Latest Updates from ruralprosperityne.unl.edu

Is there a community that you see that is doing something well? Perhaps you wished your community was able to copy their success? Maybe you can.

There are some communities that have a track record of success. Maybe they have had success in attracting new housing. Maybe their downtown is full and vibrant. How do you learn from them? A simple way is to pick up a phone. Call the city office, ask them questions about their success. Many times there is a process that they have followed in order to bring change to their community.

As you look across your rural town, are there community development opportunities and projects that go untouched? Are there areas where the community could use a fresh perspective? What if you harnessed the energy, talent, and knowledge of college students for a summer to help your town move these opportunities forward?

Last month I talked about “Three Wishes” for a community. With this column I’d like to continue that conversation with other questions I ask communities to learn about them.

One of the questions I ask when I visit a community is, “What should I see in the area?”

Oct. 24, 2022, Emerson, Neb.—Emerson’s recently opened Post 60 Market, 109 Main Street, will hold its Grand Opening from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 29.  They invite the public to drop in for taste testing, sign up for door prizes, and check out their amazing product selection.

A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at noon.  Pulled pork sandwiches will be served at 11 a.m. until gone.

Our newsletter for the fourth quarter of 2022 is here!

Download the latest updates from the RPN team on community development and vitality in Nebraska.

In rural communities across Nebraska, a cooperative is not a new or novel idea. The ag cooperative is often a recognized punctuation mark in the town skyline or as the economic anchor in the region. Yet co-ops are much more than a grain elevator, the community’s lead employer, or even a grocery store.

Murals have long been part of Nebraska’s culture. Omaha is home to “Fertile Ground,” one of the largest murals in the country at 32,500 square feet. Designers spent 40 years installing 20 murals in the State Capitol. This summer, Rural Fellow Faith Junck contributed to that culture by helping paint the newest of 12 murals in Chadron’s downtown Art Alley.

“I never thought that I would be able to help paint a mural because I’m not super artistic,” Junck said.

But in Chadron, anyone who was willing was welcomed to help.

Summer 2023 will mark the Rural Fellowship program’s 10th anniversary. The seven-week program, housed in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, places college students in Nebraska towns to help create and execute community-improvement projects.

The term “community environment” can cover everything from culture to safety to infrastructure. But when Shawn Kaskie, a Rural Prosperity Nebraska extension educator based in Broken Bow, discusses community environment, he has one specific meaning in mind.

“For communities to thrive,” Kaskie said, “leaders and business owners must build and grow a robust entrepreneurial environment.”

A first-of-its-kind grant will fund the building of three hydroponic greenhouses on the Omaha reservation.

Tribal Planner Mike Grant and Attorney General Theresa Rachel of the Omaha Tribe joined representatives from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Rural Prosperity Nebraska initiative and the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month to finalize the terms of the $671,000 agriculture grant awarded to the tribe.

Our newsletter for the second quarter of 2022 is here!

Download the latest updates from the RPN team on community developement and vitality in Nebraska.

Public health has long been a concern for rural America. In Nebraska, 34 counties have no hospitals within their borders, 14 of which don’t even have clinics. The 2019 floods and COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted where Nebraska struggles health-wise. However, this summer, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska­–Lincoln’s Rural Fellows program are teaming up to combat this issue. 

In a tree-lined neighborhood in northeast Grand Island, Carime Ruvalcaba cares for 10 children in the community’s only English- and Spanish-language daycare.

In 2020, when most daycares were closing due to the pandemic, Ruvalcaba opened Karime Childcare with the help of Sandra Barrera, a Rural Prosperity Nebraska extension educator.

An immigrant from Colombia, Barrera leads the Latino Small Business Program, a Rural Prosperity Nebraska initiative that helps immigrants start businesses across the Cornhusker State.

Valentine’s Main Street looks a little different lately. In summer 2019, the Nebraska Department of Transportation began repaving Highway 83, which runs through Valentine’s business district, and the Sandhills city got to work revitalizing its downtown streetscape. From revamping parking to installing greenspace, the town of 2,700 is creating a place where visitors feel welcome and residents feel at home. And it’s all been aided by a University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumnus.

As many rural areas experience decline in population and economic opportunity, some Nebraska communities are pushing back against the trend by embracing and enhancing what makes them unique.

Valentine, Nebraska, which boasts proximity to both the Niobrara River and the Sandhills, is one such town and students in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Landscape Architecture program collaborated with officials there on a new look for the town’s Main Street.

In order to begin to develop design visions for the community and DOT to respond to, architect Jim Leggitt and landscape architect Kim Wilson created live sketches and plans throughout the workshop that highlighted what Main Street’s buildings, public spaces, rights of way, architecture and physical environment could look like in the future.

Workshop Challenge