This is where it started: my first visit to the first community: Rugby, North Dakota, January, 2003. Why does one go to Rugby in January, you ask? If you want to see what a town is made of, you have to see it in the tough season, as well as the sweet, and January in Rugby is the tough season.
Dale offered, on tape, that
sometimes Rugby can be a hard place to come into - it can appear closed to outsiders, a little cliquish, which is a complaint similar to what I've heard in Ripon, Wisconsin, from outsiders coming to live in the city. In addition to not having grown up in Rugby, when Dale started his funeral home in the 1970s, he was setting himself squarely in competition with the Anderson Funeral Home, which advertises "Quality Care with Quiet Dignity Since 1921."
Dale and I talked some about the need to say Thank You in both our business and our personal lives - he thinks this has become something of a lost art. We talked about the need to create and maintain relationships with those who have power over the things that are important to you - in his case, keeping Amtrak service in Rugby. He recalls that a fellow called him for help when Amtrak was ready to discontinue service to Devil's Lake, some fifty-six miles east of Rugby along Highway 2. Dale had to tell him: "It's too late. This isn't something you can do anything about now, you needed to be working on it five years ago."
Dale has served sixteen years on the Park Board and sixteen years on the City Council, in addition to his time as mayor. He is not only an advocate of keeping Amtrak healthy in Rugby, but also of keeping Rugby healthy. He admits, however, that if he had the answer to the problems of small towns in rural America, he'd be in big demand. He thinks that if it is to succeed in the future, Rugby needs to do a better job of marketing the wonderful resources it has. The intersection of Highways 2 & 3 where Rugby sits is a prime location that has yet to be taken full advantage of.
You come away from a visit with the Niewoehners full of enthusiasm for Rugby, yet with an understanding that there is much to be done as the city heads into the uncertain future that is promised rural America.
To be continued....
Comments