Chisago
Community volunteer Dionne Kabat shares her enthusiasm for the Chisago Lakes Area’s ABC effort during an interview with Cory Hepola of KARE-11 TV.

Now They Know Their ABCs

Five Chisago County communities unite to boost regional development.

By Gene Rebeck | Photography by John Linn

How do you get five neighboring towns to work together as one? The prospect of winning $1 million-plus to power economic development certainly helps. But that’s just part of the story.

Starting in late 2014, five Chisago Lakes-area communities—Center City, Chisago City, Lindstrom, Shafer and Taylors Falls—joined together to compete in the America’s Best Communities (ABC) contest. The competition for small towns and rural communities, whose winners earn prize money for economic and community revitalization projects, is directed by Connecticut-based telecom Frontier Communications, which serves mostly rural areas in a 27-state area. Chisago County is one of the areas.

What’s unique is that these neighboring Chisago County towns didn’t compete against each other. Rather, they worked together. Realizing that each was too small to enter the 350-community field of ABC contest participants—competitors must have populations of more than 10,000—they created a combined community of about 22,000.

It turned out to be a winning strategy. On the strength of detailed presentations, the Chisago Lakes Area group won $150,000 participating in the contest, starting when they passed through the quarter-finals (50 communities made the cut), glided into the semi-final round with 16 other communities, and ultimately became one of eight finalists in April 2016.

While the Chisago Lakes Area didn’t crack the winner’s circle when the top three prizes ($3 million, $2 million and $1 million) were announced on April 19, they learned that, with a detailed road map for their mutual success, they’re on their way to bigger, better things. “This is a team of forward-thinking community members,” said Carrie Tripp, vice president for external relations at the Initiative Foundation. “They are united in their efforts and have positioned themselves well for ongoing success.”

To help pave the way, the communities have created an Initiative Foundation Partner Fund, which will be used to support economic and community improvement projects that these neighbors have developed. “Their fund will serve as a tool to secure local donations and support community-based solutions now and for generations to come,” said Kristi Ackley, the Foundation’s community philanthropy specialist.

Spirit of Cooperation

Until the ABC competition came onto the region’s radar, the Chisago communities had attempted to work together, but the spirit of cooperation had never quite gelled. “Town governments aren’t set up to cooperate with finances,” explained Tangi Schaapveld, project coordinator for the five-community ABC initiative. “We didn’t have a platform for the towns to work together on common goals.” In fact, the competition “really did initiate the act of working together.”

Nancy Hoffman, executive director of the Chisago County Housing and Redevelopment Authority—Economic Development Authority (HRA-EDA), noted that it’s the job of elected people and staff to look out for their particular city, town or region. But by focusing on goals that will benefit everyone, “we’re really trying to be one community together,” Hoffman said.

The attitude now is that “if we’re going to do a project, it doesn’t really matter which community it goes into, just as long as it goes into the Chisago Lakes Area,” she said. “Whereas at other times, each community might want something in their own city.”

Winning that $150,000 helped stimulate even more esprit de corps. With those funds, the group was able to develop plans for economic and community improvement. “Once we started focusing on our goals instead of the borders, that made all the difference in the world,” Schaapveld says. “At the beginning of these meetings, we didn’t talk about, ‘Hey, we’re going to work together.’ We talked about, ‘What are our common goals?’ And all of a sudden, those boundaries washed away.”

Residents also started to realize, for example, that while they may live in Lindstrom, an initiative that helps Taylors Falls benefits them, too. As a result, “we’re looking at development more regionally now,” said Schaapveld.

Community Building

Schaapveld, the former executive director of the Chisago Lakes Chamber of Commerce, helped spearhead the ABC effort by hosting a community meeting that brought together the citizens who were talking about these issues. Working with Hoffman, the group came up with four ideas to foster a stronger sense of community, which in turn led to the creation of four teams of passionate, committed regional residents.

  • Arts, culture and tourism: This team is tasked with the development of a long-term regional branding and marketing strategy. It also has driven the creation of a community website that focuses largely on tourism but also provides a community calendar of events in the five towns
  • Broadband: This team is educating businesses on using social media and Google Maps to market themselves, as well as installing Wi-Fi hot spots in each of the five towns.
  • Economic development: The focus here is on energy conservation and clean energy. The five towns have partnered with Minneapolis-based Eutectics, which provides capital and consulting for energy projects to lower business and residential energy usage. They’re also exploring the use of solar energy in their communities.
  • Quality of life: This group is working with Chisago County Public Health to develop a workplace wellness program for six area businesses with 2,000 total employees. It also hopes to develop longer-term projects, such as developing walkable communities.

Funding the Future

With the Initiative Foundation-hosted Chisago ABC Initiative Fund in place, created with some of their winnings, the Chisago Lakes Area can now focus on its short- and long-range plans.

Some projects, including an improved trail system and the introduction of advanced manufacturing classes, have already begun. Others will be ongoing. “We’ll continue to have our monthly meetings, and generate new ideas for projects as well as maintaining current projects,” said Schaapveld.

And while each of the five communities wants to retain its unique identity, the experience of joining together will, they believe, pay a nice return. “I think our biggest accomplishment is creating common goals for our five towns and reaching the understanding that we are one community,” Hoffman said, who noted that the region also has made tangible progress in the area of energy conservation, including home and business audits. It’s a testament to how working as a team can be a winning economic development strategy.