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Matt Podhradsky, City Manager of Chaska talks about Critical Infrastructures- Could we end up like Texas was in Feb 2021?

In Feb of 2021 the US had a record cold spell that caused massive power outages across the country forcing rolling blackouts.  No state was as profoundly affected as Texas.  As we watched on TV and talked to friends (I used to live there and have many friends there still) we were horrified at the…

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Jason Schmucker, Managing Editor, Sun Patriot Newspaper (Waconia Patriot)

What is the real value of small town newspapers? Can’t we just get our local news on Facebook or Instagram? Abraham Lincoln said it best; “Half of everything you read on the internet is false” 🙂  Local news plays an important part in our communities. The things that get reported locally have a more profound…

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Cara Thorpe- founder of Yellow Parachute Learning Partners

In this time of uncertainty and unrest, it can help to have some constants and Cara Thorpe believes one of those is the power of life long learning.  People often talk about this idea but very few have the skills to teach people how they learn so they can harness the power within themselves.  Yellow…

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Elise Durbin, Director of Community and Economic Development with the Carver County CDA

My guest for this episode is Elise Durbin, Director of Community and Economic Development with the Carver County CDA. We discuss the mission and purpose of Community Development Agencies and how they serve residents and businesses by filling voids left by the regular market. This is done with certain types of housing, counseling and also…

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City of Carver Mayor Courtney Johnson (Round 2)

If you have driven on Jonathon Carver Parkway South of Hwy 212 in the past few months, you know Carver is experiencing a building boom.  A new elementary school, a brand new Kwik Trip and several hundred new homes all seemed to have popped up over night.  The small downtown is also having a resurgence…

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Lesley Wyman- “The Carver County Resilience Project”

Lesley Wyman’s day job is with Eastern Carver County School District, she specifically works at The Integrated Arts Academy in the district building.  What we got to talk about on this episode was about an ad-hoc, grass roots, start up that came about during the early days of Covid-19 pandemic for the purpose of providing…

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Kendra Olson, Elections and Liscense manager for Carver County explains how voting works in MN.

Kendra Olson is THE Carver County elections expert. She explains how voting, vote counting and the sanctity of the voting process is handled and secured in Carver County and in Minnesota in general. Given the conflicting information bouncing around on the news and within social media, it seemed like a good idea to get straight…

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Misty Florek, owner of Morgan Taylor Design talks home staging and making good choices with decor.

This episode is a lot closer to my day job than others and Missy Florek is a terrific home stager and frankly a little bit of a cross between a home style maven and a crazy bargain shopper. I’m always amazed at what she can do on sometimes minimal budgets. This is a nice visit…

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John Fahey, candidate for Carver County Commissioner and former mayor of Norwood Young America

John Fahey and his family are well known on the western part of Carver County. Community involvement was something he literally grew up with as a young boy and he has continued to serve residents of Norwood Young America his whole life. John and his wife Janet are fixtures around Carver County and their hands…

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Dan Keyport, world traveler, community volunteer and owner of the super cool Dolce Vita wine shop.

Dan Keyport is a world traveler, community advocate, husband, father and owner of Carver County’s coolest wine shop located in the Historic Chaska Depot. Dan talks about entrepreneurship, pivoting business models during a pandemic and the benefits of community involvement. He also speaks briefly about his goal of visiting 100 countries. The web site fornthe…

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