes for sale. The ads for them are on the Anamoose web site at http://www.anamoose.com/ You can email aheer@gondtc.com for more information on homes. Pictured is 5 of the 7 homes that I know of that are for sale.
We are lucky in Anamoose to have a wide age spectrum in our bloggers. Kaya and Brianne know what is going on with the school and young people activities. Mardi, Phyllis and I are involved in many Anamoose organizations and activities.
Pictured are: Brianne Johnson, Kaya Engen, Phyllis Zimmerman, Alyce Heer and Mardi Helm.
I can really tell that spring is here when I walk in the early morning. On the outskirts of Anamoose I hear the geese honking. Then as I walk the streets in Anamoose I hear different songbirds. LaDonna Goodwin tells me they are probably meadowlarks and robins singing. Some are very loud like they are scolding each other, so are probably blue-jays.
At the Tourism conference in Cooperstown on March 27th, we hear from Floramay Miller that birding is very popular in ND and birders from foreign lands come to ND. “Birders” are more avid bird watchers in that they keep lists-how many bird species seen in a year, a “big bird count”, etc. Seeing 300 birds in a year in ND is good, but one man in Bismarck saw 325. Seeing 400-500 birds in a life time is good, but now the top number is 600.
Some birds, like the Harris Sparrow, only fly the central flyway. Anamoose is in a good location for seeing birds as the birds from the east coast and west coast overlap here.
We have 3 birding trails in the Anamoose area. We have a brochure-Central Dakota Birding Drive- that is available at the Anamoose Bakery/Cafe. In the brochure it lists at least 35 birds seen here, starting with the Piping Plovers, Swainson’s Hawk, short eared owl, Gray Partridge, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Franklins’s Gulls, Black-terns, & on & on. 
The picture shows Floramay Miiler and David Lambeth, speakers at the conference. I was surprised when yesterday I read in the ND Medicine-UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences about Lambert, PhD. “For Lambert, who’s retiring in June, birding has offered a much-needed opportunity to recharge his spirit”.
We had our informational public meeting Saturday on Home Rule. Jerry Hjelmstad of the League of Cities explained to us how we would benefit from home rule. He told us that 1/3rd of the ND communities now have home rule and 4 are in the process of setting it up. The advantages of home rule are: 1. Flexibility. 2. More power for us community members as we can refer and initiate petitions. 3. The city government will have the ability to add a sales tax. One hundred twenty ND communities now have sales tax. 4. The city government can combine mills and put them where needed.
We will be voting on home rule at the regular election on June 10th. Home rule is one of our goals in our strategic plan.
Janice Buchholz and I attended a tourism conference in Cooperstown last week. I just got a new computer so I am finally able to blog on the conference. Annette Schilling, ND Tourism Dept, told us that ND tourism brings in 3.8 billion dollars. The average visitor is 41 years old with 64% married & 1/2 are college graduates. I just heard on TV that a college graduate makes one million dollars more in his life time, so over 1/2 of the tourists have a good income. Later we learned from Sara Otte Coleman, Director, ND Dept. of Tourism, (pictured below) that we would be paying $636 more in taxes if not for tourism. For every $1 spent on tourism, we get back $1.35. ND is promoting the “Legendary theme”.
Web sites are important to attract tourists. Fifty two % of the visitors book on the Internet and only 4% book with travel agents.
Ben Klipfel, UND Marketing Director, gave an excellent talk on Innovative Marketing. He stressed “know thy community” and know what you are good at. One place in Alaska charged $5000 a night for a shack to watch the northern lights and people were very willing to pay that amount. One lady in the audience told how she heard that they were promoting that Japanese children conceived under the northern lights are smarter. If only we could think of a good promotion like that in Anamoose. 
Tuesday I took this picture of Jonathan Asmus who lived in Anamoose from 1960 to 1957. He is a typical visitor who comes back to visit friends or family. Jonathan was on his way to serve as a pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in West Bank, BC. 
Donna Anderson, our facilitator for the Horizons program, met with us yesterday. We went through our Strategic Plan (again !) from start to finish, which is 18 pages of projects.
We have accomplished many things, such as: more meals on Sundays, a Welcome package for people moving into Anamoose, a Farmer’s Market planned to start in June, empty lots and homes identified and listed, a blog site set us and Anamoose web site continued, 12 people took an Excel Computer class, people informed of happenings in Anamoose by a monthly calendar, Christmas letter sent out that promoted Anamoose, Ana-Day planned for Saturday, June 28th, Blood Pressure Clinics being held once month at the Anamoose Senior Center, Home Rule Charter set up ready for voting on in June, and an Anamoose Foundation Fund started with our money from Horizons. We are working on many more projects that hopefully I will be able to blog on in the future.
Pictured are Mardell Helm, Donna Anderson, Dennis Zimmerman, Alyce Heer, and Shirley Nitz.
Schmaltz’s Greenhouse is open for lilies and Easter flowers. With coaxing, I got Mike Schmaltz and his dog, Rocky, to pose in front of some Easter lilies. Rocky was more interested in laying on his bench with his BIG ball.
Mike told he he will be open in April for potatoes and garden seeds. About May 1st people start coming in for potted plants-of course, depending on the weather. He has five 3000 square foot greenhouses. He has about 6000 geraniums started.
Even though there is still snow on the ground we are thinking of gardening. As a result of the Horizon Program a Farmers Market will be started June 1st. It will be in the Anamoose Park from 6 to 8 pm every Monday evening. So if you are interested in selling homemade crafts, baked goods, or fresh fruit and vegetables contact Bonnie at 465-3088 or email her at bonniedockter@yahoo.com Or you can plan to come to buy a little of everything and visit with friends. Let the kids play at the playground while you shop. We hope to make this a fun evening out for everyone.
The Drake/Anamoose boys basketball team outscored Bottineau last night in a District 11 Region play in a game at Bottineau. They earned themselves the spot of District 11 number 4 seed in the Region 6 Tournament. The Raiders will take on the District 12 champions Minot Bishop Ryan Lions at 6:15pm Monday, March 3rd in Minot. The Raiders boys basketball team has not competed in the region tournament since 1996. Good luck boys!
Picture 1; Riley Walker, Andrew Rott, Kyle Wangen, Nathan Martin, and Brandon Martwich listen to coach Doug Martin give instructions during time out.
Picture 2: The score board showing Drake/Anamoose beating 
Bottineau by a score of 37 to 31
Thanks to Shonella Lemer for the article and pictures.
I wanted to put together another slide-show before I forgot how. These pictures were taken yesterday. They start out with the baptism of Sarah and Chris Ammon’s baby Jared. Then the Anamoose Cafe was open for breakfast buffet. I had to go home for another camera as my battery died, so many of the crowd had left by time I ate and went home to get another camera.
In the afternoon our committee for planning the Wedding of Joe and Ana-Moose met at the Senior Center, but I forgot the pictures till our meeting was over. The Wedding will be Saturday, June 28th, so mark that on your calendar. We are going to get buttons and shirts with Joe and Ana on. The program will start at 3pm with speakers, singing, and the wedding. There will be a free picnic in the park with wedding cake and favors. Plans are that Ana will join Joe on the Anamoose Welcome sign after the wedding.
In the evening we got together at Angie and Emanuel Kesler’s house for dominos and food with the same people that we ate breakfast with. So you can see there are things going on in Anamoose, even on Sunday.
Wednesday was the first time the Baptists were out for blood—the Anamoose Blood Drive, that is! The United Community Baptist Church of Anamoose held a blood drive at the Senior Center. Darlene Frueh said they got 29 units, which Rich Larcombe of United Blood Services said was very good. The Anamoose Senior Citizens will hold their annual blood drive in June.
Then last night our Anamoose Area Endowment committee met at the Senior Center. Amy Warnke, ND Community Foundation Development Director, helped us finalize our brochure, guidelines, mission statement, and letters to be sent out to potential donors. We will be starting visiting in March.
Its not the residents that are buzzing, but, saws and other equipment being used by Feist Plumbing of Harvey and Ron Bartz Carpentry to replace and repair water lines in most of the apartments. Funding is provided by grant money from the city of Anamoose through Souris Basin Planning Council and the Housing Corporation. Pictured are Ron Bartz in a hallway and Tim Feist and Ron Bartz in a vacant apartment. 
Wednesday evening was busy for me when I atteded 3 events. First Vernon and I had to eat out at the Valentine candlelight supper at the cafe. In spite of the storm there was a good crowd for the barbeque ribs, chicken and swiss steak buffet. The food was great and it was fun to visit with friends.
At 6pm we had a Business meeting, and at 6:30 we had an Endowment meeting. That worked great for some of us that are involved in both.
And they say that nothing goes on in small towns. They need to come to Anamoose!
The city and City Board have a big decision to make-whether to fix up our existing water plant or go with the Rural Water Consortium. At the Informational meeting Tuesday night the engineers reported it would could $312,000 to fix up the water system to new condition and it may last 20 years. We have trouble with the arsenic level in our water, so chemicals have to be added to keep the arsenic below 10.
The city has a $246,000 outstanding debt now on the water system.
If we don’t sign up with rural water now it will cost more to sign up later or we may not even be able to sign up. The Rural Water representative said the average cost for rural water is $49.50 a month plus approximately $4-$5 per 1000 gallons.
Butch Ehrman who lives 3 miles south of Anamoose told me that he pays a base of $41 a month and $4.91 per 1000 gallons for rural water that comes from the south.
A USDA representative reported there is a possibility of a grant/loan for either renovation or joining the Rural Water Consortium. He advised the City Board to raise the water rates no matter what they decide to do.
We crammed a lot of planning into one and a half hours when our Steering Committee met yesterday at the cafe. We worked through our Strategic Plan.
Under the category of Improve Business Climate in Anamoose we have 7 strategies. Under the category of Adequate and Affordable Housing we have 4 strategies. With our Communications category we are working on 7 strategies. We just put together a Welcome package (see previous blog by Mardi) Our goal to Promote Tourism has 7 strategies. The biggest projects under tourism are putting together a brochure, and planning for the wedding of Joe and Ana-Moose on Saturday, June 28th. You will hear alot more about the wedding in our future blogs. Developing Future Leaders has 3 strategies for youth and adults alike. The goal of a Clean Anamoose Community includes everything from old buildings, signs, cars, our park, to diseased trees. We couldn’t forget the elderly in our plan where we have 7 strategies. And on the opposite end of the spectrum we want to keep our young people in Anamoose by including them in our plans.
Under the category of Home Rule, we have put together a Home Rule Charter that will be distributed to all households, a public meeting will be held, and a vote will be held in June.
And finally, we are setting up a Community Endowment Foundation that will be started with our $10,000 from the Horizons program.
We have a lot to do yet!
Pictures left to right are: Mardell Helm, Alyce Heer, Dennis Zimmerman, Bill Goodwin, 
Joe Weninger, Bonnie Dockter, and Shirley Nitz.
