I know we all have busy schedules and more often than not, there is stress involved. The good news is there is a treatment for that. Doctors say laughter reduces stress. One doctor in particular believes laughter can cure all your illnesses and that person is Patch Adams. Well, I am going to try his method and I want you to see if it works. Below are some funny pictures that I felt like sharing with you. Hope you feel better!  

The Maddock Pep Band is playing for tonight’s Boys’ Basketball game between the pregame and half time of the A squad game vs. Northstar at 7:00p.m. @ Maddock . Their newest song that they will be playing tonight is “Come Sail Away” by Styx. You might also notice that the band has a new look. Hope to see you at the game!

 These past couple of days I have been yelled at for just sitting at a table doing homework waiting for a basketball game to start. I remember when I was younger and would run around the school and no one would care. Nowadays I’m getting yelled are for doing the right thing, I’ve been getting yelled at because I have not been supervised. The school administration has been tough on students who are not supervised in the school because of a past incident that happened in another North Dakota School. A student got hurt because he/she was not supervised and the student’s parents sued the school because their child was hurt for being dumb. I have a real issue on how our school is not allowing me to do my homework after school because I am unsupervised. I wasn’t doing anything wrong but yet I was asked to leave the building or find someone to supervise me so I won’t hurt myself.

I also got in trouble for shooting a basketball after school because I have to stay off the gym floor and also because I was unsupervised. Does the school administration not want students to have fun anymore or what? Keep kids off the gym floor so we can save money, the administration seems ok to have parent teacher conferences on the gym floor while parents and students come from outside with snow and rocks on their shoes while the snow melts and the water from their shoes seeps into the wood floor. I guess times change but what am I suppose to do after school when I think it’s useless to drive a 10 mile round trip home. I guess I have to drive around town and waste gas and money or maybe hang out at the After School Activities Program with the younger kids there.

I feel students should be treated better than a bunch of cattle being pushed around. In the school handbook it says “Every student should be unique and no student should be alike. We push for every student to be themselves….” How can students be themselves if they can’t do some of the things they would like to do? Some school rules I feel need to change.

There were over 150 people who came on Friday night to thank Jean Mosser for her work as Maddock City Auditor for 29 years.   Flowers and balloons made a festive atmosphere. 

Several people brought tribute, one of which I will share because it described so well how Jean treated those she worked with.

“There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.”

Pam Lee is the new Auditor so come in and see the new face of Maddock.

 

February 5th is the biggest day for primary and caucus elections, because there will be 22 states voting for the presidential candidate they want to be in office on January 20, 2009. Some states will have both republican and democratic primaries/caucuses and other may have just one or the other on that day. When you vote in a caucus or primary, it is your voice that is important, because you are telling the electorate whom they’re going to support. I urge everyone to go out and vote. Remember, if you don’t vote you can’t complain about the outcome on the ballot.

As part of the Horizons Visions program, Maddock developed two Community Survey forms, one for the general adult community members, and anotheer specifically for the 9-12 grade students at the High School.  The material below is the general adult community member analysis.

In October 2007 the Maddock Horizons Program released a public Community Survey on our Future.  Of the 315 Adult Survey forms picked up by residents, 121 were completed and returned.  The Adult Survey was divided into 6 headings, Demographics, Future Development, Local Business Indicators, Housing, Occupations, and Cultural & Recreation Services.  Cultural & Recreation Services is not included in this analysis because the Compiled Survey data is so explicit.

The results of this Survey, and the related High School items were considered as part of the process in developing the just completed Vision Statement for the Maddock Horizons Program.

In summary, the key points developed from the Survey responses are the listing of pressing problems facing Maddock today, in priority order.

#1.            Availability of jobs

            #2.            Wages and salaries

            #3.            Out migration of young people

            #4.            Health care quality and/or availability

            #5.            Housing availability and cost

            #6.            Diversity of retail business

THE FOLLOWING ANALYSIS IS PRESENTED IN HEADING ORDER.  THE STATISTICS ARE BASED ON THE NUMBER OF RESONSES TO EACH ITEM.  SOME RESPONDENTS DID NOT ENTER A RESPONSE TO EVERY ITEM.

DEMOGRAPHICS

50% of the respondents live in Maddock

49% of the respondents live on farms outside Maddock

   1% of the respondents live in other communities within 25 miles of Maddock

60% of these respondents are 51 years or older, and only 3% are 25 years or younger           

79% of these respondents have lived in this area for at least 15 years59% of these respondents live in one/two person households FUTURE DEVELOMENT The question was “is it important to attract new members to our community.”  The responses were 118-1, yes.  Of the 112 that responded to the question of the desired demographics of the new members, just over half favored “young families 25-40,” and slightly less than half favored “an even mix of young, middle-aged and seniors.   Please refer again to the ages of the current respondents in the Demographics section to recognize the significance of this response.   

FUTURE DEVELOMENT-continued

The follow-up question is “how many new people could we integrate over the next 5 years.” 80% of the 74 responses on this item indicated that we could integrate 50-100 new people into the community. 

The next series of questions address the amenities of the City in regards to our efforts to entice new people to move here.  The following all had a significant majority of responses suggesting “needs improvement.” 

102-10 “ current availability of hotel, motel rooms in the Maddock area.”

91-23,  “recreation services”.

91-22   “retail shopping opportunities and 87-23 for ”entertainment services.”

82-27   “tourism support,” and 80-30 for “Cultural, Fine Arts support.”

72-42   “housing support.”

Two Survey items were directed at responding to the needs identified previously by the Maddock adult community in the medical services and technology areas.  Each item had a significant “yes” response.

97-13, Was the response to support a City program providing stipends for medical students in key professions to complete their education/training, if they signed a contractual agreement to open services in the Maddock community for a period of time.

94-10, Was the response to support a City program providing stipends in the Trades Industry programs to students to complete their training, if they signed a contractual agreement to open services in the Maddock community for a period of time.

35-24, yes, in the response to the same questions on the Maddock High School Student survey concerning medical programs

28-30, no, in the response to the same question on the Maddock High School Student Survey concerning the Trades Industry.

The response to the question, “if we don’t experience the growth population with its attendant increase in retail business and services, how would you rate the community’s ability to do the following.  Use “good” or “poor” for the rating.

109-2, poor, to “retain our young people after High School.”

83-26, poor, to ‘maintain retail business

68-47, poor, to “maintain a viable school system.”

64-46, poor, to “maintain community services

        

LOCAL BUSINESS INDICATORS

The Survey asked respondents to identify what they purchased out of town that is not available in town.  The top five items are:

1.               Clothing

2.               Dental care

3.               Medical services

4.               Hardware supplies

5.               Building Supplies, Specialty shops (tie)

   

The Survey asked respondents to identify the main reasons for purchasing goods and services out of town that are available in town.

41% responded, “had to go out of town for other reasons

43% responded equally “cost or variety”

  7% responded “quality”

The leading local businesses and services with customer contact during the week.

                        Contacts                      Business/Service     

                           294                              Tracy’s Market

                           151                              Maddock Café and Lanes

                           147                              Farmer’s Union Oil

                           144                              North Start Community Credit Union

93     The Bread Box

66     White Drug Store

62                     Maddock Mini-Mart

  

HOUSING PROGRAM

To the question of  “considering retirement in Maddock if satisfactory housing is available, 70% responded yes.

To the question of the “quality of the housing in Maddock,” 61% indicated “needs improvement’

To the question of “willingness to invest funds in the development of housing in Maddock,” 3% responded “yes, 67% responded “no”, 30% responded “maybe”

Currently, 59 of the responding High School students live within 25 miles of Maddock, with 19 of those living in Maddock

Responding to the question if they intended to continue to live in the area within 25 miles of Maddock after graduation, 27 students selected “yes,” with only 6 indicating they would live in Maddock.

  

HOUSING PROGRAM-continued

 83% of the adult respondents currently reside in a single-family dwelling-multiple bedroom, and 8% in an apartment or duplex location. 

When responding to a question about the preference to retirement living,

55% selected a single-family dwelling-multiple bedroom

20% selected apartment, duplex or 4-plex locations as preference in retirement living

21% selected senior or assisted-living locations as a preference in retirement living

    OCCUPATIONS 

When replying to the question of “do you feel the pay rate and benefits in Maddock are sufficient to keep you working in our area?

60% replied “no”

When replying to the question of ‘do you feel the pay rate and benefits in Maddock are sufficient to draw people to our community to work?”

79% replied “no”

When replying to the question of ‘do you feel more jobs for women in the Maddock area will be a major asset in the number of people patronizing local businesses?”

81% replied “yes”

4-“yes”, 34- “no”, 24 “don’t know”, was the response in the High School survey to the question “do you expect that there will be a job, or combination of jobs, in Maddock to meet your income expectations.”

11- “yes”, 13- ‘no”, 31- “don’t know”, was the response in the High School survey to the same question as above, with the job area widened to the area within 45 miles of Maddock.”

The Table on the next page the identifies the priority community needs by “employment area” over the next 5 years in order of ranking from each group, not the number of jobs.  The highest “priority” item is #1, the lowest, #15.  The Adult column represents the respondents’ estimate of the “areas of employment” that need to be offered and filled over the 5-year period.  The High School column represents the employment areas in which “I expect to find a job.”  There is a significant difference in the priorities of the two groups.

                                                                                   

           

OCCUPATIONS-continued

           

PRIORITY RANKING- 1 thru 15

            AREAS OF EMPLOYMENT            ADULT          HIGH SCHOOL        

Heating-plumbing-electricity                         *1                            7

           

Resturant & food service                 *2                               14

           

Health care                                              *3                                *1

           

Home/care giving                                   *4                                –

           

Retail & sales                                                     *5                           –

           

Manufacturing                                           6                                  13

           

Agricultural support                                  7                                  *4

           

Constructions trades                                8                                  12

           

Education-teacher                                     9                                     7

           

Business                                                  10                                *3

           

Office                                                       11                                11

Education-support                                    12                                   –

           

Farming                                                   13                                *2

           

Transportation                                                     14                                   –                    

           

Tourism                                                  15                                   —

Law Enforcement                                 –                                      *5

Art-design-crafts                                 –                                     6

Law                                                          –                                     7

Music-Theater                                                     –                                7

Hospitality                                              –                                   15

High School #7 was a 4-way tie

           

           

   

 

  

Great job on your blog Maddock - I know that many students have been trained and are posting stories.  It is great to see your vision and plan up there as it really helps the rest of the community see the work that was done and what the plans are for the future.  Keep it up!

Lynette Flage - ND Horizons Director

The Horizons Steering Committee recently completed a 12 page vision statement - this is a two-page summary which may again be revised in the future:

Maddock will plan for its future by continuing to encourage community input and participation to develop approaches to community development and poverty intervention.  During the two initial stages of the Horizon program there were 73 individuals involved in the process.  Our first two Visions activities generated a much larger audience. A Community Recognition Supper on October 27 had 75 community people attend to hear the presentations from the organizations in the community.  Of those in attendance, 49 had not participated in earlier programs.

Maddock also is using Community Surveys as part of its Vision planning process, with 121 responses to the 11-page in-depth adult survey.  In addition, there were 62 responses from students in the 9-12 grades at Maddock High School to the High School survey. 

Maddock will continue to work with the Benson County Farmers Press to communicate with the public.  The Press has 591 weekly copies going to Maddock and the surrounding area at this time, which gives Horizons access to a large share of households on a timely basis.

A key issue in our community is the demographics of our population. On the adult survey question, “do you think it is important to attract new members to the community,” of the 117 responses to that item 116 responses answered “yes.”  Only 1 responded “no.”

On the High School survey, the survey question “do you expect that there will be a job, or combination of jobs, in Maddock to meet your income expectations,” only 4 of the 62 respondents noted a “yes” answer, and 58 noted “no” or “don’t know.”  Of the 55 respondents who currently live in Maddock or on a farm within 25 miles of Maddock, only 14 indicated they would continue to live in this area after graduation.

As noted in the Visions Statement Support documents following this report, the Key Theme areas are in response to the need to change our demographics through retention of our current members and the attraction of new members.  Also, implicit in these Key Themes is the thread identified in the Study Circles’ Action Items between local development and the reduction of poverty.  We have utilized the Poverty categories from the “Thriving Communities” booklet, pp. 16-19 in the development of the Action Items to highlight this thread.

 For example, the category “Create more and better jobs” encompasses our Theme strategies for “Satisfactory housing” and “a wage and salary level that will keep people in town and draw people into town”.  The category, “Focus on early childhood, youth and schools,” would include our already commenced activities in the After School program, and the continuing efforts for Childcare coordination. The Visions inclusion of “attracting and retaining young families as community members,” and “increasing the number of young adults in the community” is also part of that same category.

    

The category “Help people meet their urgent needs,” includes our Theme strategies for “the development of cultural and recreation activities which provide opportunities for

participation of all our members,” and “the need for a Community Coordinator at the City Council level for the coordination of local organization efforts.”

The category of “Investing in basic community resources” would be utilized for our Visions inclusion of “identify and develop a list of amenities that need improvement to assist in the marketing of our community for future development.”

Our Study Circles committees believed these combined efforts would provide direct support for poverty intervention at the social level, as well as the economic level in our community.

The Visions Statement Support documents detail how Maddock intends to meet these dual needs of development and poverty intervention. This will be a joint effort among the City, local organizations and individual community members.  Working through the Key Themes format will allow us to concentrate on multiple goals over a multi-year period.

I was present when The Maddock Community Club met over the noon hour Thursday,Jan. 24 to discuss plans for the future including our July 4th weekend activities. Because of the upcoming all School Reunion, Dale Palmer is planning a parade of ‘pretty people’ in convertibles if possible. In addition plans are underway for a kiddy parade, games in the park including a climbing wall and other air games. A community Worship Service and golf and volleyball tournaments, rodeo and dance and lots more are in the planning stage. Lu Mathison gave a Horizons update, Brian Bubach reported on the school plans and the After School Activity Program as part of our community cooperation and help for the population.

This past week the Maddock School got new cameras installed. Now there are cameras in almost every part of the school. The administration wanted the school to be safer and better looked after. But while the cameras were being installed it caused the school server to go down, it is fixed now though. So now we can be watched in everything we do…