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2/10/17

Red Wing and the River Towns of Minnesota



River Towns Historic Preservation Skilled Crafts and Manufacturing Traditions
The River Towns of southeast Minnesota are located 60 miles from the Twin Cities. Winona is an arts and cultural center with three major galleries that hold works by Picasso, Van Gogh and Monet that depict lakes, oceans and rivers. The Garvin Heights overlook features panoramic views of the town and Mississippi River Valley. Follow the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway to New Ulm and experience Old World German heritage through unique architecture, restaurants and shops selling German imports, from chocolates to cuckoo clocks. A traditional Glockenspiel features figures from the town’s history.
Red Wing was officially incorporated in 1857. Located in the Mississippi River Valley and flanked by rolling bluffs, the town is a leading manufacturer of leather, pottery and Red Wing Shoes. The town is named for the Native American Chief who first met a US Army Officer in 1805.
Shakea The Man Who Paints Himself Red
Tucked between bluffs and the river, Red Wing has many historic Victorian properties and farmhouses, including the St James hotel that dates to the 1880s. It overlooks the Mississippi River near the 1904 Amtrak Depot, home to an art gallery and a visitor center. 
The National Trust for Historic Preservation lists Red Wing among its Distinctive Destination
The Town’s first settlers built small mills, factories, and workshops. The European immigrants were skilled craftsmen employed in tanneries, shoe-making, farm equipment, bricks, boats and furniture manufacturing. Red Wing Stoneware, was founded in 1877; it used clay from the Hay Creek area.
 The Aurora Ski Club in Red Wing, founded in 1887, was one of the first ski clubs formed in North America, reflecting the sport interests of the region’s Scandinavian immigrants; the Red Wing Style ski techniques were patterned after the Telemark form.

12/12/16

West Texas Small Towns



Pecos and Marfa

Pecos is located between Dallas and El Paso. It is renowned for its cantaloupes, historic heritage and Texas Folk Hero Pecos Bill. The town’s main attraction is its rodeo, the world’s first and a yearly event.




Marfa is a well-known art community in the West Texas desert. Art installations are by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, among others as well as modern art galleries and fine dining. At night, visitors can view the “Marfa Lights,” a natural phenomenon. Marfa has several hotels, but some visitors preferring the quaint bohemian El Cosmico trailer park.






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11/15/16

Streams Lakes Rivers and Tidal Waters Quality Planning



Your Community Water Quality Plan should list all of the waters significant enough to have a name and their quality condition expressed as: 
Excellent waters are fit for all human uses and can support sensitive fish and other aquatic creatures; 
Good waters can support a high number of game fish but not highly-sensitive organisms;
Fair waters support few game fish and are not suitable for swimming;
Poor quality waters support only the most pollution-tolerant organisms. 
Quality Considerations are based on Fish and other Biological Samplings
Watershed Land Use can be related to quality issues such as: forest covered watersheds are usually of excellent quality; a mix of forest and farms with good soil-water conservation practices produces good quality waters; a mix of farms, forest and suburban development yields fair quality waters; intense suburban-urban development usually results in poor water quality.

Watershed Percentage covered by buildings, streets, parking lots and other impervious surfaces also relates to aquatic resource quality as: excellent less than 5% impervious area; good less than 10% impervious area; fair less than 15% impervious area; and poor greater than 15% impervious area.
In addition to current quality, your plan should show how the health of named streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and tidal waters will change with anticipated growth. This can be determined by estimating how watershed impervious area changes with future growth.
Development Driven Aquatic Resource Damage can be prevented if the runoff from all new impervious surfaces drains with effective best management practices BMP. Waters degraded by past development can be restored if existing impervious areas are redeveloped with highly effective BMPs. The plan should describe the steps taken to ensure that all future development will fully utilize these highly-effective BMPs or explain why not. It must also set forth actions that restore fair or poor quality waters to a good condition.
Actions may include: retrofitting existing impervious surfaces with highly-effective BMPs, upgrading wastewater treatment plants and fixing sewers prone to overflows.  Only after these three steps are taken should in-stream restoration or tree planting be considered.

Frequently Asked Questions does the plan provide:
criteria for assessing the impact of past and anticipated growth
current quality of all named waters within the planning area
the quality of all named waters with anticipated growth
recommended actions for poor or fair quality waters in terms of:
restoring the waters to a good condition and the factual basis for the effectiveness of each action
the quality of named waters with anticipated growth
If all named waters are of good to excellent quality both presently and with anticipated growth then the score for this quality of life factor is 5 or A.
A New Plan for Your Area if your current plan is about to expire or rates poorly based on the Quality of Life Growth Management system, we can assist you in carrying out the outlined steps and/or conduct a community workshop and assist you in formulating a planning strategy for your community.




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