Lidgerwood, ND

Kathy Skroch has been involved in the Horizons project from the begining. Computer education is an area she and many others in our community are intrested in having. Our Richland County Extension Agent has been helping her accomplish this.
12 laptop computers are available for use by county residents in an education program. Kathy is working out the details to offer this program to our Senior Citizens and many others in our community who don’t have access to this knowledge. This program should be available this winter into spring. Way to go Kathy!!!

Our book club is a fun group. We do eat chocolate along with our book discussion! So far we haven’t read the same book to discuss, rather we share the books and authors we have enjoyed the past month. Many of us love mysteries. The book club is open to young and not so young. We meet at the Lidgerwood library. Our next meeting is in February. We’d love to see you there!!!

Do you know where Madagascar is? Students at Lidgerwood had a chance to show off their knowledge. Mary Orth organized a geography bee. This gave the kids a chance to show off their stuff. By being knowledgeable about other cultures we can appreciate the life we have in America.

Helping others is one of the best things about living in a small town. A Lidgerwood gal is helping our residents and our four legged friends. Tiffany Wisnewski is collecting funds to help control our pet popolation with help from PAWS. Pets add so much to our lives but they can be costly. By helping to spay and nuter our pets, Tiffany is helping make Lidgerwood a great place to live.

One of the most impressive action items to come from the Lidgerwood Community meeting was for the high school students to be moved to action!!

A major issue that came from their computer chat was that the students wanted Lidgerwood to celebrate homecoming again. For the past few years the majority of the homecoming events were celebrated in the neighboring town of Wyndmere. Lidgerwood co-ops with Wyndmere for some athletics.

The students felt they needed to renew school and community pride. They felt very passionate about creating this kind of change. Students presented the meeting document to faculty and requested they consider allowing homecoming activities in Lidgerwood once again. Their request was granted! They initiated an old fashioned homecoming parade down mainstreet. One comment made to me was “the street was lined with business people and residents cheering and applauding the students” Way to go Cardinals!!
They also had a bonfire as well as numerous other activities.

I just heard today that a welcome committee that was formed at one of our study groups has now put together a Welcome to Lidgerwood Packet. This contains a News-Monitor and church bullitins (neither of these are necessarily recent.) Included are maps of the tri-state area, brochures of the local area, info on our school and info on the Lidgerwood website.
Just stop in at City Hall to say hi! to Kristin and pick up a packet.

My name is Kristin and i’m the City Auditor here in Lidgerwood. I signed up with Horizons and now I’m blogging. I don’t know if that is a word but I don’t think you mind. I’m a terrible speller and punctuation isn’t my strongest suit either but i’m going to give this a try. Thanks for looking me up.

The City recently purchased a computer so all the books and water bills will now be computerized. We will also be going to a new monthly billing system, and meter reading system. You might have seen the ad in the paper. This new system will cut down on so much confusion!! It will be wonderful to have someone come in and ask a question and I will be able to answer it.
Well thats all for now. If you want the company we purchased from its Banyon.
Kristin

On September 12, 2007 I had the pleasure to be a part of Lidgerwood history. Never before had 20% of the communities population gathered in one place to discuss Lidgerwood’s future. This event was attended by young and some not so young. To say this event was attended by a diverse audience would be an understatement.

The Horizons committee worked tirelessly to promote this event and encourage citizens to make their voice count. “We Need People” Was the theme carried out in their marketing piece.

Citizens were engaged in in the process of talking about their community and it’s future by utilizing the computer bank made available by the Group Decision Center at NDSU. Folks who vowed not to touch a computer couldn’t get enough of the process by nights end. High School Students who had been so impressed with the process earlier in the day came back for the large community meeting to assist those who were a bit hesitant.

A few topics of that were discussed were the need for living wage jobs for underemployed, increased need of cell phone coverage, having more people accept leadership roles in the community, to only name a few.

The Horizons committee continues to get a broader base of people involved in important issues concerning Lidgerwood and it’s residents.

Watch for more posts to see what some of the resulting projects from the meeting were and will be.