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PdC Main Street
program seeks community support
The Feb. 25 deadline is approaching as Prairie du Chien Downtown
Revitalization, Inc. (PDRI) prepares its application to the Wisconsin Department
of Commerce for acceptance as a Main Street community. Committee members are
contacting businesses, individuals and organizations around the community to
encourage membership and participation in this exciting project. The Main Street
program was selected by the PDRI due to its long record of success in
revitalizing downtowns around the United States. Thousands of small towns around
the nation are thriving due to the assistance of the Main Street program. The
program is expected to be particularly successful in Prairie du Chien, given its
significant history, abundant natural resources and record of strong
volunteerism. What is needed from the community, individuals, businesses and
organizations now are two things: 1) Letters of support for the downtown
revitalization project. History shows that the most successful downtown projects
have broad community support. The application needs to show that support.
Letters should be simple and from the heart. They should be addressed to the
Main Street committee and dropped off at City Hall by Feb. 18. 2) Commitments of
financial support at a variety of levels from individual to sponsoring
memberships. The application needs to show that the Main Street program will be
able to organize and fund itself for a three-year period in order to get off to
a good start. The city of Prairie du Chien has already committed one third of
the required funding, $50,000 over a three-year period. One third of the funding
must come from inside the proposed downtown district (which encompasses the area
from the river to Commerce Court Mall) with the balance to be raised from
individuals, businesses and organizations outside the downtown. Letters and
pledges are appearing at City Hall each day. But time is running short and the
committee is asking everyone who supports a strong downtown for Prairie du Chien
to write a letter of support for the project and strongly consider making a
financial commitment.
Additional information and answers to questions about the program are
available at City Hall. Or interested persons may call either Garth Frable or
Mayor Cheryl Mader at City Hall at 326-6406.
Prairie du
Chien residents to design street banners
The Prairie du Chien Downtown Revitalization, Inc. (PDRI) has received a grant
from Alliant Energy to help purchase 30" x 80" street banners to hang
from the light posts throughout the downtown. The PDRI is interested in
receiving designs from people in or around the community. Interested persons may
submit any designs to: Prairie du Chien Downtown Revitalization, Inc., Design
Committee, 214 East Blackhawk Prairie du Chien, WI 53821. The drawing should be
to scale and include a spot for sponsor recognition. No other stipulations are
required. Designs that unite the downtown and highlight Prairie's history and/or
river location might have a better chance of being selected. The designs must be
submitted by Monday, March 7 at 5 p.m. They will be put on display at City Hall
during the week of March 7 through the St. Patrick's Day Parade on March 12. The
community is invited to view the banner designs during this week and make
comments. The Design Committee of the Prairie du Chien Downtown Revitalization,
Inc. will pick the final design to be used on the banners. It is hoped that the
banners will be hung sometime this spring.
Interested persons may contact Kathleen Hein at 412-0756 (local PdC number)
with any questions.
Family
Resource Center faces a future of tight budgets
Like many of the families they assist, the Family Resource Center finds itself
in a financial crunch. The 15-year-old program has enjoyed steady state and
local funding through the years, but this year the Center has seen cuts
amounting to $23,000 from various funding sources. And they are facing a future
that looks very much like the present. "I don't know quite what I'm going to do,"
said Tonya Millard, who has been the director of the Center since it first
began. She has already cut her own position to half-time in order to preserve
the full-time status of the two other employees who work more directly with
family programming. Prairie du Chien is fortunate just to have a Family Resource
Center, Millard says. There are 17 centers in Wisconsin, and Prairie's is one of
the most rural. Most, said Millard, are in larger urban areas. "We're really
very lucky," she added. The Family Resource Center is popular with a wide-range
of families within the community. The Center lives up to its name: they provide
a wide range of items families need on a low or no-cost basis. Things like a toy
lending library, books and videos on parenting, car seats, life jackets,
strollers and bike helmets are just a few of the items available to families
through a free loan checkout program. But the Family Resource Center is much
more than a place to borrow a brightly colored popcorn lawnmower that will
delight a toddler. The Center provides programs and classes that help families
in need or families just in need of a break, such as: € Parenting classes for
parents of children of all ages that focus on creating a nurturing home and
positive behavior management. € Family home visits for parents that request
it. Home visits allow a parent to interact with Center staff and learn more
about what they offer if it is hard to get out of the house. € Family Drop-in
(Taylor Street Tots) provides a time when families can just stop by and
participate in a fun activity. Children can play with each other and parents can
visit too. Other popular programs include a monthly Mom's Night Out with
childcare provided, and experts who can help properly install your child's car
seat. According to Millard, the car seat safety experts must attend a full week
of training just to learn how to install them (which may not surprise any parent
who has struggled with one themselves). "[People] like what we do, and we work
very hard to provide quality programs," adds Millard. The babysitter training
program the Center offers is very popular, according to Millard. She says she
gets calls from parents all the time who want the name of a youth who has been
through the SAFE SITTER training. The classes teach 11 to 13-year-olds safety
and lifesaving techniques and child development. (The Center does not share the
names of the graduates of the program because they encourage the sitters to
develop a relationship with a family before they begin working with them.) In
the past the only programs the Center charged for was SAFE SITTER classes and
for rental of car seats. Nearly everything they offer is free. But Millard
worries that may change in the future. She is facing the prospect of having to
discontinue some programs and begin charging for others. The majority of the
funding for the program comes from the state's Children's Trust Fund, which is
supported with the fees that are charged when people get copies of birth
certificates, and from fees collected from specialty Children's Trust Fund auto
license plates. The revenues collected by the state for these items has been
declining. The Family Resource Center's funding from Children's Trust Fund has
declined by six percent. The Center's United Way funding has also been reduced.
Millard believes that the Center must look at a variety of options for the
future. She does not believe grant funding is the best path to pursue, since it
is unreliable and is not always suited to community needs. She feels that she
needs to develop funding resources that are "community based, that respond to
community needs," she said. Still the Center is not likely to go away, either.
It receives generous support from the hospital, which owns the property, a home
near the hospital, where the Center is located. They pay no rent for the
property, and the hospital also administers the Center's state grant dollars and
provides payroll to its employees. The center will continue to receive state
support, but Millard is unsure about how much that amount will be in the future.
Clearly Millard loves her work and dislikes the prospect of dealing with the
cuts. She's proud that the Center provides so many resources for free. But part
of what she likes about her job is that there is always something new going on.
She seems to see funding cuts as just another new challenge.
Help
yourself Families needed for self-help housing construction to begin
Although it has been well over a year since the idea was first proposed,
not a hammer has been raised on a new self- help home in the area.
Self-help housing is a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Rural Development program that offers very low interest loans and
no down payment to qualifying buyers who want to build a new home.
Participants must agree to work 30 hours a week on the construction of
their own home, and the homes of other participants in the program.
Self-help housing is not new. The nationwide program has been around
since 1971. In southeast Wisconsin, 700 new homes have been built under
the program. Several self-help homes have also been built in Richland
Center. But self-help housing is new to Crawford County. And Community
Development Alternatives, the non-profit that is working to start the
program, is still seeking qualified applicants. One applicant has
already qualified, but four more families must apply and qualify before
any new construction can begin. Self-help housing offers many benefits
to participants. The primary benefit is the ability to own a new home
(with a value of about $100,00 for people who would not be able to make
a down payment to buy an existing home. In the task of doing the work
themselves, participants gain many new skills that will help them save
money on home repairs in the future by doing it themselves. And unlike
buying an inexpensive older home, with a new home, there will be very
few repairs for many years. And the sweat equity created during the
construction translates into a value of about $15,000 to $20,000 for
each participant upon the completion of their home; equity that no one
can take away. Individuals and families of any age or ability may apply.
Income guidelines for the program vary from $29,600 for a single person
to $42,300 for a family of four. The loan for the purchase of a lot and
construction costs does not go through a bank, but through USDA and
interest rates vary by income from one percent to six percent with a 33
to 38 year repayment period. Applicants must have a good credit record
and a steady job. Even with all of the possibilities that self help
housing offers, Dale Klemme, director of Community Development
Alternatives, has struggled to find qualified applicants to participate
in a program in Prairie du Chien. He notes that the USDA has been
flexible with him in meeting program deadlines, and the agency wants to
see successful programs established. According to Klemme, conventional
no down payment mortgages for the purchase of existing homes compete
with the program. Klemme says that while buying an existing home with a
no-down payment loan may seem like a quick fix, it actually costs buyers
a lot more money than a self-help home. Older homes that low income
buyers can afford often need major repairs such as roofs, plumbing and
electrical. And after a low income homeowner makes their mortgage
payment, there often is not enough money left over to tackle such
expensive projects. According to Susan Weber-Johnson, rural development
manager for USDA in Viroqua, getting a new community familiar with
self-help can be difficult. "The first group is always the hardest,"
she said, noting that people have a lot of questions. And Klemme admits
that the idea of working 30 hours a week building your own home on top
of working your job can be a daunting prospect. But the benefits he
says, are worth it. "People can own a $100,000 or $115,000 new home and
still live well within the comfort zone of their budgets," Klemme says.
If four qualified applicants are accepted into the program Klemme says
that construction can begin this spring on five new homes. While several
lots in the city of Prairie du Chien have been designated for the
program, Klemme says that they can consider other locations in the area,
including Eastman. Contractors will be hired to pour the foundations and
do specialty work such as plumbing and electrical and a construction
manager will be hired to oversee all of the houses and to assist the
homeowner-builders. Participants must work together on all of the new
houses until all of them are finished. Klemme plans to hold an open
house informational meeting for the program in the near future to allow
people to get more information and ask questions. For more information,
call Community Development Alternatives at(608) 326-7333. |
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