Spring Valley EDA

Tools for Economic Growth in Spring Valley, Minnesota.

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Spring Valley library director pays it forward in full chapter

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Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, February 22, 2024.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

 

“I grew up in a household where reading was very much encouraged. We had limited funds, but my mom always made sure we could buy books when the school book orders came home,” recalled Spring Valley Public Library’s (SVPL) new director, Melissa Vander Plas, continuing, “At that time, country kids had to pay to use the public library because there was not county funding for rural patrons, and it wasn’t an expense my family could afford.”

A small child’s acquaintance with a school librarian made a world of difference for the growing bibliophile who would someday aspire to become a library director. She explained, “We had a school librarian, Paula Michel, who made it possible for me to have a library card, and I’ve had a library card ever since that first time. She was a mentor through the years, and she provided private resources when I was going to Hawaii. She proofread my college papers, and when I started working at the newspaper, she was great about giving me ideas for a news story. I was one story out of many how she influenced the community.”

Vander Plas is proud to be the kind of reader who wants to hold a real book in hand, to turn pages and inhale the aroma of paper and binding – honoring the investment Michel made in her by becoming someone who will gather and savor a book’s plot and characters. She’s usually working her way through a stack of books she’s long awaited to be available either in bookstores, online bookstores, or of most definite importance, in the library’s collections. Her current library card is likely worn from its use, but that’s just one more way to show that she truly enjoys words on a page. “I just really love books. I like reading, crocheting, knitting, quilting, staying up too late watching movies….and people know about my two cats from reading about them in my news column.”

Vander Plas shared how she came to be a library director after years of serving as reporter and editor for Phillips Publishing and Bluff Country News Group and director of chambers of commerce. “My 25 years at Phillips Publishing and my experience at Preston Public Library for five years, and my work with the Harmony and Lanesboro chambers of commerce really provided me with the skills I need to confidently do this job. I would have wanted to do it earlier, but I was not quite ready. I guess I wanted to pay it forward from Paula Michel to the community.” She’s pleased to be at the checkout desk at SVPL after years of waiting to grow into her current occupation. “I’m excited to be here and I look forward to getting to know people much better. I’m very excited that the Spring Valley library is loved and well used by its community. We are busy, and I love it. It’s a beautiful space. And while I live in Harmony now, I do plan to move to Spring Valley…my intention is to live here and become part of the community, to join committees and civic clubs.”

She listed the full calendar of upcoming events at the library that will entertain and educate attendees, citing, “Upcoming programs here – we’re currently hosting a collection for the food shelf through a partnership with the Bloomfield Cloverleaves 4-H Club, and for every item of food the 4-H collects, they will donate $1 to the library through March 1. The Minnesota Author Tour is coming up. Nothing is confirmed yet, but that will be held in March and April, and then we’ve got the children’s summer reading program in June and July, and I can’t wait – I love that. We have a lot of kids who come in, even after school. The hours are going back to include Thursdays at the beginning of March, as well as the first Saturday of the month from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We’ve had ‘Bring Your Child to the Library Day’ on February 3, and we had a great response to that, so I’m so excited to be open again on Saturdays, on the first Saturday of the month. We may not have special programs going on, but if you see me around and you ask for a book recommendation, I will make one. And if there’s a kiddo who finds a book, or if they see me around, I might pick a book and read it for them.”

Furthermore, she’s thankful for library assistants Jeanette Ramaker and Jenny Lovejoy, as they have helped her learn the library’s routines, and also for the Friends of the Spring Valley Public Library and the help they offer as volunteers. “I want to thank you, Friends of the Spring Valley Public Library, for the support you’re giving. They’ll have a big book sale at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Hall on April 20, and there’s something for everyone.”

Vander Plas invited the public to stop in at the library to exchange greetings, to check the library’s calendar, and to find out what’s available to patrons and visitors inside her favorite place where the stories are never the same from cover to cover. “I encourage people to utilize the services we provide here. If they have book suggestions, we hope that they share them. If they have program ideas, let us know. The information and opportunities we provide here include – but are not limited to – books.”

She concluded by reiterating, “I’m excited to be here. I just really love books…this job allows me to push books. I’d like people to come into the library, to utilize the services we provide here.”

The Spring Valley Public Library is located on Jefferson Street, just behind First National Bank. For more information, call 507-346-2100.

 

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325

 

 

Spring Valley Chamber of Commerce holds annual meeting

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Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, February 22, 2024.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

 

It was a Bonnie evening, celebrating the Chamber.

“We had our annual Chamber meeting on Wednesday, January 31, and it was held at the Spring Valley VFW. We had Ody’s Country Meats and Catering cater our dinner, we played Spring Valley Trivia hosted by Megan Hammon, and we presented our Volunteer of the Year Award to Bonnie Hammon, as she’s such an asset to our community! It was a great night of fun and reflecting on our year,” recounted Spring Valley Area Chamber of Commerce President Angie Gensmer, outlining how the local commercial marketing organization rounded out its year and began a new one promoting Spring Valley area businesses and events.

The Chamber’s members honored the lady who’s most likely to be seen behind the wheel of a bus, former Head Start bus driver and current Rolling Hills Transit driver Bonnie Hammon, whose daughter, Stacey Rath, told an audience during a previous awards ceremony dedicated to recognizing Rath, “There are young kids who call her ‘Bonnie Bus’ and the so-many people who always tell me how awesome of a lady she is, and to this day, kids still call her ‘Grandma Bonnie.’ I have a pretty awesome mom, and she has taught us all to be better people.”

Hammon is known for her willingness to help her community thrive, as are the members of the Spring Valley Area Chamber of Commerce, including Gensmer as president and treasurer of the Chamber, vice president Greg Brooks, secretary Tyler Anderson, and board members Alicia O’Connell, Cody Koebke, Kerin Rath and Wendy Betts. The group’s mission is to promote and support local businesses. The Chamber’s website stated, “The Spring Valley Area Chamber of Commerce has been advancing the agricultural, commercial, industrial and civic interests of the Spring Valley area since 1951. Our members work together to promote local businesses, help recruit and retain business and industry, attract visitors to the area and use our combined efforts to improve the quality of life in the community.”

The website’s narrative continued, “The Chamber promotes its membership with ribbon-cuttings for our newest businesses in town.” Recent ribbon-cutting ceremonies have included those at Smoking Guns Smoke shop, Bluff Brothers Brewery, The Broadway Hive, Serenity Salon Hair by Karly and Sweet Serenity, @ The Car Wash, Midwest Liquidation, LLC, and more. The website cited, “Throughout the year, there are many special events that promote the Spring Valley area and opportunities for businesses to grow their networks. The Chamber has sponsored and promoted events and organizations such as Spring Valley Business After Hours, Spring Valley Ag Days, Wednesdays on Broadway, the annual Easter egg hunt, Spring Valley Business Alliance (SVBA), and Christmas on Historic Broadway. These events and organizations get businesses involved with the community.”

For more information on the Spring Valley Area Chamber of Commerce, log onto the website at www.springvalleychamberofcommerce.com.

 

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325

Spring Valley Kiwanis hear from Salt & Light Partners

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Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, February 8, 2024.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

 

“Salt keeps good things good…and light (shines),” said George Beech, addressing the Spring Valley Kiwanis Club in late January, sharing the message of Matthew 5:13-16, “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world,” as it relates to Salt & Light Partners, the Rochester organization of which he is executive director and a chaplain who offers spiritual and emotional ministry for first responders and others in distress.

The Salt & Light Partners website included the organization’s official mission statement that reads, “Our mission is to provide emotional and spiritual support through workplace chaplaincy in our community.” Beech concurred, “We provide counseling for emergency services workers,” adding that the purpose of making chaplains available to emergency services personnel and law enforcement officers is to help them process the events to which they have been called as part of their duty, occasions that are oftentimes accompanied by very difficult and traumatic circumstances. “People in law enforcement don’t trust people because people are lying to them all day, so we work to build trust and meet people where they’re at. And 93 percent of all firefighters are white and male, so the culture takes its own way.”

Beech listed that Salt & Light Partners was begun as a project that cooperates with the Rochester Police Department (RPD) three years ago, and that it now is represented through the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO). “Prior to that, I was a pastor, and prior to that, I was with the Department of Homeland Security, and before that, I was in the United States Army, serving in Korea and Germany…I met my wife on a rifle range. I grew up in Byron on a farm, and I went to the big city of Minneapolis to go to college. I tried to get back into the military after 9/11, but I had been out (long enough) that the Army didn’t let me. I was a civilian working with Homeland Security, and then my pastor asked me, ‘Do you want to work in a church?’ So I was a pastor. It’s not a usual career path. Then, the chief of police in Rochester asked me if I wanted to be a chaplain to all the department, and I realized I couldn’t do it all (being a pastor and a chaplain) so that’s when I started counseling all the first responders. It has grown because it was me and the police chief, and now we work with the Rochester Police Department, the ambulance service and the fire department, as well as the Winona Police Department and Visiting Angels. Chaplaincy is a ministry of presence.”

Beech then introduced chaplain Kathy Dudley, whom he said was among the very small number of chaplains that Salt & Light encompasses even as numerous have applied and interviewed to be part of the response teams, as the work requires particularly specific skills in navigating intense on-scene situations. Dudley explained how she became a Salt & Light chaplain through a chance meeting with Beech, and Beech commented that she was among the number of chaplains that give of their time to be present for people whose lives are in sudden upheaval, waking up at all hours to go out to a location with only a few details provided in advance and simply listen if someone needs to have another person hear them compassionately as or after they deal with processing or defusing a situation.

He remarked that police officers and firefighters have his personal cell phone number so that they may reach him at any time, even in the middle of the night, if they need someone to be with while managing emotions that may not have initially affected them. While Salt & Light is Christian-based, the executive director reiterated that chaplains assess a scene and determine how to approach the matter in the most sensitive ways possible, accepting that not everyone is a Christian and also that some wish to rely upon their faith to remain well or strive toward better understanding of what they’ve encountered or endured as individuals who have witnessed more than a person can internalize or convey to others. “We don’t proselytize…we don’t open that door, but if they open the door, we run through it…most of what we do is relationship-building.”

Beech’s Salt heals broken law enforcement officers who have brought work home with them because they’ve seen so much. “Why are there broken cops? Because families are broken – what happens at home comes to work, and what happens at work comes home, but not in a good way. We also have marriage counseling – it’s eight weeks at a time, and I take only one couple at a time. We help keep families together and help them act like they like each other. We have a ‘family readiness group’ like they have in the military, and we do date nights. All the people drop their kids off at the church with a gymnasium, then we take them (to an event or dinner). We ask them, ‘When was the last time you went on a date?’ We know how important the family is, so we have a date night. All of a sudden, we have spouses who know each other and each other’s phone numbers. But we’re giving people a venue to grow a relationship with their spouse by having date nights.”

The date nights and networking opportunities then grow the involved individuals to be a family of people on whom law enforcement and first responders and their spouses can rely if they need to converse about their lives’ concerns or joys. Additionally, in “relationship-building,” Salt & Light chaplains work to better acquaint themselves with new officers, and perhaps very importantly, they take time out to meet the children in neighborhoods where poverty or crime are prevalent and get out their pitching and catching gloves just to play ball for a while. Beech stated that chaplains also participate in community celebrations to make their presence known, some of which are sponsored by Salt & Light.

The question that went unasked by the Kiwanians but was addressed by the executive director was how the organization is funded, and he noted that “donations from churches, individuals and organizations” and wellness monies allotted to law enforcement help underwrite the costs of sending trained chaplains to emergencies, making way for Salt & Light’s mission to happen. As is the nature of the work, chaplaincy is unpredictable, and that means that Beech and his team are grateful to have the community’s support for their efforts, as it has allowed Salt & Light to expand its association from just the Rochester Police Department and OCSO to all Rochester area law enforcement, and to extend its radius to partner with the Winona emergency services.

Beech posited, “What are we going to do tomorrow? I started with the Rochester Police Department, and…if more work comes to us, we will respond.”

A Kiwanis member inquired of Beech, “How do you take care of your own chaplains?” The director answered, “Kathy or I…the rule is if you get called…the thing is you have to go talk with another chaplain. You have to download.” Another member wanted to know how many police departments have chaplains for the police, and he replied that “percentage wise, it’s really small…Chicago and New York have chaplains on staff, but small departments generally don’t.”

The meeting’s hour ended, and the Kiwanis graciously thanked Beech for his willingness to share about Salt & Light, presenting him with the club’s framed certificate of appreciation that is “suitable for hanging.”

For more information, log onto the Salt & Light Partners’ website at www.saltandlightpartners.org.

 

 

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325

2023 Business Person of the Year: Suzanne Gardner Receives Award of Excellence From Journal Readers

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Courtesy of the Fillmore County Journal, Monday January 29, 2024

by Jason Sethre

 

As a newspaper, we have an opportunity to bring people together for a common good. To inspire and foster positive news presented by our readers that lifts people up in the communities we serve.

Starting in 2020, the staff at the Fillmore County Journal coordinated the first-ever recognition for the Business Person of the Year.

The newspaper publishes a form to fill out and submit in-person or by mail, along with providing an online option for readers to nominate a business person in the newspaper coverage area to be recognized for this distinguished honor.

The 2020 Business Person of the Year was Todd Jones, owner of Ace Hardware in Spring Valley, Minn. For the 2021 Business Persons of the Year, Alex and Jenn Slifka, located in Spring Valley, Minn., were recognized for their revitalization efforts in the downtown area, with their continuous business expansion involving Chateau de Chic Salon & Spa, Chic by Chateau, Some Like It Hot, and Stellar 181 Taphouse. In 2022, we presented this award to Jerry and Nancy Kraus, owners of Kraus Oil in Spring Grove and Kraus Oil and Country Store in Caledonia.

Drumroll please…

The 2023 Business Person of the Year is Suzanne Gardner, owner of Some Like It Hot in Spring Valley, Minn.

 

CLICK HERE to read the complete front-page story in the Fillmore County Journal

Bluff Brothers Brewing: From Homebrew Hobbyists to Spring Valley’s Newest Taproom

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Courtesy of the Fillmore County Journal, Monday January 15, 2024

By Axel Gumbel 

Creating “approachable” craft beers, catering to the preferences of small-town Minnesota. That is the business philosophy Mitchell and Marcus Plaehn have set for themselves at their new venture, Bluff Brothers Brewing, Spring Valley’s newest taproom.

“Our goal is to make good craft beer that caters to small-town customers,” Marcus explains. “A lot of people come in and ask, ‘What’s the closest thing to your lightest beer?’”
Their answer – and most popular beer to date – has been Foxtail, an American Lager. That’s closely followed by Firewood, which is a Porter.

“We’re not doing anything too crazy. The Porter is our most unique one. Not a lot of places have something similar, and that’s become our second most popular,” Mitchell adds.
Rounding out their current offerings are Citra Creek (an IPA), Hazy Hills (a hazy IPA), Field of Wheat (a wheat beer) and Nutty Squirrel (a brown ale).

 

Click here to read the full article by Axel Gumbel in the Fillmore County Journal 

Osterud-Winter Foundation announces discretionary grant awards

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The Trustees of the Osterud-Winter Foundation met to approve the semi-annual distribution of proceeds from the $1 million trust established for the Spring Valley area by the late John Osterud, founder of Home Federal Savings Bank.  Distributions of the proceeds are designated as; 50% to Kingsland School for scholarships, 25% to be divided between Spring Valley Cemetery, Spring Valley Living, Spring Valley Public Library and Spring Valley Historical Society.  The remaining 25% will be awarded as discretionary grants to eligible 501(c)3 organizations within a 15-mile radius of Spring Valley.

Trustees approved a total distribution of $26,700 to the following organizations:

Kingsland School District
Spring Valley Cemetery
Spring Valley Living
Spring Valley Public Library
Spring Valley Historical Society
Spring Valley Ministerial
Spring Valley Ambulance
Wykoff Commons
City of Spring Valley Park and Reck
Kingsland Community Food Program

 

The Trust has distributed over $1.8 million since 1994 while retaining the initial $1 million dollar investment.

The 2024 Trustees are:  Sue Kolling 507-259-6467, Steve Heusinkveld 507-316-7697, and Deana Capelle 507-346-2149

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