Jerry Barnett reported for the education committee.  He had spoke with Dana Sanderson about they had been working on.  Dana commented that the committee met last week, the meeting went well and the group is on task.  They have an event planned on career exploration, that is staged to take place before the end of the school year.  Have asked for additional information from the committee and will report it as soon as I receive it.

On April 4th and 5th there will be a training for facilitators for another round of study circles.  The topic of this time will be diversity and racism.  We need to find 6-8 people that are interested in taking the classes and then leading a group through the 5 week class.  Dave and Kari both feel this would be a great thing for our community to do, as did the members at the meeting.   If interested please contact Dana Sanderson or Ericka Kotab at the school.

The Clean Up Committee was reported by Dawn Bures.  The dates set for the 2008 year are May 3 and Aug 2.  SD Nat Guard has said they will be available for both events to offer man power, and trucks.  The Yankton Sioux Tribe has not been contacted yet, but will and hope to coordinate efforts to bring our entire community together.  Linda Soukup reported for the Beautification Committee.  The minutes have been posted on the blog site from the meeting they held on Feb 27th.  At this point letters of support have been received from the city and chamber for the applications we are submitting for grant money.   The applications for the grants will be submitted soon and the committee plans to meet again mid April.

The Youth Committee was reported by Jerry Barnett who spoke with Dana Sanderson.  Dana and a group of students conducted a survey through the middle and high-school.  Through the survey they found they had too much information and need to meet again to put together a second survey.  The survey is hoped to be done by our next meeting. 

The group talked extensively about options for out community on the lines of the movie theater that both Armour and Tripp are running in their community.  We all feel the communities are doing a great job of providing this service and wonder what Wagner could do to offer “something to do”.  Many of us feel that the communities are doing a great job and we do not want to step on toes by doing our own, also they use a great force of volunteers and will Wagner be able to find the same?  Maybe we could take a bus of people to watch the shows, was one idea.  But we left the topic with the idea that we should try to think of something that we could do, unique to our community, to fill this void.  Ideas are: community theater, city movie night, dinner theater.  Please let us know if you have an idea!!

 Jeff Doom reported for the Business Development group.  Chamber is showing more involvement with their continued efforts to get more people involved.  He did not think there had been any work done on the Welcome Baskets we wanted to make available.  Jeff was going to talk to Sharon Harr who was to be working on those and see where we were on that.  Matt Cerny the Economic Development Coordinator was at a Horizon’s workshop in Lincoln, so was not available to report.  But we are told he has been going to several meetings and knows about others available and were encouraged to ask him about these. 

 Before the end of the meeting Dave gave each group member a list of ideas for answering this month’s blog questions.  The questions are dealing with poverty.  3 topic starters include:  Methods for determining the level of poverty in your community, What community resources will be needed to sustain the community plan to reduce poverty, and What additional resources would make a difference in your community’s work to reduce poverty?  This is to be blogged about through the month of March. 

The next meeting will be April 8, 2008, noon, at Two Spurs.  Members from each committee are urged to attend. 

Some of the initial ideas the group had before the meeting were:  To designate areas through town and along hwy 46 to plant flowers, bushes, grasses…; To encourage businesses to plant something on their grounds, or provide us with the items and we will plant it for them…; Hanging baskets at the 4-way stop…; A yard of the week, month or other, program.

Through the hour long discussion the group has decided to make the greatest impact by doing these things:  Rather than doing planters here and there through town we have decided on 2 major areas to make a greater effect.  One on the east edge of town and one on the west.  Our city officials will still check with the State to see what we can do at the 4-way stop- as there will be regulations we would have to follow.  The committee will continue to encourage businesses and homeowners to do something.  Part of this encouragement will come from the Yard of the Week program.  The town will be devided into 4 quadrants and a winner will be awarded each week from each of the quadrants.  The FFA will make yard signs for us to use.  And we will be putting their pictures in the Wagner Post.  We will also be bringing businesses into the program as it will not just be homes.  The guidelines will be better drawn out in the next couple of weeks.

We will be applying for some grant money through a SD Community Grant program and the Wagner Community Grant.  And of course will be looking for donations of time, energy and money! 

Right now when you look outside it’s hard to imagine all things green, birds singing and not wearing layers!  But soon the seasons will change, as is a sure thing in South Dakota, and this project will be a great way to make our city shine!  It’s taking pride and showing that we care about our community and every-person who passes through! 

If you have any ideas please contact us!  Linda Soukup @ 384-5575 or Dawn Bures @ 384-4175.  Thanks!!

The group met in February with Dave Olson.  The meeting was attended by Linda Soukup, Barb Johannsen, Matt Cerny, Patty Frei, and Dawn Bures.  The major topics covered was Community Beautification committee, and another round of Study Circles.  The community beautification committee decided to meet on Feb 27 @ 7pm at the home of Linda Soukup.  The meeting was set to discuss with the entire committee the ideas of those involved and make a plan for how it will all come together.  Dawn and Linda will continue to lead the committee until it is established.

Patty informed us that the dates for facilitator training for the Study Circle facilitators will need to be moved and the new date for that is April 4 and 5 at the Wagner Fire Hall.  Patty will try to step in while Rita Kocer deals with a family emergency. 

 Dave Olson had some informational items he shared with the group.  There are a couple of training classes and events being held in the near future that might be of interest to our community members.  Matt has expressed interest in going to on that will be held in May in the Mlps area.  I will try to get a list of these and post them on here as there might be others interested in attending. 

 Dawn

Please get involved and bring forth your concerns and ideas for a public meeting on February 13th, 2008, at Wagner City Hall at 7:00 pm.

If you have any further questions, please contact the City Finance Office at 384-3741.

To host this event is a great honor and opportunity for Wagner; it allows us to invite athletes, coaches and fans to our community and enjoy all we have to offer. We hope they enjoyed their stay and are excited about coming back soon.

 Matt Cerny talked about the city website that is now up and running.  You can find the site @ www.cityofwagner.org .  Matt will be the person keeping the site update and if you would like to see something new or different on there you can contact him at the city finance office. 

 The Chamber of Commerce has a goal of getting more business members to meetings and is implementing ideas to do so.  They are hoping to target new members and become a more lively bunch!! 

The Education committee is a group of go getters!  They had a meeting at the same time so will be posting minutes from that meeting at a later date.  From what we hear though, they are set and running - congratulations and thank you for your hard work!!

The community beautification crew have made their first step goals of getting together with city officials, SD Nat Guard, and YST to become a group that works to keep our community clean together.  Linda Soukup noted that she is working on grant ideas and planting ideas for that part of the goal.  There will be a meeting to collaborate on or before the middle of February. 

 There has been a goal established to have a Multicultural Study Circles in Wagner.  Training for that will be Feb 15th and 16th- tentatively!!  As  a person who has went through study circles, I encourage everyone to become involved!  It was a great experience where I learned a lot about our community, it’s members (whom I might never gotten to know) and myself! 

Our next meeting will be Feb 12, 2008.  Lets push for greater progress to report then!!  Great work to date.