Hazelton, ND

Today we had a visit from 103.3 US Country-Hazelton-our “hometown” radio station. 103.3 has a tower east of Hazelton and Hazelton is it’s home base. We are excited to be working with them. Their office is actually in Bismarck/Mandan and Jason Huber, their Account Manager, came to Hazelton today to see how we can partner with them to promote our community using “our hometown radio station”.

Mr. Huber was quite impressed with our downtown business center and the HMB School. He agreed that both facilities are great assets to Hazelton and will help to attract both businesses and families here.

It will be interesting to see how we can work with “Our Radio” station to promote our community.

Living and working in a small rural community isn’t always possible, but after I attended the Rural Community Forum in Bismarck on June 13th on ways that encourage entrepreneurship, I realized that this could be a reality. After hearing what other rural communities in North Dakota are doing to survive, it made me think about what we have in our little town of Hazelton and surrounding areas and how we can make it work for us. It just takes a little imagination, research, and the entrepreueurial spirit to open your own business. We already have an available building on main street that could accommodate any type of business and a way to market those ideas through a partnership with the ND Commerce Dept. Through our local Hazelton Newsletter and community blogging, ideas to open you own business can be relayed to those people who may be interested in a new career or a way to “stay home and work in your own community”. Who knows, the right person may have the right idea to keep Hazelton on the map!

Getting food to the table in a safe, economical way to rural North Dakota is a basic need that many people take for granted, unless of course, the local grocery store closes. Many of our elderly and young families who can’t afford to travel to nearby cities due to the current high transportation costs are left with highly processed, less nourishing food that can be bought in bulk and stored for later use. Fresh produce and meat are scarce commodities.

After the Hazelton Grocery store closed its doors in December, the Hazelton Development Corp. has explored all options to re-open the store. After many months of meetings, the community has decided to partner together and find a solution. That solution is to open the local grocery store as a “community-run store”. An equity drive is currently underway to help with operations, start-up, and inventory costs. The community has been most responsive and many community members have committed funds to once again have a grocery store here in Hazelton. I couldn’t be prouder of how Hazelton works together to solve it’s own problems!

Owning a home has always been an American Dream, but unfortunately, many people aren’t able to fulfill that dream. The community of Hazelton is working to help families achieve that American Dream. Previously, the Hazelton Development Corporation had offered property and financial incentives to construct a new home within the city of Hazelton, but unfortunately the private funds received for this project are no longer available, but the interest to consider Hazelton as an affordable place to live remains. After I attended the Housing Roundtable forum sponsored by the Horizons Program and the discussion on why a Housing Demand Analysis is a first step, the Hazelton Development Corp. made the commitment to undergo this study. By leveraging funds from the Horizons program and a stipend from the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, we will be able to cost share the analysis. This analysis will assess what housing is currently available in Hazelton, what is currently needed, and what we might need in the future. A contract with a consulting team from Minot, ND has been signed and the initial assessment of the community is underway with plans to have the analysis completed by the end of the summer.