Waterville, MN

Greetings from 4river, aka Karen Bauer. I have volunteered to do some blogging for the Horizon group that has started in Waterville, MN, and this is my first message. I’ll introduce myself first. I’m a 3 yrs. and 5 mo. long resident in the city of Waterville, live here on the Cannon River channel between the two lakes, with my husband, Dennis, and our toy poodle, Kady. We moved here after selling our farm, located in eastern Rice County, to our son, 4 yrs. ago. Denny works at the Faribault Middle School as a custodian, and is hoping to retire in 2010. I stay at home and keep the house and hearth going, with lots of help from him, and do a little sewing, quilting and painting. We enjoy the wildlife, water access, and our family of 5 kids, spouses, and all their kids like to visit and go fishing or pontooning when the lakes are liquid. We have great neighbors here on the channel, and several of them are also involved in the Horizon project.
It’s taken awhile to get to know some of the folks around here, and I thought by joining the Horizon group I’d meet some more people and get to know the area and it’s concerns a little better. I welcome any comments and suggestions on this page. With the busy holidays and new year upon us, our thoughts about the Horizons project may have taken a “back burner”, but with new meetings and projects approaching, we’ll get back on the subject, and try to improve life here in the area for all of us. By attending the meetings, I found out what is available for folks in the area, and also heard good suggestions as to how we could improve opportunities and make life a little easier and pleasant in the area. We have a great place here for tourism, and the permanent residents and businesses could all benefit from that, and by working together, we can hopefully bring about changes and improvements in the areas of concern. I will try to post here often, and with communication with the other Horizon members and others, will keep you posted as to projects, meetings, needs and concerns. Have a great first weekend of 2009. Karen

A sneak peak at the preliminary action ideas for the Action Forum from the group meeting at Valley Bank. You’ll have to wait until Friday, December 12th to find out our Priority Action Ideas.
-Community P.R.-Welcome Wagon, Benches, Flower Pots
-Utilize the bike path, more signage pointing downtown
-Form a group (Habitat for Humanity style) to update the housing, make attractive to young people
-Create a phone number resource list so people know where to go for help if they need it
-Open a Thrift Store
-Create a coordinating council to help coordinate ideas and resources from all of the service groups in town
-Put up a community bulletin board
-Build/Create a youth center
-Encourage more community social activities
-Encourage a retirement “industry”
-Create car pools, transportation for needy
-Develop more business on Hwy 60

Our group is looking forward to Friday, December 12 at the Waterville Cafe!

TheWaterville Action Forum will be held  December 12 at the Waterville  Cafe at 6 p.m.

All Horizon participants & interest community members are invited to come and listen to the  Study Groups present a summary of their sessions and their three top action items.

The presentations will be followed by a general discussion of the action items and plans for action.

Also invited will be the City Council and School Board Members.

 For further information write a response or call 362-4242.

Part of the Horizons project involves taking a look at the community today. To facilitate that investigation, the Horizons staff has compiled a Waterville Community Profile

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