(upbeat music) - Stay tuned for On Q for KSMQ.

I'm Dan Hoffman sitting in today for Eric Olson.

Coming up, we'll talk with someone who works with serving individuals with developmental disabilities in Mower County.

Then we'll find out how an advisor community organization for clean energy has made an impact on Minnesota.

That's what's coming up On Q.

♪ Local ideas that matter to you, sharing our region's ♪ ♪ Unique point of view, telling the stories ♪ ♪ That you never knew, On Q ♪ ♪ On Q ♪ ♪ On Q ♪ - Today we're visiting with Dawn Helgeson, LIFE Mower County Executive Director.

Welcome Dawn.

- Thank you so much for having me today.

- We're glad to have you, Dawn.

And you mentioned earlier, 33 years is a long time but you're loving the work at LIFE Mower County.

What is LIFE Mower County?

- LIFE Mower County is a grassroots advocacy organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

And so, in a life of a person with a disability and you always wanna put the person first and in a person's life that has a disability, there's all kinds of issues that they have to deal with.

And so we're there to help, whether it's with housing or education or just any issues that they're dealing with.

And we're there for them.

And we also have recreational opportunities, Special Olympics, and we just got back after COVID, we got back into our youth program and that's just starting, so.

- Well, as the executive director, you probably wear a lot of hats.

What do you do?

- Well, I'm the main advocate for the organization and so when someone comes in, you know, we problem solve, we get other people involved.

I've been a Special Olympics coach for 33 years and just work, just support anything that we do.

The activities, we go on trips and all kinds of things, so.

- You probably have to take care of accounting and fundraising too, right?

- Yes, those are the big things.

Fundraising is a big thing for us.

- Well, when we asked a little bit about what LIFE Mower County is, you kind of lit up in a positive way when you talked about the youth programming coming back.

Did I read you right?

- Yes, you bet.

Pre COVID, we had a 4-H program and all kinds of programming for after school and early release days and over the summertime and stuff.

And then COVID kind of shot that.

And so we finally, after three years of being just two employees, we hired somebody that's in charge of all our programming and she's just only been there about a month.

So we're just getting all that going and we're doing, she's doing all kinds of fun things.

We're having sensory night, movie nights, all kinds of craft projects and stuff and just get 'em acclimated out in the community.

- Why is it particularly important to work with youth?

- Well, they are our future and, you know, we want 'em to be able to be a part of the community and feel like that they can be a part of something.

And so I believe that, like I said, the youth are our future.

- And how did you get interested in working in this organization but also being their director?

- Well, I started out when I got hired through a friend of mine as a bookkeeper, and then in 1995 the director left.

And so I'd been there the longest and knew all the accounting and all that kind of stuff.

And so they asked me to be the director and I have been ever since.

- Well, beyond the youth, you mentioned that there's other programming.

Can you talk a little more about that, maybe some of the senior programs?

- Yes.

Well, Our Place Rec Center has been around for about 35 years, and some parents started that.

Their daughter was in the deaf school up in Parable and when she came home, she didn't have anything to do.

And so he started a recreation center with just one pool table.

And now we have, and they, back then they called it Our Place Rec Center because it was our place where they could come and feel welcomed and safe and have fun with their friends.

- Where is that physical space located?

- Right by Riverside Arena.

The new additional, well, it's not new, it's already 10 years old.

Right next to the Senior Center, Moore County Senior Center.

- And again, some of the things you do with seniors.

- Well, our recreation program is from ages 14 on up.

I think one of our oldest is probably in their eighties.

So it's a range of things.

And so we adapt to different abilities, we adapt our programming any which way we can.

So they're succeeding in what they're doing.

- When you put youth and seniors together, that's a lot of differences in experiences in a wide range.

Why is that important and how does that help?

- Well, I mean that's the real world.

I mean, you know, we have parents, grandparents, and you know, and they don't care.

I mean, they're there to have fun and they're there to be with friends and they're there to go out in the public and learn new things.

And so age to me is not a big, big thing.

- What's the most valuable thing that this organization brings to our community?

- Well, just for people to know, although we've been here around for 70 years, we just celebrated our 70th anniversary, and so a lot of things have changed over those years and stuff.

And so I think, you know, just, it gives people disabilities a place to be a be a part of.

- How about the other people that want to help and give something to somebody else?

Does it help them as well?

- You bet.

I mean, I've made hundreds of friends over the years and I consider them all my friends.

We just like to go and have a good time.

(laughs) - Well, in 70 years, you must have at least one success story you can share with us.

What's one that comes to mind?

- There's a lot of them.

I mean, and that makes me really proud that we can provide those opportunities for people to succeed and be included in the community.

But one, an elderly lady that lived in town and she was probably in her probably early sixties when I met her and I think she's 86 now and she came to town and her family was in Illinois and she was in an institution.

But she came here through her daughters marrying into this family and she had nothing.

I mean, she didn't have anything.

She didn't, you know, we found her a place to live.

She ended up being a wonderful volunteer in the community.

She helped at the Paramount Theater and she lived in her own apartment and then, well, you know, it came to be where she couldn't live there successfully.

And so she went into an assisted living and is loving it.

And she doesn't have any family.

So she's been under my wing for many, many years now and just, she's just a beautiful soul.

- What a wonderful success story.

But it has a long legacy, I mean, 26 years I think you mentioned, correct?

- [Dawn] Yeah, yep.

- So the impact is huge.

What kinda response have you had as an organizational leader from our community?

- Well, you know, the community, when you least expect it, they jump at the chance to support us.

Definitely could use more support, but the people that are involved are there for a reason.

They wanna have that same dream for whether it's their child or just for general reasons.

It just, it makes your heart swell when you see people succeeding at something or big smiles on the face or a hug or, you know, just experiencing things.

A lot of things that they maybe have never had a chance to.

- Do you have opportunities for volunteers to help?

- Oh, you bet we do.

All kinds of things.

Volunteering, helping people at Bingo, helping be a coach for Special Olympics.

We wanna get some new sports, so we're looking for coaches that maybe have expertise in some kind of sport.

I think there's, I'm not sure exactly how many sports Special Olympics has but there's a lot.

So volunteering for that, community groups come in and sometimes they'll maybe do a pizza night and pay for, you know, the pizza or come and volunteer and serve pizza or just about anything.

- Great opportunities.

How can people find out more about your organization?

- Well, you can go on our website at www life, L-I-F-E, Mower County dot org.

- Awesome.

And how about groups or church organizations?

Is there room for them as well?

- Oh yes, absolutely.

We've had different, like Kwon and different groups like that come and support us.

They support our People First Action Club which are self-advocates, learning how to speak up for themselves and going to the state legislature and telling what difficulties they're having and so it's learning to vote.

We just had our meeting Monday night and you know, we talked about the people that were able to go out and vote and have a say in how, you know, that political world can go.

(chuckles) - Can you give us the website again, Dawn?

- www.lifemowercounty.org.

- Well, thank you so much for what you do.

It's fabulous.

And again, I hope our audience goes to that website to learn more and how they can contribute.

- We appreciate it.

- And thank you for joining us, Dawn.

- Thank you so much.

(upbeat music) - We found some free help for businesses, organizations or individuals to know their options in regards to clean energy.

Here to talk with us now is Chris Meyer who is a Southeast Minnesota CERT Coordinator.

Welcome Chris.

- Thanks, I'm delighted to be here.

- We're delighted to have you, but we need some help.

What is CERTs?

(Chris laughs) - CERTs is the Clean Energy Resource Teams and they were formed by a special act of the Minnesota legislature about 12 years ago.

And they're a partnership organization.

There are four main partners.

The University of Minnesota Extension is one, through, and this is a mouthful, the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, but there is a head office and there's a staff and it's on the campus of the St. Paul, at the staff of the University of Minnesota in the St. Paul campus.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce, Division of Energy Resources is the second main partner.

And then there's the Southwest Regional Development Corporation and the Great Plains Institute which is a non-profit that does a lot of work around utility regulation in the Twin Cities.

So the legislature actually gave us a mission and that is to help communities with clean energy projects.

But we also try to fulfill the missions of all the partner organizations.

So when there are state resources or when the University of Minnesota has resources, then it is my job to know people who might wanna do projects and use those resources.

- Important work.

And where is the funding largely come from?

- A lot of the money comes through the legislature and it comes from the Conservation Improvement Program in Minnesota.

We have state statute that asks our utilities to help reduce the use of energy of their end, their customers.

And so sometimes the funding comes from us but there's a lot of bright folks on the St. Paul campus and they frequently will write grants from the McKnight Foundation or the Department of Energy and they'll get us additional funding for work that we wanna do.

- Chris, you had said that you had been with CERTs for about six years?

- [Chris] Yes.

- What was your background before CERT?

- Well, working with CERT is my retirement gig.

I worked for General Mills for 30 years.

At some point during the close to the end of my career, I really became concerned about climate change.

Now, CERTs doesn't work on climate change per se.

What we work on is energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

And I actually went back after I retired and got a master's degree in environmental policy specializing in renewable energy.

And then I got the job at CERTs.

I had been volunteering as a steering committee with them before that and knew that they did fabulous work and I'm so excited to share the programming that they have to offer with folks across southeastern Minnesota.

- Well, you talked earlier just a little bit about remote work even before the last pandemic.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- Tell us how that worked and where you're located and what's all happening in that world.

- Oh, well, so I wrote software and that makes it somewhat easy.

When we first moved to this little town called Rollingstone, we didn't even have internet access.

And so I truly did tele commute over the, you know, not over the internet, but over the phone line.

But then we did get a high speed internet and I've done that now for really 25 years.

(chuckles) - You were well ahead of the curve and then, some point you moved to Winona with this new job or you're still in Rollingstone?

- Nope, no, we moved into Winona about 13 years ago now.

My husband and I, we retrofit a 1965 home to be as close to net zero energy as we could.

And so that was when we moved into the city of Winona.

- You live your mission?

- Well, we have tried, yes.

- How's it working?

- Well, you know, we had to move, we're getting older and the place that we lived in was great but it had multiple stories and it was on a hill so we just got done doing another retrofit and it doesn't have as much solar and it doesn't have quite as many passive solar features to it, but it's still pretty low energy use.

- But Chris, I hope you don't feel bad because I'm sure that house still is close to net zero and somebody, perhaps a young family is enjoying the benefits.

- That is absolutely true.

And my husband was a, he's a retired school teacher, and so every year the sixth and seventh grade used to come and do tours of our home.

So lots of kids have come through our home and still talk to us about it now.

- Well, I see why CERTs hired you.

You live the passion, you've got the mission and you also work with other people on the educational peach, which is so important.

So if we think about your job with CERTs, how would you describe it?

What is it and what do you do?

- The main job of the coordinator is not to have all the answers, but to meet people who want to do projects or are interested in doing projects and then help connect them with the resources.

So sometimes that can be areas at the University of Minnesota.

the Chan Lab has done a lot of work with battery storage.

And so sometimes we just connect folks with people at the university and then we don't make policy.

But once the state of Minnesota has a policy, it's our job to run around the state and tell everyone about it and try to get them to take advantage of it.

- With all that experience, there must be at least one success story that sticks out.

- You know, I am gonna tell you about a small one.

We were talking earlier about Winona State and that's a big project, but I was working with an intern from Winona State and we were going around to some of the smaller towns in Winona County talking to them about the benchmarking program which is available for free at the state.

And it is a process of tracking your energy use and comparing it to other similar buildings.

So that was our mission that day.

But when we talked to Dan Hovet in Altura who is the entire public works department, Dan said, "Well that's great, but what I really need is some kind of an audit on my wastewater treatment facility."

Altura had two ponds with aerators and I was able to, because the University of Minnesota had just gotten a DOE grant, they were looking for 15 wastewater treatment facilities across the state, I was able to get them enrolled in that program and for free, get them an energy assessment that was worth several thousand dollars.

And Dan had said to me I can't go to my city council and ask for that.

So I was was able to get that for him from free.

And when that audit came back, the team of engineers from the University of Minnesota said you could run half of the aerators because there was a facility in town that had closed down and they could save $15,000 a year on their electric bill.

- Fantastic impact.

- Yeah, it's amazing.

And so it's really a question of knowing what's available and meeting people who have a need and figuring out how to get them together.

- Thus the need for a coordinator.

- [Chris] There you go.

- Where the need arises, so does the answer.

What's something you do specifically for farmers?

- So CERTs, agriculture is one of the sectors that CERTs works to serve and there can be very large savings and it can come from energy efficiency measures or it can come from renewable energy systems.

So we have a person who works in northern Minnesota or central Minnesota but she is trained to do energy assessments.

She is familiar with all of the USDA programs and so she can actually come to someone's farm and she can help right then and there to tell them if they have a good site for solar and to help them fill out the REAP grants.

REAP stands for Renewable Energy for America Program and you can get grants for either doing energy efficiency projects or for doing renewable energy projects.

So that is one way.

The other thing is that the University of Minnesota has the Western Research and Outreach Center which is in Morris, and they do a lot of research on heat pumps, alternative ways to make fertilizers.

And they have a conference every two years that has fabulous ideas for things that could, there was a day for dairy and there was a day for swine.

And on the swine day, one of the speakers was talking about a $200 sensor that could be put in the, up near the top of the barn where the fans are that would actually make sure that when the heated air isn't what gets extracted when they're trying to do air exchange.

For 200 bucks, it can have thousands of dollars of impact on the use of the energy in the hog barns.

So there are other things that the university or the state have and those are things that we can share as well to help save energy, not just generate renewables.

- Create resources.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- Do you have a website you can share with the audience?

- [Chris] Yep.

It's CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org.

- Awesome, and I hope they use it.

What about homeowners or manufactured homeowners or parks?

- We have especially been working on manufactured homes in the last few years.

This is because for folks that don't have means, a path to home ownership sometimes starts with manufactured homes or mobile homes, and yet they are frequently some of the worst homes in terms of wasted energy.

They're poorly built, they're poorly insulated and they cost a lot to live in.

And so we as an organization have focused on getting some additional grant money and then working with utilities and other organizations to put together events where we will speak with the park owner, we'll get the utilities, either the gas or electric that are involved.

The state of Minnesota has a requirement and our utilities help low-income customers and many times those services are free.

The federal government has, and it's administered by the Minnesota Department of Commerce both energy assistance, which is just money to help you pay your bill and weatherization, which is a process where they will come in and actually try to fix things that are wrong, give you a new furnace, do insulating, put, replace windows.

And so we try to get the community action agencies that administer that program.

So we get a group of folks together and then we will hold an event many times at the park and we have free things to give away.

We have energy assistance and weatherization we try to get folks to sign up for and we will, in addition to that, try to do some education.

- Well, fantastic things.

In a nutshell, what are the goals that you have for your organization?

- So as I said, the legislature gave us a mission and it's to help communities with clean energy projects.

And we have a set of customers that we try to help or areas and agriculture is one, underserved.

In addition to that, we help utilities and so there are too many projects to name, but we always ask people to contact their coordinator or look at our website.

- And the website again?

- CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org.

- Awesome, thank you so much for joining us today.

- You bet, it was fabulous, thanks.

- That's it for today.

Thank you for joining us On Q for KSMQ.

I'm Dan Hoffman standing in for Eric Olson.

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