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!
Several Anamoose Horizon Board members brought out their paint brushes today and brightened up the front of the former grocery store that now stands vacant waiting for a new tenant. Members on the painting team were: Alyce Heer, Janice Buchholz, Joe Weninger, Bonnie Dockter and Mardelle Helm. One Anamoose resident, Rudy Wohl, came to check out the job while the work was being done. Sorry Bonnie - bad photographer!
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.
Mardelle Helm just spent last week in Fargo taking a course to become a Parish Nurse. She was sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and St Francis Xavier Altar Society. A Parish Nurse is a melding of nursing and ministry. She ministers wholistically to individuals and families, in and through a faith community, using her health education and spiritual maturity to promote wellness of body, mind and spirit.
The functions of a Parish Nurse are: 1. Integrator of faith and health 2. Health educator 3. Personal health counselor 4. Referral agent 5. Trainer of volunteers 6. Developer of support groups 7. Health advocate. She is not expected to provide home health-care nursing. When such care is needed, she makes the appropriate referral to a community agency.
Mardelle will be serving St Francis Xavier Catholic Church at Anamoose, St Margaret Mary Catholic Church at Drake, and Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Orrin. She already has been helping give communion to shut-ins.
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. .
A small group of crafters met at the Anamoose Senior Citizens Center today for the April Craft’s Class. The ladies made a photo display using 6 of their personal photos and hanging them on fishing line and chipboard from a 7″ wire ornament hanger. Participants this month were: Leela Springer, Marlene Whitaker and Kathy Rademacher. Instructor was Mardi Helm. Classes are open to everyone and are held monthly.
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
The Anamoose Wildlife Club held a hunter education class in the new fire hall this past week. There were members of the Wildlife Club that are certified to teach the class. They were Mark and Corinne Engen, Jackie Martin, Steve Heim, Doian Anderson, Alan Martin, Jeff Lemer, LJ Dusek, and Jason Isac.
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.
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.
The Anamoose Speech Team attended the Harvey High School JH Speech meet on Tuesday, March, 18. All of the team members did an excellent job in placing. So well, in fact, that the team placed second overall. The team is coached by Corinne Engen.
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.
Just got back from vacation on Monday, and already attended a “Dig in”to Tourism conference Tuesday in Devils Lake. Sarah Otte Coleman, ND Tourism Director, said ND has a 17% increase in tourism, while the national average is only 13.4%. 68% of the tourists are from out of state. The number one reason for travel here is visiting relatives, number 2 is coming for fun, and third is business. ND is the cheapest state to visit at an average of $187 a day. The Tourism website of http://www.ndtourism.com/ is very colorful and informative as I found out today when I checked it out.
Some of us got together in small groups to practice saying “We’re counting on you!” for a ND Tourism Hospitality DVD that will be released April 20th at the ND Tourism conference.
Holly Mawby, owner of Gardendwellers Farm, has a very different garden. Her very unique brochure tells how she and her husband have taken over the community of Churchs Ferry that was “virtually removed from the map by waters of nearby Devils Lake.” In 2 1/2 blocks (or 2 acres) they grow 14 different herbs and 3000 lb of rhubarb. In her brochure she advertises for 8 other businesses. Visit their website at www.gardendwellersfarm.com to see more of what they have to offer.
For one of our afternoon sessions we practiced how to do an “Elevator Speech” which is a 30-60 second talk on who we are, where we are from, and what we want to promote in our community or business. These short, concise talks were used by salesmen when they only had 30-60 seconds while they rode the elevator up with their clients till they reached their floor.
This picture shows Shirley Nitz and I posing next to the ND poster. The speaker in the second picture is Holly Mawby, and in the third picture we are with some dedicated Wally, the moose, fans from Walhalla. They said Wally is a bachelor, but we told them how our Joe Moose is getting married to Ana-moose June 28th. I went on their website today, and they already have blogged about the tourism day. They have a great website that you might want to check out- http://walhalla.communityblogs.us
As a result of the Horizon Program a Farmers Market has been set up to begin on Monday, June 2nd. It will be at the park from 6 to 8 pm every Monday night. If you are interested in selling homemade crafts, baked goods, or fresh fruit & vegetables contact Bonnie Dockter at 465-3088 or email her at bonniedockter@yahoo.com
Or you can 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 night out for everyone.
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.
Every year the men from the community serve a Civic Club Appreciation brunch. Us women just take it for granted that the men will plan and serve it.
They served french toast, sausage, juice and coffee to a large crowd on Saturday I was told today. I was out of town so missed the good food, socializing and picture taking.
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!
Our Anamoose Area Community Foundation met yesterday to plan for our fund raising. Amy Warnke, ND CommunityFoundation Development Director, gave us more information on how to raise the $25,000 needed for the first year.
Pictured are: Bill Goodwin, Dennis Zimmerman, Shirley Nitz, Brent Weninger, Dick 
Hauser, Amy Warnke, Joe Weninger, and Alyce Heer. (Rose Weninger is taking the picture)
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.
