Letter to the editor

Dear Editor

On Thursday, December 5, there will be a public open house with Houston Engineering to provide information on the work that has been done thus far on the New Richland flood mitigation study.  I would encourage anyone interested to attend  and hear Houston’s explanation of how we got to this point.  If your questions are not answered by the company’s presentation, I would also encourage you to ask, so that you don’t leave with your questions unanswered.

 

The New Richland community has been plagued with flooding issues and the perpetual fear of another rain event coming.  I feel like this has made it difficult for the community to grow and prosper as it perhaps could if that fear could be eliminated.  The New Richland City Council, City Administrator Anthony Martens, the County’s Land and Water Resources Manager, Chris Howard, and I have been working diligently to be able to finish the study in time to apply for Flood Mitigation grants. Throughout this process we have been in continual contact with our state and federal legislators and plan to ask for funding assistance for a long-term solution.

 

As you all know, New Richland is a small community trying to address a big problem.  In order to accomplish such a project, it will not only take a large amount of dollars from outside sources, it will also take community support.  Waseca County has received two Border-to-Border grants that will bring fiber optic high-speed internet to much of the southern part of the county.  When we received the second grant, we were told that the thing that set our grant application above the others was the large number of letters of support that accompanied the application.  These letters came from residents who could share their story of the importance of reliable internet service.  To me that is a great example of a small community working together for a common goal. Now we need to work together once again to accomplish what previously seemed like an impossible task.

 

The goal for December 5 is not to come out of the meeting with a finished product or even to all agree on the alternative to be pursued. Hopefully, upon leaving that meeting we will feel like we are one step closer to finding a long-term solution to a community problem. 

Commissioner Doug Christopherson