Rolette, ND

The e-bay class at the Rolette Technology center was a great success.  Dan from Bowbells was a great teacher with real eBay experience.  He show how to research items to set the right price, add an item to sell on eBay with a good picture and how to use paypal and ship the item that was sold.  So much useful information.  This class taught students how to make a little extra money selling items.  Items sold were new and old, big and small, expensive and cheap.  Congratulations to the students for learning a new skill that they can pass along to others.  Thank you to Dan for bringing all of his experience to Rolette and sharing it.  It would not have been possible without the efforts of Karen Armstrong who organized the class.eBay

A group of concerned citizens in the Rolette community is taking it upon themselves to remodel the memorial halls kitchen.  This is being done to increase use of the facility.  It is also being done with the questionable blessing of the American Legion Post, the auxiliary, the city and the county commissioners. We do have the full support of RADA and they are our parent organization.  Just to get permission to start this project has been strange.  The county owns the building, the city pays all the bills, and the legion rents it!  Crazy how life evolves.  Gordy has given us his blessing although he doesn’t know why we would want to start this without any money.  The city and the county also give us their blessings and blessing alone.   Although the city offered their tax id number for us; so they are our fiscal agent.  The thought process has boiled down to getting actual costs and estimates.  Now the process of finding the right grant for the right project begins.  Therefore we are calling ourselves the “Kitchen Nightmare”.  Not to be confused with the popular show that can be found at http://www.fox.com/kitchennightmares/.  Keep checking back for more info. and progress.  I am sure there will be a time when your help will be needed.

After a breif repreieve to get the instructors motivated, healthy, and moving again. Leadership Plenty classes are starting on Thursday!  Tell everyone and get them there. Its a fun way to learn about yourself, your neighobrs and how you can get your ideas out there!  Thursday at 7 p.m. at Valle Lutheran Church.

Horizons is sponsoring Ebay training. The classes will begin March 6^th at 6:30 pm in the Rolette Mall computer lab. There will be 3 classes, each on Thurs nights. All participants will be setting up Ebay account, a paypal account, buy an item thru Ebay and sell and item on Ebay. Other topics will include calculating shipping, using photos and bid retractions. Pre-registration is required. Class size is limited. The charge is $25.00.  Scholarships available.
Call the Rolette County Extension Office at 477-5671.

The mood was set. The All For Christ Youth Group worked hard selling tickets, decorating the Memorial hall, preparing the food, waiting on tables, serving the food, and last but not least doing the cleanup.  Thanks to a great crew, an awesome caterer, a pastor and his very involved family (thanks Emily and Joel), and some very involved parents; the annual valentines day banquet was a success (at least by me!).  The tickets were $50 a couple.  The meal include four courses with the main one steak and grilled shrimp.  Piano music, soft candlelight and good company completed the evening!This is a fund raiser that served 124 people.  The money will be used for the All for Christ Youth summer trip.  With the close of the evening door prizes were given away from local businesses and a pie auction was held. What a fun way to spend the evening with those you love in a relaxed and adult focused evening.  Thanks again to PastorJoel and his family for a wonderful event.  

On Tuesday, Feb. 5th Pastor and Lois Hesford and myself met with the marketing class from Lake Region State College.   I was expecting to met with the instructor on what her expectations were…. surprise We met with the class… to give them a picture of Rolette and what they could market for us.   The Horizons executive directors decided to focus on the current attributes of our fair town.  The list was long of what they could market….nothing that separates us from the next small town.  Our friendliness and our commitment to making a future for the town were  the recurring themes. So if you have any ideas let me know, so I can get the info to the class.  Also any pictures that you think would be helpful.  As the semester continues we shall see what the final product brings.

Here is a link to the latest news artical about the hog barns in Wolford.

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/rss.cfm?id=190965

Please comment.  It will bring JOBS.

One of our goals is to promote business and job growth in the Rolette area.  In support of that objective, we are planning to produce an inventory of available business locations.  There are numerous buildings or (portions of buildings) in Rolette that are available for a business to rent (or possibly buy) and get started with lower startup costs than building a new facility.  The business location inventory will be posted on the Rolette web site when it is complete.  If you have a property that would be suitable for a business to move into and would like it listed in the inventory, please contact Joellen Gilje.  We will include pictures of the building and contact information for the owners.

A Gathering Place is being planed for Rolette.  This place will be a “coffee house” style meeting place for all ages.  One goal is to expand a current business of Rolette.  A gather place is one of the Action Items from the Action Forum which is a result of the Horizon’s Study Circles.  The Horizon Directors believe the the skills learned in the Leadership Plenty training can be used to make this action item a reality. 

The “Block Party”, also call “National Night Out”, was a celebration for the city of Rolette.  The Horizon’s Study Circles, Action Forum, Leadership Plenty and Community Vision were all beneficial process and we needed to Celebrate!   

The weather was great and the people that attended were at cross-section of the Rolette community.  Young, old, short, tall, talkers, game-players, picnickers and people watchers were all satisfied the the “Block Party”. 

Bar-b-que was provided by Horizon’s with pot-luck for side-dishes and desert.  The city park was full of citizens. 

After eating, there was a short update on the “Community Vision”.  Task Forces will be formed for Fitness, Economic development and a “Gathering Place”, which are the 3 actions from the Action Forum.

There were games for all ages from a fish-pond to a tug-o-war.  The Turtle-Race was very popular.  Community Bingo and Gift-certificates were also part of the evening.  The treasure hut was fun, the volleyball net got used and the playground equipment was a big hit.