20/20 Cold Spring Vision Team

They’re Back…It is hard to believe that the Mn. Design Team was here a full year ago!
Cold Spring will be completing the full Mn. Design Team’s formal program. This part of the Mn. Design Team process is a follow up visit, approximately one year after our initial weekend, June 25th at Lions Park shelter. Our community members who signed up to get involved came up the 20/20 Vision Team name and the Action Groups under this umbrella are Tourism, Land Use, Design Standards, Arts and Culture, Social Action and Natural Resources.

We have much to celebrate and so much more to learn. But it is no secret that an incredible amount of work has been done by the 20/20 teams working on the projects you wanted since last June! For those of you who missed the visit last summer, here is a recap.

The Mn. Design Team is an organization whose mission is to use design and community development principles to help Mn. Communities, particularly rural communities, develop and act upon a shared vision for their future. Our group consisted of professionals in the fields of Architecture, Landscaping, Economic Development and Community Planners who volunteered a weekend of their time last June in Cold Spring.

They arrived in the midst of a Welcome party in their honor on Thursday night. Friday was a whirlwind of tours of the area and presentations on all aspects of the community of Cold Spring and the surrounding areas, from our economic benefits to our natural resources. Then the community was invited for a free chicken dinner and rousing community discussion. We voted with ‘dot-mocracy’ on what we each wanted the community of Cold Spring to look and feel like. You were invited back the very next evening to participate in a second night of dialog and we saw a presentation on what the Design Team developed during the course of the day, based on what they saw and heard from us.

The Mn. Design Team helped our community by developing a guide for us, based on what we told them in round table and group discussions. After the weekend visit they sent us the Cheretts that hang in city hall, mapping a way of attaining our goals.

Members of the Mn. Design Team will be in Cold Spring on the morning of Saturday, June 25th for the second part of the project. The morning will start with a tour of the project sites for the MDT. Then the group will settle into the new Lions park shelter and the 20/20 Action teams will each give a presentation to the Design Team members. Afterwards the MDT will take approximately two hours to formulate responses to the teams. Depending on the issues presented by the community groups, Minnesota Design Team members will identify strengths and trouble spots, offering ideas and suggestions about the projects and the process the community has undertaken since the original visit. The visit concludes with discussion and decisions on the next steps to take.

So to summarize, the Mn.Design Team re-visit will take place at Lions park on Saturday, June 25th at *am. Everyone is welcome to listen to the action team presentations and/or hear the feedback and participate in the question and answer session.

The Design Team is anxious to meet with action teams and others interested in nurturing the momentum and enthusiasm generated by the weekend and follow up visit.

It’s not to late to get involved, we have room for one time or long term volunteers. For more information on the visit or how you can participate or get involved, call Co-Chair Brigetta Klemek at 685-7625 or email questions to bkklemek@cloudnet.com.

# posted by Duane Kuss @ 2:33 PM