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MARK STEIL: MPR's Main Street Radio coverage of rural issues is supported by the Blandin Foundation, committed to strengthening communities through grant making, leadership training and convening.

Good morning. I'm Mark Steil and welcome to this special Main Street radio edition of Midday. We're in Comfrey at Saint Paul's Catholic Church. This church served as the town's command post after a tornado struck the community March 29th. It's been seven weeks and two days since that stormy Sunday afternoon, and much has changed here in town.

Most of the destroyed buildings and houses have been hauled away. And the first steps of rebuilding have been taken. In fact, here at the church, carpenters at this moment are working on the roof, repairing the shingles. And outside our doors here, a noon meal will soon be served to people working in town and for residents, too, as that goes.

With us today, our Comfrey Mayor Linda Wallin and Canby City Administrator John Meyer. We'll be talking about Comfrey today, but also about small towns in general and their economic health. We'd like to hear your thoughts. Call us at 1-800-537-5252.

Nearly two months after the tornado, Comfrey residents probably are sick of the words devastated and destruction, and they're replacing them with some R words like recovery, rebuilding, but still remembering. Tom Christopher, the administrator of the church where we're sitting, Saint Paul's, showed me around town recently, including a business, which has reopened its doors.

TOM CHRISTOPHER: That seen reality set in. At first, it was so busy and there was so much going on with construction crews and big heavy equipment, trees being cut down. Everything was just hurry, hurry, hurry. And now it's slowed down to a pace where people have to realize that it's going to be a long journey.

Yeah, I've been visiting some of our parishioners in neighboring towns who have relocated, CPI in apartments there and Springfield, Morgan, Tracy, Lamberton. People have basically fanned out to live in different places, and some will come back when apartments and houses are built, others won't. So that's hard. Things are not normal, and they won't be normal for a long time, if ever.

MARK STEIL: I see that the bank time and temperature clock is still flashing. Tell me about that.

TOM CHRISTOPHER: Well, it's one of the things that I know my wife and I look for when we're biking or walking through town is, what time is it. And that really was something that was missed by a lot of people that first week or two until they got it going again. It was like a real sign of hope and normalcy for a lot of the people in the town here.

Across from post office, we're looking at Hardware Hank store. Its owner is Leon Holla, who is also a city council member. And it's been repaired and it's up and running in the last couple of weeks.

LEON HOLLA: We did have a quite a bit of damage to the building. Nothing too much in the interior. We had a couple of holes punched through the roof and so forth, but we basically all had to put just new skin on the exterior of the building and the roof and that put us back in business. And I was very fortunate to be able to get a contractor to come in and do the job almost right away.

MARK STEIL: How do you feel about the future of the town now?

LEON HOLLA: Well, I'm very, very optimistic. Obviously, I am optimistic or I probably wouldn't have rebuilt. Just about every business person that lost their business in town here is planning on to rebuild. And I expect to see a lot.

MARK STEIL: And that walking tour brings us back to Saint Paul's Catholic Church here in Comfrey. Good morning. I'm Mark Steil. We're in the church basement, actually, in a room set off from the main hall of the church basement. It's a room that's been used heavily during the tornado in the aftermath. And right now, there's all sorts of food and Pepsi and Mountain Dew and cases of potato chips and boxes of creamed corn and cans of tuna all stored in here.

The church basement still serves a meal each day for the people in town and workers and that sort of thing. And actually, the people here, the volunteers are serving about 200 people a day with that at that noon meal. So there's a lot going on. Comfrey Mayor Linda Wallin is with us here in the church basement of Saint Paul's Catholic Church. Good morning, Linda.

LINDA WALLIN: Good morning.

MARK STEIL: There's a lot happening in Comfrey.

LINDA WALLIN: There sure is on a daily basis. It quiets down at night, but during the day, it's very busy.

MARK STEIL: Construction is going on. I notice a lot of house roofs being repaired, windows being put in, that sort of thing, but also some major-- more major projects. I mean, at least one house has been rebuilt, put back on a foundation, and that sort of thing is going on.

LINDA WALLIN: There are several new homes coming up. We have some modular manufactured homes, they call them. A lot of basements going up for those. We have one business that's almost totally been rebuilt. He's hoping within the next month to six weeks to be open.

And as far as the rest of the downtown and the municipal area, we're in the early stages. We've had a task force that has been up and running for the last three weeks. We're getting to the last couple of weeks of that, looking at how to design the downtown, how to rebuild it. And what we're basically being told is we're doing a one to two project in a six-week time span. So it's been a lot of crashing, it's been a lot of meetings, but a lot of good things have come out of that.

MARK STEIL: What changes have you noticed in the people of Comfrey since the tornado?

LINDA WALLIN: Initially, when the tornado hit, it was total devastation, and it was very depressing. Very easy, I think, for them to think there's no way that we can ever live in Comfrey again, that will never have a downtown. We'll have no churches. It's just gone. And I think within a two or three days of the tornado hitting, I think that whole frame of mind had changed.

We tried to stay really close, tried to stay focused, had community meetings. And I did a lot of things with the school, the business district, and then went to the residents and said, OK, they're coming back. We need you, too. And I think it's been positive ever since. We've got our ups and downs, we've got our bad days, but overall, I think it's a very positive note here.

MARK STEIL: I spoke with the school superintendent this morning, and he said that if things work out and he thinks they will, that school will be in Comfrey next year, likely in some temporary type buildings. That's got to be a boost.

LINDA WALLIN: That's just super. That's what we're really hoping for. And the children really want that too. My son is going to be a sophomore in town, and he really would like to be back in Comfrey and go to school. The children have enjoyed being in Sanborn. I think it's been good for them all to be together, but Comfrey is their home.

MARK STEIL: Also with us this morning is Canby City Administrator John Meyer. Now, John has done quite a bit of research on small towns, small towns economies, population trends in this region. Good morning, John.

JOHN MEYER: Good morning, Mark.

MARK STEIL: Is the way that the Canby-- the Comfrey residents have reacted to the tornado damage typical of small towns in this part of the state?

JOHN MEYER: I think it's rather phenomenal. I think generally, because it maybe the events related to the change in communities take a lot longer, there's a tendency of not being very united and focused to deal with certain issues. And as a consequence, you maybe have a spiraling down, a continuation of maybe a spiraling down in the case of Comfrey, where they had to deal with its immediacy, they've had an opportunity to react and react in a very positive way.

MARK STEIL: So some of these small town battles that we read about and cover as reporters, where they're fighting over the location of a new store or whether we repave this road or not. Sometime those fights are so contentious that the project doesn't get down and-- get done and that hurts the town's economy.

JOHN MEYER: Absolutely. It's obviously a very consolidated effort that the mayor has put together, which typically, I'm fortunate that I get to study and view much of Minnesota in my-- I do a lot of management and development advice also. So I get to see a lot of different places. And it's phenomenal how smaller places and the way the mayor has directed this focused attempt at rebuilding and removed a lot of those battles that occur typically.

MARK STEIL: You hear some of the people moving around here in the background, moving boxes and things. As we said, they'll be serving a meal here over the noon hour in the church basement of Saint Paul's Catholic Church. And a couple hundred people will be turning out. And I saw in the kitchen a half dozen people preparing the food, getting everything ready. And that's got to be part of the spirit of the drawing together, I guess, of what's going on here.

LINDA WALLIN: Right. That's part of our process. That's one of the things that I have asked for all along, is to continue the meals. And the way it's going now with the volunteers and the Salvation Army, that will end the end of this month, but we have called in Region 9 to assist us to continue that because I really see a need for the people to be together on a daily basis.

We have no restaurant in town. That's the big thing that has really hurt us as far as keeping the people together. We were a very close community as far as coffee in the morning, coffee at noon, coffee at 2:30 in the afternoon. And we really hate to see all of that disappear. So that's why the meals will continue here for quite some time.

MARK STEIL: The maps that you have on the walls in the church basement, I mean, talking about the redevelopment basically of the city core, are citizens getting interested in that? I mean, are you hearing a lot of comments on what they'd like to see done to rebuild?

LINDA WALLIN: I think we get a lot of personal comments. We've asked them to do things in writing, and they really don't commit themselves. But we do hear a lot of different things from them. It has made people really think about what it needs to look like.

And we have been having community meetings. They have been informed on a timely basis. In fact, last Thursday, we had one and told them and showed them what we're looking at. We will be doing that again in another two weeks. We try to keep them very informed of what's going on, so there's no surprises for anybody.

MARK STEIL: If things went as well as they could, when might some construction be occurring on Main Street? I mean, when might the first business break ground to put up a building?

LINDA WALLIN: I think the one that we're hearing is going to happen probably within the next week or two is the people state agency. It's an insurance agency that's connected with our bank. And as far as the municipal part, we're just in the stages of either hiring a land developer or an architect. So we could be looking at a couple of months there.

Some of the other businesses I know have already hired architects. They're getting their plans drawn. So there's going to be a lot of rebuilding, but it could be in two or three months before they get started.

MARK STEIL: You're listening to a special Main Street Midday program broadcasting from Comfrey on this beautiful Tuesday morning. If you have a question or comment for our guests, call us at 1-800-537-5252, 1-800-527-5252. We'd also like to invite you to visit the Main Street radio website. Go to www.mpr.org and click on Main Street. You can hear Main Street radio reports, and also you can hear this program live on the internet.

Now, if you missed part of the program, it's a nice way to catch up. You can go to our website. Again, that address www.mpr.org and then click on Main Street, and you can catch up on what's going on. Joining us now by telephone is Paul Lawson, who's with the State Emergency Management Agency. And Paul, welcome to the show.

PAUL LAWSON: Thank you. And good morning. Good morning, Mayor Wallin. How are you doing?

LINDA WALLIN: Just fine, Paul. Thank you.

PAUL LAWSON: That's great.

MARK STEIL: Paul, can you give us a rundown on what do the final damage tallies look like from the March 29th tornado? Tornadoes, I should say.

PAUL LAWSON: Sure. There are many ways to slice it and dice it, but the number I've been carrying around in my head is a $235 million disaster. That's probably a little low. And the cost building that $235 million would break into about $175 million in insured losses. And these are the insurance payments made by all the agencies that were affected.

Approximately a $30 million in federal dollars that are coming in either in assistance for the individuals or local governments or in the amount of money they spent putting their people on the ground in the state. And approximately the same amount of money, another $30 million or so in state resources that were poured into the project, whether it's the $27 million disaster relief package or the state agency staff in time that have gone into the effort.

MARK STEIL: Can you give us a rundown on the number of houses destroyed?

PAUL LAWSON: The number is roughly 2,000 that suffered some kind of damage throughout the whole effort. Looking at the seven County area or eight, depending on how much you're counting the few homes in Watonwan county, there are about 450 homes at our best total that were destroyed, which means that they were completely destroyed to the point that they couldn't even be rebuilt or repaired. They'd have to essentially be started over.

About 630 homes suffered major damage, which meant they are repairable. However, they can't be lived in while they're being repaired. And then there's another roughly 1,000 homes that suffered some kind of damage that is repairable, but obviously is certainly an inconvenience, if not more of a problem.

MARK STEIL: Now, there's going to be a lot of federal money coming into the tornado area. And the way it works, I'm told, is that the federal pay 75% of a given bill. The state matches that with 15%, and local governments are to come up with 10%. Now, the state has said, if I'm correct, that they'll pick up the 10% local money.

PAUL LAWSON: That is correct. And the breakdown of 75% federal and then 25% being shared between the state and local entities is a state by state decision. Traditionally, in this state, the breakdown you gave is true, 75% federal, 15% state, 10% local. In the Red River floods and the Minnesota River floods of last spring and then with this disaster, the state has stepped in and said, we're willing to pick up the 10% of that local share, but the governor also has asked that those communities take the money they would have spent matching this and also bring that to the table for disaster relief.

MARK STEIL: Is there a danger in the future, if the state kind of institutionalizes the fact that they'll pick up the 10% local money, that the state will be hit with some heavy bills in the future?

PAUL LAWSON: That is certainly a possibility. And I think there's actually two layers to that question. One is that the 10%, that's the local share and whether or not the state should pay that or not. And that's a kind of a long standing policy debate. On the other side, I think there's a definite trend at the federal level for them to reduce their involvement with disasters. So the state has to confront both, potentially picking up the 10% and how to deal with the 75%, because that question will be put at our feet in the next two to four years, no question about it.

MARK STEIL: Are there any public buildings in the damaged area which are in danger of falling through the cracks, let's say, that cannot find help to rebuild? And one that comes to mind is the Saint Peter Arts and Heritage Center.

PAUL LAWSON: Correct. That Is a facility that's on our list. Minnesota formed, after the floods of '93, a group called the Minnesota Recovers Task Force. And the purpose of that group was to coordinate all the federal and state disaster relief funding streams that come in after an event. That group was very active after the floods of '97 and is very active in this disaster.

One of the prime concerns of that group is identifying facilities, such as the one you described, and then making sure they don't fall through the cracks. There may be some buildings that simply can't be addressed because there isn't money to deal with them. However, our goal is to at least know about it. And that group is well aware of the facility you talked about.

MARK STEIL: OK. Well, I want to thank you for joining us this morning.

PAUL LAWSON: You're welcome.

MARK STEIL: That was Paul Lawson, who's the State Emergency Management Director. With us here in Comfrey, our Comfrey mayor, Linda Wallin, and also John Meyer, who's the City Administrator at Canby. If you have a telephone comment or question, call us at 800-537-5252. Let's take a call now. Our first caller actually, I believe, grew up in Comfrey. Good morning, Diane.

DIANE KRATZ DEUTSCH: Hi. Yes, I'm a Comfrey graduate in 1963. Diane Kratz Deutsch. And I wanted to compliment Mayor Linda Wallin on doing a terrific job in organizing this recovery. And I came across a quote that I really thought brings home to why Comfrey should be rebuilt.

If I could read it quickly, it's, "What is a city? A city is more than buildings and roads. A city is families to feed and to house, children to educate, adults to employ and to transport. A city is businesses to build, profits to be made, culture and recreation to be enjoyed, opportunities to be realized. But more important than anything, a city is people. A city is all of us." Thank you.

MARK STEIL: OK. That's Diane from Burnsville calling in. Mayor Wallin, what's it been like for you personally this crisis? I mean, it would seem like it burn up an enormous amount of hours.

LINDA WALLIN: It does. Initially, I have another job. And so initially, I just forgot about that for about three weeks and devoted all of my hours to the city of Comfrey. And then I realized it was time to look at the other part of my life. And I have returned to my job at the Springfield Hospital. I'm the lab manager there. So that job demands a lot of time of me too, as well as the city.

If I was a bench tech and did not have a lot of responsibilities, it wouldn't be quite so bad. But I have returned three days a week. And then the other two days a week, I spend in the city. As well as after 3:30 in the afternoon, I spend in the city for two to three hours each evening. So it's stressful. But what I've tried to do is just take one day at a time, not look at tomorrow, not look at five days from now, what's going to happen. And that's really helped me get through this.

MARK STEIL: With us also is John Meyer from Canby. I think that something that small towns find a lot of that the people in the leadership position, even outside of a disaster like a tornado, have to put in a lot of hours in that they tend to burn out.

JOHN MEYER: Absolutely. There's no question about the fact that if you look at the tenure that elected officials stay in public office these years compared to what the tenure used to be, it's significantly shorter. And I'm not sure how long the mayor has been elected here, but it's-- I'm sure that through these events, her tenure might be shorter just because of this disaster. I'm not sure.

MARK STEIL: What kind of problems does that pose for a small town when they can't find leaders?

JOHN MEYER: That's really difficult because there's such a change in population that it's real difficult to find leaders to surface. So as a consequence, it's almost a recruitment effort to try to find good, legitimate candidates that are willing to commit the public good to participate in that public process.

MARK STEIL: Linda, why did you decide to run?

LINDA WALLIN: Well, I have a very interesting story behind me. I did serve on city council 10 years prior to becoming mayor. I had discussed with my husband as well as the person who was mayor prior to my going on that I really would like to be mayor at some point in time, but I was trying to push it off for another two years because I had some other things that just needed to be accomplished.

But it just so happened that the mayor we had decided not to run. And so we got into a write in campaign in town. We ended up with four people putting their name in the paper saying that they would take write in votes. And I ended up being the last one to do that.

I had a lot of people requesting in town me to run for it because I'd had a certain amount of years on the city council and did have a handle on what was going on. The other three people, one had been on city council, the other two had no prior experience, and they really did not want to see someone sitting in the mayor's seat that had no experience.

So it ended up being a write in campaign. We ended up with a tie 45 votes at the top with the restaurant owner and myself, and I won, whether it was unfortunate or fortunate, on the flip of a coin. The way to decide a race like that is by a choice of lots is what the state of Minnesota told us.

And so our attorney decided that flip of a coin would be appropriate rather than a hat-- a name out of a hat or picking a straw. And I had decided that morning that was going to happen, that it made no difference to me whether I won that flip or I lost that flip because I would be on city council one way or the other to finish out my two years. And the restaurant owner chose tails and it was heads. And that's how I became mayor last January '97.

MARK STEIL: It's an interesting story. Before the tornado, did-- I mean, is it difficult to find people or was it difficult to find people to serve on boards, volunteer type things, that have to do with city government, where you get into some real nitty gritty about making decisions and analyzing things that sort of research?

LINDA WALLIN: I think in a small town that is an issue. Generally, it seems like it's the same people that always really pitch in, buckle down, really make sure that things go the way they should. If you look at our committees in town, our organizations, it's basically the same people all the time.

We have had a turnover in city council, which is good. We've had some that have been on there for several years. What we have now basically is a pretty fresh city council. We've gotten a lot of the younger ones to be involved. Some of the people like, for instance, the man that owns the Hardware Hank, moved to Comfrey.

I don't know if it's four or five years ago, moved from a town North of the cities down here and really wanted to become involved in the city. So that, I think, was one of his prime reasons for looking to the city council. But we have had a turnover, and we've never been at the point of where we really had no one. We've always had someone come forward to do the job.

MARK STEIL: Does the tornado re-energized people to get involved in city government?

LINDA WALLIN: That's going to be interesting. We have a few up for election this fall and we'll see what happens.

MARK STEIL: You're listening to a special Main Street radio broadcast from Comfrey. With us today, our Comfrey mayor, Linda Wallin, and also coming over from Canby, John Meyer, who's the City Administrator there and has a PHD, I understand, in sociology and has done some work researching population trends, economic factors in this part of the state. So stay with us. If you have a question, maybe you have a comment on whether small towns-- this sort of effort should go into small towns, is it worth rebuilding small towns, call us at 1-800-537-5252.

Quick look at the weather. The forecast today for the state of Minnesota calls for partly cloudy in the North, sunny in the Central and South with high temperatures around 70 in the North to 85 in the South. Tonight, clear to partly cloudy. Low temperatures, 45 to 55. Then on Wednesday, we should have sunny skies with high temperatures, 65 to 78. 11:00 readings around the region. Sioux falls 79, Fargo 67, Bemidji 66, Duluth 73, Rochester 77, Mankato reporting 79 degrees this morning. And in the Twin cities, the temperature is 78.

I like to remind you that MPR's Main Street Radio coverage of rural issues is supported by the Blandin Foundation, committed to strengthening communities through grant making, leadership training and convening. I'd also like to remind you that coming up at noon today, the second part of this program, we'll have a discussion on feedlots, and we'll have a couple of state legislators in the studio with us, State Senator Steve Dille and also State Representative Gary Kubly from Granite Falls will be by. And we'll also be taking your questions and comments during that segment coming up at the noon hour.

What happened in Comfrey is something which illuminates a town's name for decades. Think of some of the other communities which have been struck by tornadoes like Barneveld, Wisconsin, or Tracy, Minnesota, not too far from here. Six years ago, a swarm of tornadoes destroyed hundreds of homes in Southern Minnesota. The towns of Chandler, Lake Wilson, Clarkfield and Cokato all suffered heavy damage, but Chandler was the hardest hit.

And we're going to be talking a little bit about their experience and what they went through in the tornado recovery in just a few minutes. And what comes to mind is that in Chandler, there is so much bureaucracy to deal with, I would think, in the aftermath of a tornado that it must just-- it seemed like it'd be overwhelming at times to get through all that paperwork.

LINDA WALLIN: Yeah, we're just seeing the effects of that now. In fact, we were discussing some of that before I came here. The funding, that it gets here in a timely fashion that the people that really need to get paid get paid. We have quite a big bill from all the contractors that were here early on, and now to get them paid in a timely fashion and just get someone to organize all that and run that for us.

We are in the process of working with Region 9 and hiring a recovery disaster coordinator. In fact, we started interviews today, and hopefully we'll finish those today. But to get somebody on board that really can help us and understand that and get us through that process is what we need.

MARK STEIL: Just because the-- it gets so detailed and time consuming, I would guess.

LINDA WALLIN: Right. And we do not have the expertise for that type of job, the city clerk or myself or anyone else within the city of Comfrey. So it's best that we hire someone from outside to do that for us.

MARK STEIL: Yeah. John Meyer, I know one project that you've undertaken or looked at is our population trends, let's say.

JOHN MEYER: Absolutely.

MARK STEIL: We see here in Comfrey the rebuilding going on. And hopefully-- it looks like most of the people are going to rebuild their homes, businesses, that sort of thing. So there's a chance that the community will be spared a drastic population decline because of the tornado. But overall, through the decades, what's going on, especially in this part of the state, Southwest Minnesota, as far as small towns and the rural areas in their populations?

JOHN MEYER: Well, generally, actually, beginning back in 1940, we began to experience significant migrations in and out in our part of the state because we basically gone from a labor intensive agricultural base to one that's more capital intensive. So as a consequence, the communities had to come up with other economic opportunities for that labor that then was available. It wasn't able to come up with opportunities. Obviously, those populations have left.

And over time, we've kind of emerged from agrarian to trying to become more diversified through educational resources, through other types of opportunities. Unfortunately, we probably haven't done a very good job of capturing the labor. If you look at-- the outmigration rates are fairly significant. Education has maybe become more of a opportunity for outmigration, rather than one that preserves the population.

And I think there's a lot less generational connection to communities where families, because of children leaving populations now when families-- when parents retire, they choose to relocate to where the family is. So as a consequence, we've had this spiraling population that has gone down to the point that the whole identity of some of these small places really becomes at risk. And in the case of Comfrey here, as well they know, losing their school, for example, or losing their cafe, or their bar, their places of congregation would have a significant impact on their whole identity and their ability to sustain themselves.

MARK STEIL: What do towns do to try to bring in a manufacturing type business or something that would generate jobs beyond a service industry type of setting like a bar or a restaurant or that sort of thing?

JOHN MEYER: I think back in about the 1960s, not to criticize, but I think Southwest Minnesota made a real significant tactical error, where they attempted to broadcast themselves as being a place for low salaried people available. And as a consequence, that whole reputation has always kind of stayed with the process. So the kinds of industries that have developed out here over time have been ones that have hired people at a fairly low salary.

And unfortunately, then the tenure with these industries is fairly short. And as a consequence, you still have that outmigration where you had a tendency of trying to reduce that outmigration. You may have, in fact, increased it over time. So the attempts to lure industry have maybe failed.

MARK STEIL: What does the future hold, I mean, give up on that idea or change tactics and try to bring in some jobs?

JOHN MEYER: I think you're always going to have an attempt, but the target has to change. I think the ability to work with local entrepreneurs is really important. We haven't even been able out here to even sustain our local entrepreneurs. They've had a tendency of even let them migrate somewhere else.

There's a lot of talent that leaves here in the form of high school and college students that have business ideas that we haven't been able to capture. So we're maybe a victim of not being able to even take care of our own population and those possible opportunities.

MARK STEIL: You're listening to a special Main Street radio broadcast from Comfrey. We're in the church basement at Saint Paul's Catholic Church. And with me are Comfrey mayor Linda Wallin, and also Canby City Administrator John Meyer. I'm Mark Steil.

And Mayor Wallin, I'm intrigued by the idea that the tornado compressed the whole sequence of events that many small towns go through, compressed that sequence of events here in Comfrey, in that many small towns go through a year long process of deciding what to do with downtown, trying to regenerate it, rejuvenate it, years it can last. In Comfrey, this has been compressed, as you said, and you have-- it would seem, an opportunity really, brought on by tornado, to do something which most small towns probably never get a chance at.

LINDA WALLIN: Yes, I feel we do. It's almost like a golden opportunity. And now is our time to take advantage of that. If we don't, we will have no downtown and we will have no municipal or school. So we have to take advantage of the situation that we've been dealt with. And I really think we're capable of pulling it off, and getting ourselves back on our feet and being someplace five years from now, being what we were, or maybe even better, but we have to stay determined and stay focused.

MARK STEIL: Do you worry that-- I mean, there's a row of dominoes out there, and if, say, one business for whatever reason would decide not to rebuild or something would go wrong with the school's plans to rebuild that it would quickly be felt by other businesses, homeowners who may say, well, I guess I'm not going to go back to Comfrey either?

LINDA WALLIN: Yeah, the school is the real focus here. If that wouldn't go, we would be in big trouble. I'm really afraid of that because the downtown counts on the school to be there. The residents do. You're not going to have a whole lot of people staying in a community if they don't have a school.

We've worked very hard to keep Comfrey Public School here, to keep it all by itself. In fact, back in January, a big meeting was held in our community center looking at some other things or some other avenues we could look at to keep Comfrey school here. So if Comfrey school is rebuilt, it will not be like it was. It may be a concept school. It may have one library in which is public as well ad the school part of it.

There's some different things we have to look at. We have to be real innovative and real open to ideas. When Governor Carlson was here back three days after the tornado hit in this exact same room, that's one of the things he told us. You have to realize, you got to look at something different. It's not going to be the same, school-wise. And hopefully, the people are going to go for that. We've had some meetings on that and it's been real positive.

MARK STEIL: If you have a question or comment for us this morning, call us at 1-800-537-5252. We're at the Saint Paul's Catholic Church where the lunch menu for today calls for scalloped potatoes and ham and chili mac, as well as cream puffs for dessert. And I would guess that gets underway at what time?

LINDA WALLIN: 11:30.

MARK STEIL: Just a few minutes ago, people are lining up and eating their food and taking a break from all the activity that's going on in Comfrey. The homeowners in this town when-- as I said, there's been some construction activity. But I believe one, a modular type home was moved in and set up on a foundation. When will the real construction of new houses begin? I mean, is that something that most people would like to get done this summer?

LINDA WALLIN: I think so. I think it'll go in stages. It's just finding the funding now, finding the money, seeing where they're at as far as their insurance and SBA monies. And then if they haven't secured a contract, they could be running into problems with that.

But the ones that are really diligent about going this year-- those basements are going to be coming up soon. In fact, one of the gals that I work with lost her home completely. And she alluded to me the other day that within three weeks their basement should be starting. And these are stick built homes. There's a couple other stick built ones coming up already.

MARK STEIL: Sure. Our phone number for your comments, 800-537-5252. We have Barb from Canby on the phone with us now. Good morning, Barb. Barb from a Canby, are you with us?

BARB: Good morning, Mark.

MARK STEIL: How are you doing?

BARB: Pretty good. I want to tell you, please, please keep the small hometowns going. I'm a product of a Northern Suburb of Chicago, and also of Dixon, Illinois. And what I learned in Dixon, Illinois, being raised by my grandparents has been the basis for a good, stable background that has lasted me all my life. Don't let the small towns go.

MARK STEIL: What are some of those things you learned in small town life that you carry with you today?

BARB: How to share with each other, how to care for my neighbor, that type of thing is very important. Being kind to one another, doing for one another. Pride in my home, in my yard, in my community and in my school. Heck, even make May baskets, even putting May baskets out. I'll never forget that. I think these things are very important to children growing up today, more important than learning how to ride a motorcycle. I think it's very basic, very, very basic.

MARK STEIL: Thanks for calling in this morning. Since our caller was from Canby, John, I'll ask you the question.

JOHN MEYER: Sure.

MARK STEIL: You're City Administrator of that city in Southwest Minnesota. Small towns-- we have this background of small towns trying to stay alive, population declines, some do better than others. But if you watch a town through decades, even if it's declining, they're very tenacious in keeping something going in that town. I mean, that seems to be a small town attribute.

JOHN MEYER: Absolutely. It seems like there is a core population, a resident population, that's multi-generational, that feels somewhat responsible for the well-being of the community. And as long as-- and because of the length and the generations and the pride and the investment they have in that community, they're going to be very tenacious to try to keep it on the map, so to speak.

MARK STEIL: It surprising to hear him talk sometime, at least to me, I mean, the people in a small town that maybe is in obvious decline, and I'm talking something even smaller than Comfrey, which is about 500 people. But say a town that's 100 people or less, maybe no business in town. You go there and these people still believe that they can bring a business to town and do this, and sometimes they do it. I mean, does there come a point when there's almost a false hope in rejuvenating a town?

JOHN MEYER: Well, there's a certain population and family commitment. And it's evident, for example, in Porter, Minnesota, which is probably a couple hundred people, because of family ties that have brought in a fairly large manufacturer here in the last couple of years and had a spin off business start. So it's really interesting what the evolution of a community actually has over time.

MARK STEIL: Let's take another caller now. Marcy from Long Lake is with us this morning. Good morning, Marcy.

MARCY: Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I'm a former resident of Comfrey. My maiden name is Kirshnik. And right now I live outside of Minneapolis in Long Lake. I just wanted to call and thank you for doing the show, first of all, because I know that I'm not the only person who grew up in Comfrey and now doesn't live there, but has daily thoughts of support and prayers for everyone there. So I just wanted to lend my support in any way I can to Mayor Wallin and everyone who's still there dealing with the tragedy on a daily basis.

MARK STEIL: Marcy, have you been back to Comfrey since the tornado?

MARCY: Yes, I was there three days after the storm hit to help my sister and her family, who owned a dairy farm and helped my mother move out of Comfrey to nearby Springfield.

MARK STEIL: What was your impression, your thoughts when you came back?

MARCY: Just total-- actually, I would liken it to a death in the family really. Very, very emotional for all of us. Devastating to see a place that we love so much just destroyed. Yeah.

MARK STEIL: Well, thank you for calling in this morning.

MARCY: Thank you for taking my call.

MARK STEIL: Sure. And that phone number again is 800-537-5252. This is a special Main Street radio broadcast from Comfrey. We're in the basement of Saint Paul's Catholic Church. With us, our Comfrey mayor, Linda Wallin, and also John Meyer, who's the City Administrator in Canby.

Let's go right away back to the phones. And Fluorine from Saint Paul is with us. Good morning, Fluorine. Fluorine from Saint Paul, are you with us? Looks like we'll have to pass on that telephone call. But do take the time to call in. Give us your thoughts on small towns.

So, Mayor Wallin, what do you envision Humphrey looking like in, let's say, five years to pick a time frame? What will people see on Main street, for example?

LINDA WALLIN: I think we'll see the Main Street build back. Hopefully with the businesses that we have, it's going to look different. We're not going to have the old brick buildings, the old wood buildings that we had. It'll be lower type. We'd like to see two story, but I don't think that's going to happen. I think it'll be a low profile type downtown.

Hopefully, we can do some changing of the parking areas. And I think as far as the residential, the majority of that will all be built back. I would like to see us try to get some light industry in to help us out with the population, to keep that here. And I really think if we really work hard, our school will still be here in five years too.

MARK STEIL: That light industry question, is that something you were pursuing before the tornado?

LINDA WALLIN: We've talked about it, but never looked at it real heavily. And I think now with doing a land use plan and looking at what our options are and where we put residential, where we put industry, I think we really can work on pursuing that type of thing.

MARK STEIL: Where do you have that light industry site projected as being, I guess, kind of on the edge of town somewhere?

LINDA WALLIN: Right. The land use plan has not been adopted yet, but that's part of what we're looking at.

MARK STEIL: When it comes to light industry, John, I would guess a small town can get burned on that as well if they choose the wrong kind of industry, or I mean, you have to be a little bit careful in terms of environmental factors and pollution, that sort of thing.

JOHN MEYER: Yeah. I think that there's been a lot of horror stories over light industry, industry in general coming to small places and costing the local community a lot of their private investment in that new business. So it takes a lot of time and a lot of experience to find a good suitable mate for a small place like Comfrey.

If you look at Maynard, Minnesota, which is about the size of Comfrey that has impact plastics, a hometown boy came and stayed and built a company that has 250 people. You almost have to invest in some of the past. I'm curious not to ask questions necessarily, but what commitment are some of the favorite sons of Comfrey making like a Glen Taylor, for example?

MARK STEIL: Mayor Wallin, I'll leave that-- here's a question for you.

LINDA WALLIN: At this point, we have no commitments from anyone. I think it's too early in the stages to be doing that. I know Glenn Taylor has been contacted. I don't know personally himself, if he's been talked to, but I know the person that works with him very closely has. But I think Glenn Taylor is a very focused person. He needs to know exactly what's going to happen, how it's going to happen, and what it's going to cost. So at this point in time, we're not really ready for that.

MARK STEIL: OK. Let's hear from another small town now in Southwest Minnesota, the community of Chandler, which was hit hard by a tornado six years ago. And with us this morning is the city clerk, Elvis, who really went through all of this and handling the paperwork and dealing with the residents of the town. Good morning, El.

ELVIS: Good morning.

MARK STEIL: What sorts of things or are there things still going on in Chandler, which you can say when you see them, this is still part of the tornado aftermath? I'm thinking of paperwork or questions from citizens. Are there things still going on that are traceable to the tornado?

ELVIS: As far as the businesses rebuilding and the people rebuilding their homes, that basically has now been completed. We had-- of the total, we had-- the homes here we had in Chandler, we had-- 48 were totally destroyed. We had 35 that had considerable damage.

We had 29 that had moderate damage and only 9 that didn't have any damage at all. And of those that had the considerable damage and the moderate damage, they have all been repaired. And of the 48 that were destroyed, I think we have 43 or 44 have been all completely rebuilt.

And the businesses we have-- in Chandler here, we have two, four, five. We had seven that were totally destroyed. And they now have been rebuilt. One is rebuilt outside of the city limits. It was our co-op. Chandler co-op had a fertilizer chemical plant here in China that was destroyed. And they chose to build outside of the city limits to get their pesticides outside of the city limits altogether.

Severe damage, we had-- nine had real severe damage. And then moderate damage, we had seven of them that had moderate damage. And they are pretty much back to normal, and they've all rebuilt or completely renovated their businesses. Then as far as the city-- pardon me?

MARK STEIL: Is there a part of this process which you can identify, now looking back as the toughest part of the rebuilding process in Chandler, the most difficult part?

ELVIS: I think the most difficult part, especially on the ones that were totally destroyed, they have to make a decision, and it has to be made quite soon, especially if it's a service-oriented business where service is the main part of their business. And they have to make a decision quite soon because if they will not rebuild in this particular community, then they have to either rebuild in another community or even take on a total different nature of work for themselves, if they do not rebuild their businesses here in Chandler.

MARK STEIL: And that involves asking a lot of questions, and I suppose finding out what sorts of help may be out there. And as you said, that has to come together pretty quick. Is there anything that turned out to be maybe the most pleasant surprise of the rebuilding process or something that you may not have expected that, again, looking back, you can see occurred?

ELVIS: I would guess the thing that really surprised us as a city council was the-- and the community as a whole was a tremendous outpouring of volunteer spirit from the community surrounding Chandler. And when that comes together, that just puts a spark in these people and say, we want to be a member or we want to be a business or a home owner in a community where that type of an attitude exists.

They just came out by the droves to help, first of all, clean up. And we had a lot of them come and even to help reconstruct a business that was really badly damaged because especially-- again, I'm going back to the service-oriented businesses, the customers that needed that service, they wanted these businesses up and running too, again, so they could continue with their needs as well.

MARK STEIL: OK. Well, thanks for being with us this morning.

ELVIS: Well, thank you.

MARK STEIL: That was Elvis from Chandler. He's the Chandler city clerk and also the only full-time employee of that small Southwest Minnesota community. Chandler was hard hit by a tornado six years ago. And Comfrey is going through many of the same things, which Chandler visited during that experience.

With us here in the basement of Saint Paul's Catholic Church in Canby, our Comfrey-- in Comfrey is the mayor of this community, Linda Wallin, and from Canby is the City Administrator there, John Meyer. I can hear the people gathering outside, getting ready for that meal and, I guess, looking forward to the future mayor and planning on what sorts of things may happen in this town over the next few months.

How has the federal folks been to deal with FEMA and some of the other agencies? Is it almost make you want to tear your hair out at times or the things-- are things slow or do they seem to make a special effort to speed things up when a disaster occurs?

LINDA WALLIN: I think initially, the effort was real good. I don't have a real handle on how the private sector is doing with SBA and FEMA and that type of thing. I know there's been some frustrations. We've had a real hard time getting people to apply for them. They're such proud people. They think they don't need any help. So we've still been working on those avenues.

As far as the city part of it, a lot of that preliminary work has been done, has been sent in. And now it's just a waiting game to see when the federal government is going to give it to the state, so that can be distributed to us. We did receive one initial check back about three weeks ago to help cover some of it, but we have not seen any money since then.

MARK STEIL: John, in your role as City Administrator at Canby, I'm sure you go through some of these grant processes and applying for this and applying for that. I mean, in Comfrey after a tornado, there's no doubt that massive aid is needed. But in a town which has not had a disaster, a tornado, do they sometimes maybe put too much hope in getting this grant or that grant and maybe not taking action on rebuilding an economic part of the town when they sit back and wait instead?

JOHN MEYER: Sure. Sometimes grants can, in fact, be kind of smokescreens or the applications can be smokescreens of really no interest in doing things. And as a consequence, communities that are really committed to their own welfare have a tendency of not really relying very heavily on grant financing, putting their programs together, if, in fact, they happen to involve grants to have options, if, in fact, the grants don't occur. So like I said, it can be-- sometimes the sole grant application can actually be the wrong message that's occurring.

MARK STEIL: Why is that?

JOHN MEYER: Well, I think they don't demonstrate the real commitment. I think, committing your own funds is a true test of your interest. And I have a real difficult time with individuals in places that only commit somebody else's money. I mean, you have to take care of yourself first before anybody else should be really interested in you.

MARK STEIL: Do you see that in Comfrey, Mayor, that people are going to put some of their own money into rebuilding?

LINDA WALLIN: Yes, I really do. We've always functioned that way, especially as a city. We've always done our own thing. We've never counted on a lot of outside funds. Every year, we had a program where we redid so many blocks completely, the infrastructure as well as the pavement, the curb in the gutter. And we do it on our own. We never go for outside funds to help with anything. Occasionally, we will, but it's never a large amount of money. It basically comes from the people that live here.

MARK STEIL: Well, I'd like to thank both of you for being with us during this hour. Mayor Linda Wallin from Comfrey and Canby City Administrator John Meyer, thanks for stopping by.

JOHN MEYER: Thank you.

LINDA WALLIN: Thank you.

MARK STEIL: Stay with us. We'll take a break for a news summary, then be back here in Comfrey with a discussion of livestock feedlots, a hot issue in this part of the state and most of the state, as a matter of fact. I'm Mark Steil.

KEVIN KLING: Hi, you guys. This is Kevin Kling. Hoping that you'll listen to my stories on All Things Considered. All Things Considered, weekdays at three on Minnesota Public Radio KNOW 91.1.

MARK STEIL: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. The temperature in the Twin Cities, 83 degrees with sunny skies. And you're listening to KNOW FM 91.1 Minneapolis Saint Paul. The Twin Cities weather forecast calls for a high today in the 80s with a Northwest wind at 10 to 15 miles an hour.