NEWS & EVENTS

Thompson seeks a CVP balance
By Mike Christopherson, Managing Editor
Crookston Daily Times

April 23, 2004 - Of all the people serving on the Crookston Vitality Project committee, Kari Thompson might have the most difficult job. While everyone else has jobs and numerous commitments that leave only about one percent of their time and energy for furthering the Vitality Project, it’s Thompson’s job to see that something productive comes of it. Sure, there’s the newest person on board, Carrie Bang, who will coordinate major portions of the project from here on out, but Bang’s strengths are more in rallying the troops and getting people fired up and enthusiastic about their community and all the wonderful things it has going for it, and could in the future.

On the other hand, there’s Thompson, the executive director of the Crookston Development Authority, who must answer to her CDA board of directors, who want some hard data on which to base future decisions on economic development issues for Crookston.

The CDA doesn’t necessarily want a repeat of Project 2000, undertaken in the mid-1980s to envision a sort of blueprint of wish list items identified as being important to the community by the time the new millennium rolled around. Looking ahead 15 years, with all the new technology and ever-changing economic and legislative climates, is next to impossible now that the new millennium finally arrived – four years ago – but that doesn’t change the fact that the CDA wants some useful, hard numbers to springboard future decisions.

“I need to get some things done, and I think we can make it work where I can get the information I’m looking for using the Vitality Project, but at the same time others can get the things out of it that they want, too,” Thompson explained.
With Bang and her assistant, Eric Swanson, on board, and a budget that will approach $40,000 if grants from the Northwest Minnesota Foundation and Bremer Foundation are eventually awarded, the CVP will focus mainly in the coming months on spreading the word to all segments of the community, and then seeking information from those segments. While some of it will be asset-based, modeling other communities who have asked, “What are we great at?” and “What can we be great at?” Thompson will be seeking more specific information.

“Assuming there is some type of survey instrument that goes to the people, I’m going to want to know about housing issues, economic development and things like that,” Thompson said. “Would you visit a coffee shop downtown if Crookston had one. Would you be interested in living here if Crookston offered this type of service or amenity? Those are the types of questions I’m going to want answered.”

That’s because, as Crookston’s chief economic developer, she needs a relevant body of information to use as a tool when she discusses potential deals with business interests looking to set up shop in Crookston. And not only are they going to have questions about economic development issues, they’re going to want to know all kinds of information about the community, that Thompson will have to have at her disposal.

“I need hard information and numbers that mean something to me and to the people that I will show them to, but I also think it’s important that the Vitality Project fire up the community and get people excited,” she said. “I don’t know if I’d call it touchy-feely or warm and fuzzy, but we’re going to have to reach out to the people of this community and somehow get them fired up about what we’re trying to do.”

The process that Bang and the CVP committee put in place to get citizens psyched up about the possibilities in their community is one thing, but Thompson will also be seeking a body of information that will allow her to successfully market Crookston to those not currently living, working or doing business here.

“If when the information-gathering process is over I have a body of results that I can use to market Crookston, I will be happy,” she said. “What if, after this, I can show a potential business interest that the citizens of this community are dying to have a shoe store? I bet that would increase our chances of getting a shoe store. Same goes for the coffee shop, or anything else that people might want.”

The Crookston Area Chamber of Commerce is also looking into doing a business survey, and the University of Minnesota Extension Service Regional Center at UMC is looking at possibly conducting a business retention and expansion survey. Then there’s RiverView Health, which will likely be seeking a certain body of information, and the Northwest Mental Health Center, too. Of course, the school district is always looking for information that it can use, like public opinion on all-day, everyday kindergarten, for instance. And all the nature-based tourism everyone is talking about? They’ll want some of the process focused on their interests as well. All of which, Thompson said, means that the information gathering process needs to be consistent and well coordinated.

“I, along with everyone else involved with this believes that the people of this community need to be closely involved with this process, and if in the end the people feel like they have played a real part in it and I have the data that I need, then I will consider the whole process a success,” Thompson said. “Others will want information that benefits them, too, and I think it’s possible to do through the Vitality Project. If you bring all these interests together with the common goal of making this community better, I think the initial set of values that were identified as part of this project just kind of happen, and that is a good thing.”