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Saturday, July 3, 2010
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Wadena receiving federal aid
Senior Reporter WADENA - Federal aid is coming to Wadena.
President Barack Obama signed the Minnesota Disaster Declaration Friday, opening the way for federal aid to help state and local efforts in recovering from the June 17 severe storms and tornado outbreak.
It means federal funding is available to state and local governments and private nonprofits on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and repair or replacement of damaged facilities. Other areas listed included the city of Faribault and the counties of Freeborn, Olmsted, Otter Tail, Polk and Steele.
The news was welcome relief for Wadena officials and residents.
TAs the Wadena City Council met in a special afternoon session Thursday, there were concerns about the ability to pay mounting
bills from additional emergency crew shifts - light, utility, police, fire - and climbing cleanup costs. City officials knew they couldn't count on the disaster declaration. They shared the story of one man picking out a few belongings at his parent's destroyed home. The parents are in a nursing home and the son said he had no money and no insurance to pay for demolition costs. That story wasn't a singular event, said Bruce Uselman, Wadena Police chief.
Friday's news of the federal disaster declaration no doubt eased some fears. City officials said it means a Federal Emergency Management Agency team could rent space move in with about 30 people for about 30 days and state Department of Employment and Economic Development may bring in about 10 people.
Dean Uselman, Wadena Development Authority, said 22 businesses were affected by the tornado and the authority is making progress in getting some businesses relocated. Uselman has been working with DEED, the Initiative Foundation and the Blandin Foundation on an emergency working capital loan program as a fast track program to help businesses.
At issue for the city:
While tons of debris have been removed, the hard hit neighborhoods still have massive piles of shattered homes and snapped trees, especially along alleys by Southwest Seventh, Eighth and Sixth streets. And other debris still sits at curbsides including furniture.
The old Wadena airport is serving as a collection area for debris from demolitions and the storm. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is cracking down on mixed debris with a local contractor bringing an entire house in without sorting the debris, such as clothing or appliances and even kitchen garbage. Now debris haulers will have to have evidence the debris was sorted and demolition permitted. The MPCA told the city unsorted debris would no longer be accepted.
Demolition permits are required for structures although some homes were knocked down without them and the city has concerns for the basements left behind.
With food now rotting in homes or refrigerators and with homes and at least one apartment building left in ruins, the city has concerns for public health and safety.
Wadena has benefited from the experience of others. The St. Peter city administrator was in Wadena earlier this week offering information on how that city dealt with massive tornado damage in 1998 and members of the League of Minnesota Cities.
For the city, one of the questions is how to deal with debris and homes on private property. With the health and safety issues, the city has authority to move forward if property owners do not but the council was advised getting consent was the best option. But reaching property owners who are now displaced may be difficult. About a half dozen homes are now estimated to have been demolished and removed with more expected soon.
Thursday the city council voted to:
• Authorize city crews, beginning Tuesday through Friday, to haul away designated debris - trees and storm debris - in alleys and public right-of-ways and front boulevards, not to include homes, garbage or chemicals. The council plans to revisit the issue July 13.
Council members are Toby Pierce, Don Niles, Kay Browne, Jeanette Baymler and Mayor Wayne Wolden.
• Agreed to pay $3,000 to have storm damage video to provide needed documentation for FEMA.
• Discussed the opportunity presented to collaborate on rebuilding and the future of the pool, community center and perhaps the fairgrounds by inviting interested parties to attend. Wolden said the Initiative Foundation offered to provide training and funding specialized for disaster follow-up and work with the Minnesota Design Team. Wolden said the foundation was offering to pump dollars into the community. Niles said he wanted to get a lot of perspectives in a room and have an open mind, but this is an opportunity for a long-range vision. Council members Baymler and Browne said they wanted to hear what the area residents wanted to see. Niles will work to convene a meeting.
• The council learned about $100,000 in donations have been received for the Wadena Tornado Relief Fund through the Initiative Foundation and Mid-Central Federal Savings Bank. The city is working on developing a process to determine how those funds will be spent that follows the help donors anticipated providing. A Wadena Area Tree Replant Project fund has also been established through the Initiative Foundation.
• The city dropped its 11 p.m. curfew but will continue patrols in damaged areas.
RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852. More images and video from the tornado damage and recovery are online at spotted.brainerddispatch.com and www.brainerddispatch.com.
MAYOR / Cycle provided respite
tire out, not let down, continue to be the guy to keep us on that path and I hope that I have done that to people's expectations," Wolden said.
In the days after the tornado, Wolden patiently answered repetitive questions from Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and fielded endless news media inquiries. His phone - with its bluegrass ring tone - was going off every few seconds. He kept up with people via Facebook. He's tried to be everywhere at once.
"I'm the kind of guy who can't pass a block if somebody is outside and there is something going on," Wolden said. He had to stop to ask them if everything was OK. "During this whole time I think I've worn out the brakes on all my vehicles, including my motorcycle."
Only recently he left his laptop computer at work. The desktop image is a cardboard sign thanking people who came to help with the tornado. More than 3,000 volunteers came to the city's aid.
And he took time to go to family ball games. On the recent citywide day of rest, he went for a 100-mile motorcycle ride with one of his sons. There were no questions to answer or issues to solve. There was only the Yamaha, the wind and the road.
"That's the release," he said. "No one asked me about the tornado."
The night the tornado struck, Wolden was at home with his 17-year-old daughter Christina. They sat in the basement watching the radar on a laptop computer in their 100-year-old Victorian farm house at the end of Irving Avenue. As the storm grew ever more serious they moved to more protected corner of the basement. They could hear the tornado approaching.
"We could hear it like it was right outside," Wolden said, leaning forward in his chair. "The vibration - like 10 trains going by. I said, 'Christina it's here.' We just held on to each other."
They heard the movement of debris. Then it was quiet. The sun was shining.
"I knew it was a tornado," he said and he knew he had to get to the courthouse.
He got about 45 minutes of sleep that first night. After that it ranged between four and about six. Sleep was often interrupted as his mind was busy with problems to solve.
When he first saw the damage just outside his own immediate neighborhood, Wolden said he was astounded, dumbfounded and amazed.
"I just can't describe it," he said.
In the tornado's aftermath, Wolden spent time searching for his wife, Lori, who has a downtown Wadena business. She was unharmed.
Besides Christina, the couple has two sons - Tyler, 23, who works in Alexandria, and Justin, 21, who is an M State student.
At 47, Wolden is described by others in city hall as one who has retained his boyish look. He grew up as a farm kid in the Gonvic area and went on to school at the Area Vocational Technical Institute in Wadena.
So what has he learned about the city since June 17?
"We've got some strong people willing to help each other," Wolden said. It isn't a wealthy community and people live with what they have, but Wolden said those who have little there are willing to help someone off who is in worse shape.
"Wadena has done so much for me," Wolden said. "I've always been so proud to represent Wadena. It's a great town."
His daughter is set to graduate from Wadena-Deer Creek High School next year. They plan to have lunch together once a week now that she'll be taking her classes in the college where he works.
Wolden said as people's lives are no longer laying out on their front lawns they are starting to recover.
This week as a sign of a return to some sort of normalcy, people were lined up outside the Cozy Theatre in Wadena's art deco downtown for the early show.
Blocks away in southwest Wadena, an older man was out mowing his lawn in the afternoon heat as workers repaired the shingles on the home. A corner house had lawn sprinklers going a home next door was being demolished and more were reduced to foundations.
Back at city hall, Wolden was moved by the kindness of strangers. A man from Bertha created a nameplate for him out of reclaimed wood. Wolden plans to place it on his desk at Minnesota State Community and Technical College where he is the business manager.
He's been at M State for 17 years this week. Before that he worked his way up from a cook at Hardee's to opening 10 restaurants for the chain. And his life experience, including managing the chaos of those restaurant openings, came into play on June 17.
Wolden's view of a mayor's role is as manager and to stay as calm as possible. It's a challenge he enjoys.
One of the first things the city implemented after the disaster was a daily community meeting to keep residents informed and a single sheet publication called Wadena Today.
Each night city staff met with other county and state and emergency representatives and debriefed on the days concerns. The tone of the first meeting was they were here to answer questions and Wolden said the process had them working as a team to come up with good decisions.
One of those appears to have started about 3:30 p.m. June 17 when city officials made the call to cancel the 7 p.m. all-school reunion parade as stormy weather approached.
"Thank God," Wolden said. "Because that would have been disaster. There would have been deaths."
The last two weeks have been a blur. Wolden said he's cherished family time amid the 18 to 20 hour workdays. But he is always left with the feeling there was something more he could do.
"You never felt you had done enough."
RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
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