Category: Projects
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December Project Updates
Published first on the Progress News, December 6, 2021 Since we’ve been talking a fair bit recently about “what will be” and “what can be,” I figured it’s about time for a “what is” update! We’re fully into the grant-writing season, so unfortunately a lot of “what is” is…boring paperwork. Exciting for the potential it holds for… Read more
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Regional Redevelopment Connections
Published first on the Progress News, November 15, 2021 I often get asked what exactly redevelopment is, or what kind of projects we are involved in, and it can be challenging to succinctly describe what goes on in a very wide-ranging field! One benefit of the creation of our regional coalition is that it offers… Read more
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What Is a Regional Growth Cluster?
Published first on the Progress News, November 8, 2021 In the last column, I mentioned the creation of a regional coalition of redevelopment partners. I threw out some soundbites like “innovation ecosystem” and “regional growth cluster,” and you may be thinking, “okay, but what does that all Mean?” The idea of banding together for the… Read more
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An Update and Exciting News
Published first on the Progress News, October 25, 2021 Fall is firmly here, and with the change of seasons comes a flurry of updates in local Redevelopment! You may have noticed that I’ve been pretty quiet the last few weeks, but it certainly wasn’t because things had slowed down. Quite the contrary, in fact! I took my… Read more
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First Harvests
Published first on the Progress News, August 9, 2021 As we settle into the long, sultry days of late summer, many of us are enjoying a bumper crop of delicious fruits and veggies from our gardens. The River Roots Community Farm, located on the grounds of the AC Valley School District complex in Foxburg, is no… Read more
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Completed, A Round of Phase 1 Assessments
Published first on the Progress News, August 2, 2021 Happy August! If you’re like me, you’re wondering where the year has gone, as 2021 certainly has been a busy, event-filled year for many of us. For community-focused work, especially, there just never seem to be enough hours in a day! In towns and cities all… Read more
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Winds of Change
Published first on the Progress News, July 19, 2021 | Guest column by ORA President, John Philips Summerfest 2021 is over, and memories were made as families, friends and foreigners gathered and mixed as a community. If that was the intent, Summerfest 2021 was a roaring success. Hats off to Emlenton and all who worked… Read more
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River Roots Community Farm Ribbon-Cutting
Published first on the Progress News, May 24, 2021 It took two tries, but with the second snip of the giant scissors on Saturday, May 15th, the multi-colored ribbon was cut and the River Roots Community Farm was officially open for growing! The day was a joyful end to an extremely busy few weeks, and… Read more
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The Banners are Coming, the Banners are Coming!
Published first on the Progress News, May 17, 2021 The last year caused the postponement or cancellation of a lot of events and projects, including many we had lined up in local redevelopment. Some of those, like the school farm initiative, are finally underway (hooray!!), and others, such as kids’ kung fu classes, will be… Read more
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The Farm a Community Built
Published first on the Progress News, May 10, 2021 More than a year and a half ago, Dr. David McDeavitt and I had a dream: to create a space on school grounds that would allow everyone from our community to come together, sleeves up, working and learning and growing. Public school, home school, or well… Read more
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Behind the Scenes
Published first on the Progress News, May 3, 2021 Today I’d like to give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of one of the most involved and hard-hitting parts of redevelopment work. This is an area that most folks don’t get the chance to experience, a hidden world of back-room meetings and urgent phone… Read more
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ACV’s School Farm Project
Published first on the Progress News, March 15, 2021 This time last year, I was thanking folks for offering to donate items to our School Farm project and looking forward to getting our hands dirty by late March. Welp…2020 sure threw a wrench in the works. But, here we are, exactly one year later, finally… Read more