Anamoose, ND

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.

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

Last night we had our annual Quad County Economic Development meeting at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Drake. 

We are loaning Darryl Keller money to open the Shani”s Bar in Drake. 

Maria Effertz Hanson, McHenry Co. JDA Director, spoke on the benefits of living in ND.  She referred to the article in the January issue of National Geographics, The Emptied Prairie, where they said ND is litered with dead towns.  Many ND people, including me, wrote in to let them know what we thought of the article.  We have a lower population in ND than a lot of states, but we have a lot of positives.  To view the article go to:  http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=north%20dakota&type  

I took this picture of Kathy Selzler at her computer where she has been working on her January Anamoose Community calendar. Kathy includes activities about community events, school and church activities, and larger ND events that people in Anamoose usually attend.

She has about 60 copies printed at the school by her daughter, Corinne Engen, or Mary Beck. From there she takes them to the cafe, senior center, and bank for people to pick them up. She also emails the calendar to the Anamoose web site, www.anamoose.com where you can find it under “Events”.

The printing of the calendar is paid for by the Anamoose Civic Club, which also pays for the Anamoose web site.