On my way uptown the other day, I noticed Ann Slater carrying boxes into the Wore Before and More Store. The store has become a favorite haunt for many in our community who want to find a bargain or an interesting treasure. Many thanks to those who donate their time to the store and who donate items. Just another reminder that summer is right around the corner.
February 16th to the 23nd of 2008 is this year’s National FFA Week. The theme is “Blue Jackets, Bright Futures”. Starting today, the Maddock A.S. Gibbens FFA is volunteering for the rest of the week at the After School Activities Program (ASAP), which runs from 3:30pm to 6:00pm. After the kids have their snack and finish their homework, Mr. Wald and the volunteer(s) will be going down to the Ag Room and doing some flight simulations and cutting out some patterns with the scroll saws. 
The Maddock student council selling daffodils for the American Cancer Society. All the money raised will go towards raising money to find a cure for cancer. You can buy ten daffodils for ten dollars or one for one dollar. To buy some daffodils you can ask a student coucnil member. The student council members are Alisha, Kimberly, Jillian, Alex, Erin Leier, John, Courtney, and Preston.
>A major change coming out of this ASAP Board Meeting: 
The Maddock After School Activity Program now welcomes all children K-6 free of charge. Snacks will be provided and homework help, learning activities and some physical activity will be part of the day’s
> activities. If interested, parents must apply by application available from Kathy Daeley (also at parent/teacher conferences), return them to her, and be notified of acceptance before sending their children. Hours are still 3:30 - 6 PM on school days. Cash donations for snacks are
>welcome and can be left with Tracy’s Market in Maddock for ASAP.
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.
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
The community of Maddock has been selected for participation in the 2006-2008 Horizons program. The Horizons program is an 18-month leadership development aimed at communities of fewer than 5,000 to strengthen their leadership systems. It will offer a comprehensive leadership program within communities that, in general have experienced significant decline in population, income and resources.
The program is divided into three distinct phases, to allow for more individual participation. The first phase will cover the community study circles in the Jan-Feb/07 period; the second phase involves leadership-training programs in the Mar-July/07 period, and the final phase of refinement and implementation in the Aug/07-June/08 period.
The Horizons program tries to improve the leadership systems in communities to address difficult issues such as poverty, economic decline, and youth leaving the area. The program was made available to communities, or regions, with less than 5,000 populations and a 10% or greater poverty rate. The Horizons program is funded by the Northwest Area Foundation, located in St. Paul, MN. The local programs will be delivered by the staff of the NDSU Extension Service.
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.
Once a month the Memorial Home is offering something special for their residents. It’s “restaurant style” breakfast. I was priviledged to be one of the cooks (Women Ministries from Bethany Church) as the residents ordered from menus and the Youth from the Wednesday Bible Study took the orders. What a variety of food items including pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, toast and bacon and yes, even omlettes!! The ultimate delight…..we got to eat as well!!
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.
We have lots of resources available to the community to improve literacy for all ages and abilities. Storytime is Thursdays at the Head Start and there is a lively group of preschoolers to engage in listening and participating. If you come to the library you will find a wide array of new and used books for sale too. $1 for a whole bag can fill a lot of winter evenings with reading.
