Ortonville Tree Dump
Due to last week’s storm and the continued cleanup efforts, the City will leave the Tree Dump open and free of charge indefinitely at this point.
Annual Cleanup Ortonville Day!
The City of Ortonville will conduct the Annual Cleanup Ortonville Day on the 13th & 14th of May. EARLY REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.
The City will provide several large dumpsters in which you may bring many of those things you have been wanting to get rid of. The dumpsters will be located at the City Shop on Highway 75 located between Casey’s Diesel Pumps and the Ortonville Independent building. Proof of residency will be required at the time of drop-off. A copy of a utility bill with the Ortonville address is an example of such proof.
Items that will be accepted will include mattresses, plastic items, old furniture, other wood items, metal toys, bicycles, and other metal items as well as appliances such as stoves, water heaters, dryers, and washing machines. A max of 4 AUTO tires per household will also be accepted.
Items that will NOT be accepted will be tractor tires, refrigerators, freezers, microwaves, construction material, electronics, paint, solvents, garbage, tree limbs, branches, and other vegetative waste. Please note, tree branches and yard wastes can be disposed of at the city tree dump on scheduled days (LINK: for more info on city tree dump)
If you have items for the Ortonville Cleanup, you must provide the following information in writing to the city offices at 315 Madison Avenue by Wednesday, May 11, 2022.
Name
Address
Phone
Items to be disposed of
Drop-off may be done –
Friday, May 13 between 9 AM and 3 PM, and
Saturday, May 14 between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM
Anyone willing to volunteer your time to help load/unload items at the drop-off site, please call 320-839-3826 no later than May 8th. (Thank you!)
LINK: PDF copy of the Announcement & Form to Fill out to Register for the Clean up 2022
Flushing Hydrants
The City of Ortonville will be flushing hydrants next week, April 20th to the 22nd.
INPUT PERIOD is now CLOSED – thank you! EDA is Looking for Your Input!
Updated 5/8/2022. Since there are a few that are curious – here is the community input taken from the online form: Cashtown Survey Responses 2022-04-05 – and there were a few that posted their thoughts on our Facebook posts –
LINK: Ortonville Facebook Page Replies/post
LINK: MNbump Facebook Page Replies/post
Update: 5/5/2022. We met with the RDC and their architecture consultant to discuss the property and potential building designs – the next meeting is on June 2nd. It will be exciting to see what the building design will look like… and some other really good news coming from this project!
The Cashtown buildings are located in a very prominent location as you enter our community. And while we have had a few inquiries about the property, nobody has taken the step to purchase and develop it. We have an opportunity through the Upper Minnesota Regional Development Commission (RDC) to work with an architecture consultant to create a concept for this property based on what we’d like to see. Our plan is to showcase the community’s excitement in seeing this area developed as shown by a list of your ideas/suggestions along with a conceptional drawing (taken from the list of ideas that were received).
We are coming into this opportunity on the tail end of the RDC’s project process – so submitting your ideas within the next couple of days would be MUCH appreciated! Thank you!!
Survey has been removed from this post. Thank you to everyone who submitted. We will provide a report of ideas soon.
Ortonville EDA Projects
A few updates on the projects the Ortonville EDA is working on (and with who!)
Small Cities Development Grant Application
The City Council has taken action to submit the Small Cities Development Grant Application! Kristi Fernholz, Planning Director, and Bernice Robinson, Grant Management Specialist, of the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission will be writing the grant, and if the grant is awarded, they will also be administering the program. Ortonville EDA Staff, Vicki Oakes, has been assigned to assist Kristi and Bernie with the process as needed (there are lots of details that go with this program and we’ve been working!) An online pre-application (interest form) can be completed online, or a hard copy can be obtained from the City Office – and returned to the City Office… more information on the online form and details can be found at this LINK: SCDG
Commercial projects could be eligible for up to $40,000 in grant funds
Owner-occupied residential homes could be eligible for up to $25,000 in grant funds
Eligible rehab projects – gutters, windows, doors, siding, insulations, electrical, heating/furnace, water heater, fuse box replacement, energy efficiency improvements, plumbing, roofing, foundation, safety improvements, accessibility improvements, lead testing and removal, and building code violations
- Interest forms are accepted through February 10th – this Friday!
- The full application will be submitted by the UMVRDC by March 11th
- May/June (but maybe July!) to receive notification if our grant application was approved
- Project implementation & administration starts November/December
- We have 3 years to utilize the funds
The City held its public hearing at last night’s City Council meeting. If you’re interested and in need of rehab, please check the criteria and complete an interest form by February 10th! LINK: SCDG
Big Stone County Blandin Broadband Community
Big Stone County has been selected (of course that was not a random selection! Both Vince Robinson and Lisa Graphenteen of Big Stone Area Growth wrote the grant application before we were ‘just selected’!) – This has been a great community involvement process; however, it has been moving along quickly and keeping us busy! You can check out the Community Vision Meeting (watch the video), watch the Brainstorm Meeting, and check out all the documentation along the way – i.e. Project List for Voting, various presentations, and read all about the program by checking out this LINK. We’ve now separated into subcommittees and are working on projects to submit… we have an opportunity to spend $100,000 of Blandin money (which, depending on the project type will come through a 3:1 match – my personal favorite – and others being 2:1 or 1:1)
The Ortonville EDA staff (Vicki, me!) is working on the Training Project Team. Our proposal is a work in process at the moment; however, we are looking at an eCommerce training session that will provide information on various eCommerce platforms to help our businesses and individual artists decide on a platform that will be a good fit for their situation – we will then look at what individual personal training could come out of that process. A quick call to one of my go-to’s when I need help fast – Dawn Hegland of the UMVRDC – and I think we will have a good connection to provide some of the other training that businesses and artists submitted in our interest survey… more on that will be forthcoming! I’m also working with Suzanne Souza of the Big Stone County 4-H on possible iPad and Android Tablet training that some of our County’s tech-savvy 4-H’ers could assist with!
Ward Odom of the Big Stone County Veteran’s Office is the project lead for training assistance for our Veterans to maneuver through the vast amount of online searches in the medical, benefits, and all of the other online forms and information that they need to find and complete on a regular basis. This Committee has completed their work and is ready to present their project! (they are a sub-group of the Training project – and obviously overachievers for as fast as they put all that together!)
As an Ortonville EDA staff, I’m also on the City Smart/Zoom rooms project; however, there really isn’t much for me to do when you have the County’s Tech expert, Matthew Anderson, leading the project. Here, I am just along for the ride with a few “that sounds really good” comments – and then, of course, credit for being on the Committee when they are up and running in each of our communities! 😊
Lisa Graphentine of BSAG is working on some other pieces/projects while trying to keep all the Project Teams on schedule and completing the right info for our presentations. She also just recently advised that Blandin has committed to also (over and above the $100,000) providing 50 refurbished PCs for distribution in Big Stone County for those that would need one! — more to come on this process!
Child Care!
Yes! We are working to expand child care slots, particularly in the infant and toddler age group. UPDATE: Please fill out a Survey and help in this process! www.ortonvillechildcare.com
Sara Wollschlager of the Ortonville School worked on/submitted a grant through First Children’s Finance to help work through the community process of expanding child care in the Ortonville School District. However, before the process was to begin there were changes at the school and they did not feel that they could facilitate this process. They called the Ortonville EDA to see if we could take on that lead. And we were happy to take this on!! We have put together an awesome core group and we just completed our training from Jessica Beyer and the team from First Children’s Finance. We are now breaking out into three groups and beginning the work – and we will be reaching out for input and assistance so if you feel child care is an important need in our area and you have some time (of any amount) to assist, please give me (Vicki) a call at 320-839-6155.
Our Core Group is –
Matt Karels, Economic Development & Business
Sara Wollschlager, Ortonville School and School Daycare
David Rogers/Kirsten Karels – OAHS, our largest employer
Kari Dorry, Ortonville School
Brenda Zahrbock, Local & long time Daycare Provider
Nancie Haukos, Local faith-based representative
Krista Hartman, Businesses owner & School Board member
Emily Sigler, Big Stone Family Service Center (child care)
Kelsie Thomas, parent (and awesome community person!)
Scott Marquardt, Southwest Initiative Foundation
Marge Knudson, Prairie Five & Parent Aware Program
Carrie Bendix, Southwest Private Industry Council
At the EDA, we of course continue to provide our loan programs, our work with BSAG on the MNbump initiative, maintaining the City’s website (you’re here, on it!), and other community development work.
Ortonville EDA Board members are:
Becky Parker, President
Matt Karels, VP & CC Rep
Jacob Bollman, Treasurer
Shane Ayres, Secretary
Ryan Kehnle
Gene Hausauer, CC Rep
Erick Banken
Job Opening – Police Department
The City of Ortonville Police Department has posted an opening for a Full-time Police Officer(s) position. The deadline is February 18, 2022 at 5:00 p.m.
Ice Rink Opens Friday, January 7th
UPDATE: The Ice Rink will not open today due to weather. The temperature must be 10 degrees or above in order to be open. By the looks of the forecast, the rink should be open tomorrow!
Make sure to check the information page for all related announcements, times, etc. for the rink
LINK: Ice Rink Information Page
UPDATED SURVEY! 11/29/2021 – Skating Rink, Survey for Park Board
The Ortonville Park Board is looking for feedback from those that use the rinks.
Please complete this short survey: https://forms.office.com/r/wDiE9actJ5
Thank you!
Reminder! Parking Restrictions and Snow Removal
It is coming up on that time of year again! Snow.
REMINDER
TO THE RESIDENTS OF ORTONVILLE: PARKING
RESTRICTIONS ON CITY STREETS BETWEEN NOVEMBER 1ST
AND APRIL 1ST
In accordance with City Ordinances, no person, except physicians on emergency calls or other
such emergency personnel, shall park any vehicle on any street or avenue in the City of
Ortonville between November 1st and April 1st after a snowfall with an accumulation of two
inches or more of snow. Vehicles parked on the street in these circumstances will be towed.
Parking may be resumed on individual streets and avenues as soon as the snow has been
removed from these streets and avenues.
Property owners are responsible for removing snow from their sidewalks within 48 hours of a
three inches or more snowfall. If snow has not been removed from sidewalks after a snowfall of
three inches or more, the City will remove the snow and bill the property owner.
Downtown business owners are responsible for removing snow from their sidewalks within 12
hours of a snowfall. If not removed, the City will remove and bill the property owner.
BY ORDER OF THE
ORTONVILLE CITY COUNCIL
The video below is taken from the 2018/19 Winter Season – it is quite a process to remove snow with our hills.
