NEWS & EVENTS

Citizens provide 'vital' input
Photo and written by Mike Christopherson, Managing Editor
Crookston Daily Times

September 28, 2004 - The first phase of the Crookston Vitality Project came to a successful end Monday evening at Crookston High School, and thanks to about 100 citizens who came out to voice their views on Crookston’s future, phase two will soon begin.

The second phase will continue for the next six months or so and will include several citizen groups discussing various “sector areas” that will shape Crookston’s future. Those sectors include education (from early childhood to higher ed and lifelong learning), healthcare/human services, economic vitality/community development, community leadership/involvement, parks/recreation/natural resources, and public services. Citizens who attended Monday’s CVP Community Kickoff at the high school signed up to be involved in the sector area(s) that most interested them.
At the end of the six months, the priority lists developed by the sector groups will become part of a final report that will be presented to the community, explained CVP steering committee member Dan Wolpert, who facilitated a portion of Monday’s event. That report will become a blueprint of sorts for Crookston’s vital future – similar to the findings of Project 2000 almost 20 years ago – and will include a wide variety of initiatives to be pursued.

CVP Community Facilitator Carrie Bang, hired by the steering committee to tell the CVP story to the community, organized much of Monday’s kickoff. Bang, who’s spoken to numerous civic/service clubs, businesses and other groups, has continually asked citizens four questions:

• What are Crookston’s assets?
• What are we passionate about?
• What could we do to better grow the local economy?
• What could Crookston do better?

The answers Bang got to those questions provided the basis for discussions in numerous breakout sessions at Monday’s event. Since Bang said she heard repeatedly in her discussions that fine arts and entertainment are two of Crookston’s assets, it was no accident that she booked Crookston Community Theater members, dancer and Miss Crookston Alex Dorman, and the Valley Fiddlers to perform at the kickoff. Bang also got 12 local restaurants to provide a sampling of their cuisine for a “Taste of Crookston” in the CHS commons area.

Talking points
In one of the breakout sessions, facilitated by Dan Svedarsky and Keith Mykleseth, people seemed to get the most fired up when they talked about the need for a community center in Crookston. While certainly not a new topic of discussion when it comes to initiatives that would improve Crookston, the belief Monday was that a bold project like an all-purpose community center that includes health and recreational facilities, programs and activities for children to senior citizens would fill many of the community’s future needs.
While such a project would be hugely expensive, CVP leaders, emboldened by Monday’s lively discussions, weren’t about to concede that anything is impossible.

“Personally, I feel very excited about what I’ve seen and heard tonight,” Wolpert said. “It’s been a very uplifting experience.”
The facilitators of the breakout sessions had initially planned to compile the highlights of their group discussions while everyone else was enjoying a Taste of Crookston, but Wolpert said there was simply too much meaningful data to sift through in one evening. Instead, the CVP steering committee will go through all of the information at an upcoming meeting. The discussion highlights will provide the basis for a community survey.

“The volume of information you’ve provided tonight tells me that this evening has been a tremendous success, and I sense that people are just really psyched,” Wolpert told the audience at the evening wrap-up session. “I think this is going to be, and I think it already is a great thing for our community.”