Empowering Small Minnesota Communities Grant Guides Knife River’s Future Vision

A new communi­ty-driven initiative aims to shape the fu­ture of Knife River by harnessing both local input and university expertise. In collab­oration with the Uni­versity of Minnesota and funded by state legislation passed in May 2023, the unin­corporated town is embarking on a com­prehensive planning process to guide its fu­ture growth and pres­ervation efforts.

Facilitated by David Abazs, Executive Di­rector of the Northeast Regional Sustainable Development Partner­ships (University of Minnesota Extension), the project seeks to empower small Min­nesota communities like Knife River.

Patricia Ingle, a member of the Knife River Recreation Council Board of Di­rectors, submitted the application for the Empowering Small Minnesota Commu­nities Grant, which resulted in Knife Riv­er being selected to receive help from the university to work on infrastructure and sus­tainability.

The University of Minnesota is offering a multi-disciplinary approach through its various departments, including the Cen­ter for Transporta­tion Studies, the MN Design Center, the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs. Abazs serves as a key liaison between the community and these university resources.

“Being from a small community, it’s kind of hard to build a plan and get the documents together to be eligible for those larger grants. That’s what this ini­tiative was designed for,” said Abazs.

Two separate listen­ing sessions were held on Thursday, October 3rd in Knife River, with the aim of col­lecting ideas and con­cerns from residents. Ninety-seven people participated in the two meetings in person, and ten attended on­line, which Abazs said represents about 30% of the community.

“There is an incred­ible leadership team in the community, and it’s been evident from the beginning the ex­pertise the communi­ty brings and the dif­ferent skills that they bring,” said Abazs. “So this is an opportu­nity to have that com­munity conversation to imagine and de­velop and explore in­frastructure, whether it’s social or physical infrastructure of the community, and imag­ine and design what they want Knife River to look like in the fu­ture.”

Ursala Lang, a rep­resentative of the MN Design Center, em­phasized the impor­tance of collaboration. “One of the many perks of this process is to think with the com­munity collaborative­ly around what kind of strategy you might want to adopt for Knife River’s future, and to help identify actionable, fundable projects,” Lang said.

Those who gath­ered at the listening sessions had a lot of ideas and participated in an exercise taking a multi-scale approach, from the regional lev­el, involving neigh­boring communities like Two Harbors and Duluth, down to Knife River’s core.

“We’ve looked at Knife River at four different scales, each highlighting connec­tions and questions that might spark com­munity input,” Lang said. Participants add­ed their thoughts to maps around the room, contributing ideas for future projects and helping identify Knife River’s assets and ob­stacles.

 “Each meeting the entire maps, of the four different maps that represented dif­ferent scales of the communities, and the relationships were just totally filled with sticky notes of differ­ent thoughts, different ideas, different oppor­tunities,” said Abazs.

Of the ideas voiced during the session, there was interest in creating a safer area for those who want to walk for exercise, building a pool, and adding more biking trails. Abazs joked that during a similar exercise with a Girl Scout troop, there had also been a high inter­est in a pool—though that one involved dol­phins.

Another key goal is to preserve Knife Riv­er’s unique Scandina­vian culture, including its fishing families and local organizations such as the Heritage Center. Additional­ly, the popular Jule­byen Christmas event, which draws 6,000– 7,000 visitors annu­ally (according to a member of the event), is seen as a vital part of the town’s identity.

However, there are also significant chal­lenges. As an unincor­porated community, Knife River has his­torically struggled to leverage funding and resources for develop­ment. “That was the push for legislation,” Abazs explained, noting that unincor­porated towns often lack the governmen­tal structure needed to access certain funding streams.

The College of De­sign will now review the sticky notes from the maps and look for themes and ideas to explore in future con­versations.

“We hope by June to have some steps forward, folders filled with information, photos, and designs that will help the com­munity, if they choose to do so, reach out to try to get some of those additional funds to implement some of their dreams and some of their aspirations,” said Abazs.

Through ongoing listening sessions and surveys, Knife River will have the chance to design its future— one that balances cul­tural preservation with thoughtful growth, backed by the exper­tise of the University of Minnesota.