Last night Janice Buchholz & I went to an informational Horizon’s meeting in McClusky. We gave a power point presentation on what we had done in Anamoose under the Horizon’s program. Patti Patrie also presented what Bowden had done. McClusky did decide to join the new Horizon’s session that starts this fall.
Our Horizons Steering Committee met last night at the Anamoose Senior Center. We went over our Strategic Plan again to see what we still needed to do. We have accomplished many things in the 18 months that ended June 30th, but we still have quite a few projects to pursue.
Some of us still have poor cell phone service in the Anamoose area. Call me at 465-3476 and let me know how your cell phone service is. The Public Service Commission is willing to come to Anamoose if we feel a need for them to come and discuss our service.
Pictured: Dennis Zimmerman, Joe Weninger, Bill Goodwin, Shirley Nitz (kneeling), Janice Buchholz, Mardell Helm, and Bonnie Dockter. 
The final touch to the new Anamoose Fire-hall was the adding of the sign last week by Midwest Graphics of Martin. The Fire-hall is a 70×70 building located on the northwest end of Main St. It includes a kitchen, truck bay, & meeting room.
The equipment consists of: 2003 Freight-line pumper, 79 Chevy 4×4 Brush Truck, 88Chevy panel truck, & a 66 International tanker.
The officers are: Fire Chief-Jeff Lemer, Assistant Chief-Mike Rudnick, & Secretary/Treasurer-David Gienger. There are 30 members on the roster, & 3 honorary members.
We had our final Horizon’s celebration today at Bismarck. All 21 communities got to “toot their horns” and tell what they had done, either by a presentation, a display, or both. I gave a power point presentation for Anamoose, & we had a display. Janice Buchholz put together a scrapbook of our 18 month program, ending with our wedding of Joe & Ana Moose. Rutland told that they have their first woman on their city board, just like here, Bonnie Dockter just started Monday on the board. Wallhala told that “Horizons for Walhalla was like a pep rally”. They have a Pumpkin Fest every year & had a 792 lb pumpkin. One seed can cost up to $60-unbelievable!
We received a large impressive plaque with a picture of our Joe & Ana Moose Welcome sign on it. We also received our final $8500 that we will put in our Anamoose Area Community Fund. Pictured with the plaque are: LaDonna Goodwin, Janice Buchholz, Dr. Coston, NDSU; myself (Alyce Heer), Phyllis Zimmerman, Pam Heim, Shriley Nitz & Mardell Helm. Back row: Bill Goodwin, Kevin Dvorak, ND Community Foundation; Dennis Zimmerman, Tana Walker, _____, and Gov. Hoeven.
Pam Heim has done many moose designs over the years. In 2002 she won a contest for a t-shirt design for the 2nd 4th of July Fun Run. Since then she has continued to design the yearly t-shirts & be in charge of the event. The Anamoose Civic Club liked her 2002 design so well they had her design Joe Moose who leans against our Anamoose Welcome sign at the Highway 52 entrance.
Pam’s moose designs are also on the water tower, peek-thru welcome sign in the park, t-shirts for our Joe & Ana-Moose wedding, a window of the old grocery store, our Anamoose Area Community Foundation thermometer, & several of our yearly demolition derby t-shirts. She drew Joe & Ana-moose designs for a grade coloring contest this spring. Pictured are 1. Pam painting peek-thru sign in park. 2. Water tower 3. Joe & Ana-Moose t-shirts 4. Anamoose Area Foundation 5. Joe & Ana design 6. Joe (on right) designed by Pam.
I attended an excellent workshop, Rural Community Forum, yesterday at Bismarck at the Heritage Center. Many communities shared their stories about reusing school buildings, community operated businesses, using local foods & starting community endowment funds. Annette Schilling, ND Tourism, also talked on Learned Based Vacations.
The facilitator, Cher Hersrud, in introducing the Community Foundation Funds topic, stated “If I ruled the world, every town in ND would have one”. Patricia Bowen, Ellendale, stated “People can give back to their communities”. This topic was of great interest to me since we just started an Anamoose Area Community Fund. We have over $13,000 so far.
Usually when I go to Minot I am lucky if I see a couple of people that I know, but yesterday at the annual Verendrye meeting there were many people from Anamoose and other area communities. Maybe the free meal and a chance to win $3000 attracts us! I didn’t win the money, and nobody won the $3000 either.
They had many interesting vendors, with four from our Anamoose area, and one from McHenry County. This is a good way to promote our small businesses & our county. Booths pictured are: 1. Deb Reinowski-Park Lane jewelry 2. Keith Reinowski-Midwest Graphics & Signs. Also Angie Mack, Brenda Kenney, & Kristin Reinowski. 3. Jackie Fix & Brad Mincher-Sage Hill Bed & Breakfast 4. Mabel Forschen-Home made gifts & Watkins. 5. Maria Effertz Hanson-McHenry County Also there were people there like Shirley & Bill Nitz who were there just to enjoy the food, etc.
Another of our Horizon goals has come about. Woody and Kathy Selzler purchased land next to them that was called “the stockyards”. They have been getting rid of old buildings and trees, and put part of the land into a community garden. Anamoose area residents can put in a garden at no cost. USDA is offering free seeds for a study on new varieties. If anyone is interested please contact Bonnie Dockter at 465-3088.
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!
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. .
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
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
Last night we had our first Excel Computer class at the school. We got stormed out last Monday. Evoynel Berg, the computer teacher at school, started with the basics of 
spreadsheets and bookkeeping. We have 12 registered for the class.
The cost of the class is covered by a grant from CONAC (Center of North America Coalition for Rural Development), so the older than 
average students only had to pay $25 for the book and CD.
Who wants to cook on Sunday? Not me, and not a lot of other people who turned out yesterday for the Senior Center brunch of french toast and sausage. Chairman Dennis Zimmerman and Bill Goodwin had lots of help from the women with serving and clean-up.
This was the third Sunday brunch-the second one at the Senior Center, and one last week at the Anamoose Cafe. The churches have helped to advertise the brunches in their bulletins and we also have been advertising on our marque on main street.
Many of the crowd had left before I remembered to take pictures, but some enjoyed sitting around drinking coffee and visiting.
At 27 below I don’t think there would be too many people wanting to go ice skating today. For this winter we don’t even have a skating rink, but plans are in place for one next year.
The Albrecht family has donated their lot north of the Lutheran Church parking lot to the city to be used for a skating rink. (see picture)
The warming house on main street sets next to the new fire hall that was built on the skating rink lot. The city board discussed that they will move it to the new lot so next winter our youth ( and maybe a few older) will be able to skate again. 
This is one of our goals in our Strategic Plan.
We just got home from eating a buffet breakfast at the Anamoose Cafe. What a huge crowd, as you can see in the pictures! The breakfast was delicious Over breakfast, we 
talked about how it is great to be able to eat Sunday breakfast in Anamoose before or after church.
Next Sunday we can eat breakfast at the Anamoose Senior Center, when they serve their second Sunday breakfast from 9:30-1.
This was one of our Strategic Planning goals-to have Sunday meals for seniors. I am sure the rest of the people in Anamoose enjoy it too.
