On the night of Thursday, November 14th, Wagner Area Growth hosted a Stakeholders Planning Event presented by Dakota Resources at the Wagner Theater which they generously donated by the Andershs for the site of the event. The event had a great turnout with over 30 people in attendance many being business owners, board members and representatives of various organizations and businesses in Wagner. This was a type of community coaching event to get people thinking about the future of the community and its economic development.

The Dakota Resources representative gave everyone a blueprint to help focus on the building blocks that were needed to in order to grow/maintain a thriving community. There was a lot of group discussion and idea sharing. The event began with the moderator asking the participants to define community or what community means to them. Each table was then tasked with coming up with an idea for each of the 11 building blocks which included new business attraction; existing business development; entrepreneur support; quality of life; infrastructure; housing solutions; community engagement; leadership development; public policy; workforce development and education; and storytelling and marketing.

For each of the building blocks there were several of the same answers or themes. Under new business attraction some answers were the new daycare, a locker, new housing and the return of the Good Samaritan Society. Answers for existing business development included small business association, Wagner Area Growth business check-ins, Chamber of Commerce, and cameras being put up on main street. The majority answer under the entrepreneur support was Wagner Area Growth. There were a variety of answers under the quality-of-life block including medical and mental health resources, churches, daycare, Boys and Girls Club, the gym and the school. The overwhelming answer for workforce development and education was the Build Dakota scholarship program. For leadership development, the answers included education, working with youth and the Wagner Community School staff. The community engagement block included the Labor Day Committee, chamber events and the 605 Unity Jam. Under housing solutions, the overwhelming response was the two new governor’s homes that are in the process of being brought into Wagner. The public policy block saw answers such as changes to the ETJ, Wagner’s curfew, code enforcement and updating ordinances. Under infrastructure development building a new pool, highway #46 improvements and the rebuilding of Good Sam. Finally, under storytelling and marketing, unity, positive speech, social media and Wagner Post and Announcer were listed.

There was then a part of the meeting that had the participants breaking out in groups to answer the following questions: What will have the biggest impact on helping our community thrive? What should be a priority? What do we need to collaborate with others on? What might we need to add resources? and When we say ‘yes’ to these things what are we saying no to? Participant answers to these questions included housing, cross-cultural understanding, public safety, youth development leading to youth returning to the community, work force, ROCS and education. Answers to the final question of when we say ‘yes’ to these things then what are we saying no to include, if we build bigger and develop more businesses would we be saying no to keeping the small town feel we currently have or if there are more activities and things to do in Wagner are we saying no to having an adequate amount of family time.

The evening ended with three questions. The first being what outcomes are we trying to gain through our activities? The second being what pains are keeping us from getting things done? Finally, how can we reduce pains and create more of what our community wants? Answers to the first question had common themes which were unity, investing in the youth of Wagner and creating a healthy and safe community. Some of the themes to the question regarding the pains that are holding us back were close-mindedness, clash of cultures, politics and funding. In regards to the how do we move past this question answers were better communication, open-mindedness, compromising, having people in positions that make sense instead of random appointments and possibly trying to create a joint council between the city and the tribe for a better exchange of information.

It is the hope of all in attendance that this event is the catalyst that can light the fire of change in Wagner where people will want to and enjoy living here, with a variety of businesses that are able to sustain themselves as well as finding ways for the local youth to obtain their education in order to bring their knowledge and skill set back to Wagner. Hopefully members of the community take what they have learned and start applying it into their organizations and businesses in order to create the changes that are needed for Wagner to grow and thrive.