Sioux Valley seeks to 'revive' communities

A program is being developed by a local electric cooperative to connect communities with resources for economic and community development.
Sioux Valley Energy calls the program REVIVE 2030.
Once developed, REVIVE 2030 will work with individual communities within the cooperative’s footprint on various projects.
Rock and Pipestone counties are part of the cooperative’s service area and are included in the program’s development.
City, county and civic leaders from both counties were invited to participate in an information-gathering, focus-group meeting. Just under 40 people attended the Jan. 20 meeting at the Hardwick Community Center.
“REVIVE is not a check-writing program,” said Tim McCarthy, SVE’s general manager and chief executive officer. “What we want this to be is a partnership between Sioux Valley and our communities out there and we want you to have skin in the game with us so we can all move forward together.”
A similar gathering of community members from South Dakota took place in November in Colton, South Dakota, the main headquarters for Sioux Valley Energy.
From the first meeting, SVE deciphered the best way to move forward was to hire an economic and community development professional to assist area communities through the REVIVE 2030 program.
McCarthy said economic development is second nature to SVE due to the need for more electricity within their 6,000-square-foot territory that includes urban as well as rural communities. He’s noticed the disparity between municipalities within the SVE region.
“We don’t want our other members outside of this area that is more organized toward economic development to ever be forgotten,” he said. “What is it that you guys need that will help you build your communities?”
Representatives from Community and Economic Development Associates (CEDA) from Chatfield, Minnesota, led both the large and small group focus sessions, asking participants to answer a series of questions about current needs, assets, resources and recent road blocks that have hindered economic development.
SVE officials will take the information from the brainstorming session and summarize the findings into categories. The information will then be shared back with the individuals who attended the meeting.
McCarthy said once priorities are set and an economic development professional is hired, individual community meetings could take place and more specific needs identified within each specific community.
“We want this to be customizable,” he said.
The SVE territory encompasses 6,000 square miles with about 6,200 miles of electrical lines throughout Rock and Pipestone counties in Minnesota and Minnehaha, Lake, Moody, Brookings and a portion of Kingsbury counties in South Dakota.