This weekend, La Crescent is on the receiving end of a coveted visit from the Minnesota Design Team, which works with only two cities a year to help create a common vision for a town’s future. And one need not look any further than Houston to see how a Design Team visit, if followed through on by community members, can transform a community in a plethora of ways.

Houston was fortunate enough to receive two visits from the Design Team n one in 1995 and another in 2006. In the first go-around, the Team left the city with 20 recommendations on projects it felt could benefit the city, and two years ago, it assisted the city, amongst other areas, in developing a comprehensive plan.

During the visits, city administrator Larry Jerviss said the Team gave Houston an idea of its assets n things that sometimes can be taken for granted n and encouraged residents to realize they can achieve the goals set by the Team.

“They give you moral support and they give you a lot of ideas,” he said. “Some seem a little pie-in-the-sky, but some of them are also very accomplishable.”

However, Houston proved that, although some ideas appear to be out of reach, all could be accomplished with full community participation. After the 1995 visit, the city was left with suggestions which could be acted upon within one year, others that could be done in one to three years, and long-term goals that could take 3 to 10 years. Of the 20 ideas left, Houston was able to, or is in the process of, finishing 17 of them. That’s one of, if not the highest, number of projects completed by any city the Design Team has visited.

Several of the short-term goals included developing a sign system for bike trails, getting connected to the Internet n Houston now offers one of the largest on-line schools in Minnesota, and re-establishing a community newspaper n it has, with the Houston Banner. Mid-term goals included building a dike system, constructing a Root Rover trail head and park, and making improvements to its elementary school. In the long-term, it was suggested Houston might create new neighborhoods to the east and west and create hospitality facilities in conjunction with the Root River trail system. These, amongst others, are all goals the city accomplished.

Another goal was to increase community participation, which is one of the side benefits of a Design Team visit, said Marilyn Frauenkron Bayer, a past-president of the Houston Chamber of Commerce who was deeply involved with the Design Team’s two visits.

“You get people out from their community to think about what their community wants,” she said. “This really puts the communal response in the community. This is our town. What do we want to see here for us? Not what do you see for us, but what do we see?”

Frauenkron Bayer emphasized the need for all segments of the community to be involved, especially young people, because theirs is the town of the future. And as Houston fulfilled the recommendations, it started a domino effect, where one project led to another, she said. For example, when Ace Communications decided to construct a new building in Houston, it sold its old facility to the city of $1, which it then used to open a city library. A mural painted on the building’s exterior wall shows an array of residents with varied skill levels.

“That’s the nice thing about small towns. Everyone’s talents are needed,” she said.

It’s important that people attend the weekend meetings, come together and meet one another in an atmosphere that’s more relaxed, she said. And as neighbors get to know neighbors, new residents should be encouraged to participate later in the process. Frauenkron Bayer has seen people move to town Thursday and help out at a community breakfast Sunday.

“When you start bringing community together and bringing leaders together, people start talking about assets and ‘what can we do together,’” she said. “That’s the synergy that happens that’s so exciting.”

Frauenkron Bayer pointed to other successes Houston has seen as a result of the Design Team, including relocating the ambulance garage, constructing restrooms in the city park, creating gateways and entrances to the city, and commencing town center improvements. But arguably, none is more visible to the public, or has done more for the city as a whole, than the establishment of the Houston Nature Center at Trailhead Park.

Houston Nature Center

Frauenkron Bayer was on the building committee for Trailhead Park, so she was familiar with the decisions made about the Nature Center, the grant writing involved to get funding, and most importantly, the determination of those involved to get it done.

The facility features restrooms n voted the finest on the bike trail n showers, and a conference room that community groups can reserve for meetings, which is saturated with use.

“A lot of towns have a fairly primitive trailhead, and not much for restroom facilities,” Jerviss said. “That particular building has showers in it and it’s a place to stop and take a break, and actually look at something and learn something instead of just having a restroom and picnic table.”

Most notably, there’s the educational component staffed by Nature Center director Karla Kinstler and Alice, an injured great horned owl she nursed back to health and now uses for educational purposes.

“We’re lucky to have an extraordinarily knowledgeable person there, and of course, Alice,” he said.

Citing another instance of the domino effect, Frauenkron Bayer said that simply from the one suggestion of creating a park at the trail head, the project evolved into much more, one that used the efforts and talents of many in the community.

“Again, because community was talking, community was involved in the decision-making process,” she said.

Initially, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wanted to plant 40 acres of Kentucky bluegrass in the park, but after a meeting of city residents, the Corps changed its plans, and residents paid to have 30 acres of native wildflowers and prairie grasses.

“At the time of construction, it was the most diverse native wildflower prairie in the upper Midwest,” Frauenkron Bayer said. “We’ve had people drive here just to see the variety of plant life.”

Driven by the Nature Center and Trailhead Park are a number of Eagle projects by Boy Scouts, which included helping plant the wildflowers and trees, building a recycling shed, constructing bird houses along the trail, and building a foot bridge in the park.

“We have a youth-centered community center, and do you know how proud they are of seeing how big the trees are that they planted?” she said. “That’s pride in community. That’s involvement in community. That’s telling the youth, ‘You’re important. Look at the difference you can make. We need you, not just the adults.”

The Nature Center, the meeting room, the band shell, and the involvement in many aspects by the youth, which Frauenkron Bayer likens to a pebble dropped in water, something that starts small and builds upon itself.

And beyond that, the sustained efforts of the community has established lasting features at the center, such as a Friends of the Nature Center group, Kinstler’s ongoing educational programming, and the Festival of Owls, the only event of its kind in the world which draws international speakers and attendees.

“Karla is an asset and Alice the Owl is an asset, so what did Karla come up with? Doing the Festival of Owls,” Frauenkron Bayer said. “Again, we’re still talking another ripple from that one pebble that was dropped in the economic pond as just an amenity here.”

That event alone brings in thousands of dollars n from motel stays, to restaurants, to shopping n into the Houston economy every year during the first weekend in March.

“Look at the owl. The owl is an asset,” she said. “You can have anything be an asset. Look at the apples, (La Crescent) does the Apple Festival. Look at the Houston Hoedown. It’s one of the 10 most successful small community festivals in the state of Minnesota.”

Some of the money raised at the Hoedown, she said, is used to help maintain the park. Some proceeds went towards installing the restrooms at the city park. Again, projects fulfilling other projects.

Since then…

Since Houston’s Minnesota Design Team visit in 1995, the community has tackled, and expanded upon nearly all of the Team’s recommendations. In 2006, the Team came back and began helping the city with planning.

“They said, ‘You guys are really good at doing projects,’” Frauenkron Bayer said. “What they wanted us to do was more planning.”

That’s why the city comprehensive plan was such a large component of the second visit. And in just two years, it’s almost finished.

“We’re about three-quarters of the way through developing (the)…plan,” Jerviss said. “That was one of the objectives they gave us the second time around.”

This was critical, Frauenkron Bayer said, for the city’s future leaders. Houston wanted a plan to follow, one created by the community and not individual leaders. It’ll provide a blueprint of development for future mayors and city councils. And though looking towards the future is an important part of a Design Team visit, knowing the past is also a key.

“(The Team) wants to know where (you) came from, where have you been, how did you start, and what are your origins?” she said. “Then you give presentations. Where are you now and where do you think you hope to go?”

“With the Design Team perspective of knowing your history and then knowing (what’s happening now), they help you create your future.”

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