Sioux Valley Energy Invests in Member Communities to Help Them Thrive

For more than a decade when Keith Elbers drove down Main Street, the mayor of Hills, Minnesota, passed an empty commercial property. It was an eyesore, and it now belonged to the city because its previous owner long ago quit paying property taxes.

Today, thanks to innovative collaboration between the city, Rock County, state agencies, Sioux Valley Energy Cooperative’s REVIVE 2030 program and other local cooperatives, when Elbers drives down Main Street, he sees something completely different.

“I drive by a thriving daycare that will soon have a large playground adjacent,” Elbers explained. “It is nice to see kids being dropped off by their parents in the morning and picked up in the afternoon.”

What changed? Elbers began working with Sioux Valley Energy’s Economic Development & Community Relations Executive Brandon Lane. As part of the electric cooperative’s REVIVE 2030 program, Lane works with member-communities at no cost. He helps them thrive by connecting them to resources to help them accomplish their goals and overcome challenges.

And in Hills, Minnesota, population 700, access to childcare was THE challenge they needed help with.

“We lost four childcare providers in two years,” Elbers said. “Everyone who lives here, works somewhere else. We had families who did not know what to do.”

Elbers explained that many young families call Hills home because of its exemplary school system, lower housing costs and proximity to job opportunities in larger communities like Brandon, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Like many rural communities in southwest Minnesota and southeastern South Dakota, Hills depends on Sioux Valley Energy for electricity. Elbers knew that the cooperative had an economic development professional on staff, so he reached out to Lane when he began seeking solutions to his community’s childcare crisis.

Lane encouraged Elbers and the community to think creatively and make use of resources they had – like a vacant commercial space. Lane also helped connect Elbers to funding opportunities, he encouraged the city to fill out grants and to ask other stakeholders for donations.

“It’s my job to find out what a member-community wants or needs to thrive and help connect them to the resources and the right people,” explained Lane, who has spent the last 15 years working with nearby rural communities of Brandon and Harrisburg.

“Economic development does not always mean bringing in large industry that will provide 300-plus jobs. It also means improving quality of life with community resources, like childcare or enhancing a community’s identity with a park or lighting for the park,” Lane said.

A good neighbor

“Brandon Lane is another tool in my toolbox. As a small town mayor, I don’t have a lot of time to look for resources,” explained Elbers, who balances his volunteer duties as mayor with his full-time career as an auctioneer and real estate agent. “Sioux Valley Energy is part of our community, and this is their way of giving back. It is huge.”

Feedback from listening sessions with communities they serve is the reason Sioux Valley Energy invested in hiring an economic development professional their communities could partner with, explained board president Dan Leuthold, an Ellsworth, Minnesota, cattle producer.

“Our mission is ‘Serving Our Members. Always.’ One of the Cooperative’s guiding principles is community service, so it just felt right to help our communities thrive.”

To understand how they could best serve their members, Sioux Valley Energy hosted community input/listening sessions in 2022.

“Through these community dialogues, we learned communities were not just looking for us to donate money, but they were looking for assistance to keep their communities alive and thriving,” Lane explained.

Amy M. Farr was among the many community members to provide feedback during the first Sioux Valley Energy community listening session. The economic development director for the city of Hartford came away from the session optimistic.

“It was a unique group to collaborate with. They really dug deep to understand the needs of our communities,” Farr explained.

At the time, the community of Hartford wanted an industrial park to inspire businesses to move to town to increase job opportunities and bolster the tax base.

“Today’s companies want shovel-ready locations where all the infrastructure is available so they can come in and just worry about building the building they want. Without an industrial park, they are not interested,” explained Hartford Mayor Arden Jones. “We knew what we wanted, but we did not know how to get there.”

Working with Eric Foshiem of the Rural Electric Economic Development Fund (REED Fund), Lane helped the city of Hartford gain access to funding opportunities, including a federal Economic Development Administration grant for $1.7 million.

“To have access to an economic development professional from the outside through REVIVE 2030 made all the difference,” Jones said. “It is so important for little towns like us to have an extra person to rely on. Larger cities have large teams of employees who do development.”

The anchor business should break ground in Hartford’s 47-acre North Oaks Industrial Park this fall and two more purchase agreements are in the works.

“Being a part of this community project has been an absolute dream,” Farr said. “I never imagined I would be a part of anything of this scope and magnitude.”

Jones agreed. “This industrial park shows that Hartford is holding true to its mission to help community members live lively here through job opportunities and a tax base that supports infrastructure and schools.”

Kassie’s Clubhouse

To help the community of Hills provide accessible, affordable childcare to families, REVIVE 2030 resource partners helped connect the city to funding sources, like American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars. With Sioux Valley Energy’s commitment, Elbers also made an ask to a local agriculture cooperative, New Vision Co-op. The cooperative donated more than $25,000 to help the city with the project.

The renovation converted the drab commercial space into a cheerful space where three in-home providers could operate independently, with a shared laundry and indoor play space.

A third local cooperative also helped make the daycare a success. Alliance Communications donated a large parcel of vacant land adjacent to the new daycare to be used as an outdoor play space. Sioux Valley Energy also donated funds through its REVIVE 2030 program and its Operation Round Up program for playground equipment.

The city committed to maintaining the indoor and outdoor properties and provide the childcare spaces rent-free as long as the daycare providers pay utilities.

When the city put out a call for daycare providers to move in, hometown girl, Kassie Van’t Hof was one of two providers to answer the call. The 20-year-old recently returned home after graduating from Southeast Technical College with a degree in business administration. When she arrived in Hills, she did not have a job, so she was living with her parents when she saw the city’s ad for a daycare provider and decided to put her degree and love for children into action by starting her own daycare business.

“Without this space, I would not have started a daycare,” Van’t Hof explained. Van’t Hof recently married and purchased a home with her husband. But she says she plans to keep her daycare in the space provided by the city.

“It is nice to keep my business separate from my home,” Van’t Hof said.

Currently, Van’t Hof and the other provider each care for 10 children. They both have waitlists. The city is seeking one more daycare provider.

Elbers said the city believes by housing the providers, it will be easier to find a new provider if a provider closes their business. The city also believes by keeping the costs minimal, providers can keep their fees affordable for parents.

REVIVE 2030 wants to serve your community

In addition to Hills, Minnesota, and Hartford, South Dakota, since its official launch in ‘20, REVIVE 2030 has worked with several rural member-communities. Additional examples of community-led projects they have helped with include Humboldt, South Dakota — the program assisted the Humboldt Economic Development Corporation with incorporation paperwork and state EIN paperwork.

In Colton, South Dakota, REVIVE 2030 provided initial capital to the Colton Economic Development Group for the Geraets Housing Addition, along with contract templates for covenants and farm leasing. Lane also helped with sponsorship opportunities for the baseball association.

In Brandon, South Dakota, Sioux Valley Energy Cooperative’s manager of public relations Jay Buchholz serves on the Brandon Development Foundation board, providing guidance and expertise for projects. Buchholz also partnered with the Brandon Development Foundation and Retail Strategies (retail experts that provide assistance to communities) to provide additional support for recruiting commercial/retail businesses to bolster the local sales tax revenue. Sioux Valley Energy was also a founding supporter of the Corson Development Association in the Brandon area which helped to purchase and develop 117 acres for commercial and industrial use in the early 2000s.

And in Magnolia, Minnesota, REVIVE 2030 provided assistance with grant applications for upgrading the city park’s playground equipment including the addition of ADA-compliant equipment.

“Guided by our ‘Serving Our Members; Always’ mission, the board and leadership team wanted to see what our cooperative could accomplish in a decade,” Leuthold explained. “This is what can happen in cooperatives because the members lead, versus private businesses, where the investors may not even live in the state. We live in these communities.”

If you are a Sioux Valley Energy member-community and want to learn more about how REVIVE 2030 can help you thrive, visit siouxvalleyenergy.com and click on the ‘Community and Youth’ tab.