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Tilden residents enter the city library, bundled up against the cold. They greet each other between sips from their thermoses, then take a seat. Jordan Grummert-Rasmussen and Amanda Kowalewski, extension educators for Rural Prosperity Nebraska, welcome the attendees and begin the first meeting of the Entrepreneurial Communities Activation Process program.

Through a series of surveys, townhall meetings, and the creation and execution of locally designed projects, the ECAP program helps rural Nebraska communities revitalize their towns through entrepreneurship and business development.

“ECAP provides communities the space to reflect on their successes and assets, and in turn learn from and leverage these capacities to improve the quality of life for residents,” Grummert-Rasmussen said.

ECAP has two aims: to strengthen already existing assets and introduce new vitality to communities. The aims are defined by community members, who lead the discussions, set goals and complete projects.

Marilyn Schlake, co-lead for Rural Prosperity Nebraska’s Community Economic Development team, which heads ECAP, emphasizes the focus on each community’s individuality.

“It takes about two to three months to do this process,” she said. “Then (residents) have a plan to start moving forward. But the community decides all that.”

Molly Navratil, a Tilden City Council member, attended the inaugural ECAP meeting with hopes that moving forward didn’t mean abandoning the community’s culture.

“I hope that Tilden keeps its strong, awesome, positive identity,” she said, “but is able to grow in the things that it needs to leap into the future.”

Tilden is taking its first steps in the program, but communities across the state have already seen major improvements by participating.

In 2018, Plainview began the process with a communitywide survey that asked questions about housing, child care, food access, and community culture and vision. Within three years, it welcomed 19 new businesses and created 75 new jobs, remodeled its city park, received multiple federal grants and created a $200,000 revolving loan fund.

“Our main street is full. I have no buildings left,” said Susan Norris, director of Pierce County Economic Development. “ECAP focuses on the positive. It’s such an organic process.”

Plainview is only one example. Auburn is working on downtown revitalization efforts. Osmond is upgrading communitywide broadband service. Hadar created a disc golf course in its city park and is developing a 93-house subdivision.

While Tilden was beginning the ECAP process, just up the road, Atkinson residents were holding the “graduation” session of their year-long program, and they had much to celebrate. Participants reminisced about the progress their community has made, from expanding child care options to updating the community welcome packet — which is delivered to new residents in person — to creating a service-based website, which will launch in the coming months.

“Atkinson has benefitted from the ECAP program because I feel like we were comfortable, and this program came in and challenged us,” said Pam Winer, general property manager of the Sandhills Hotel and president of Atkinson’s Chamber of Commerce.

The crowning event was a career fair for high school students to explore opportunities in Atkinson, which resulted in many students earning employment and internships at local businesses.

Some people participated in the program for personal reasons, like Patti Skrlda, who promised her deceased father she would help “keep Atkinson alive,” she said.

Others joined the team from a professional standpoint, like Sheryl Hiatt, who works for the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

“The ECAP process really lays the groundwork for economic development and community development,” she said. “My thing tonight is, I really want to know what’s next.”

A lot falls under that umbrella of “community development,” whether it’s a new restaurant, better child care centers, expanded housing or a revitalized main street. Either way, the spirit of ECAP is in its name — it’s a process.

From completing the first survey to cutting the ribbon on opening day, locals continually strengthen the economic climate in their communities long after the program is “finished.” Atkinson understood this concept, as the final slide of their celebratory presentation asked, “Ideas for future projects?”

WILTON — Wilton is moving forward with renovations at some parks & recreation facilities funded by Judith Bjorn’s $100,000 donation.

The Wilton Select Board authorized Parks and Recreation Department Director Frank Donald to spend up to $38,600 on renovations for the basketball courts at Kineowatha Park.

Donald was authorized to spend the funds on purchases of poles, backboards and paving for the court.

Donald anticipates they will enlist students at Foster Career and Technical Education Center to build the six poles. The town has previously enlisted Foster Tech students for other projects.

Donald said this is a plus for the students, town and community.

For the town, it saves quite a lot of money, Donald said in an interview. And it allows those kids to get some practical experience, take on different kinds of projects, he added.

Donald said that it gives the students “a sense of pride in the community.”

Bjorn donated $100,000 to the town’s parks and recreation department in December.

Bjorn told the town that she wanted the money “to be used to support your expensive programs for youth and families” and “enhance and continue [the parks and recreation department’s] excellent programs.”

The parks and recreation department then conducted an online survey to gauge what community members wanted the town to spend Bjorn’s donation on.

Donald said that of the 87 responses, 29 voted to renovate the courts and 27 voted to build a pavilion in the center of Kineowatha Park.

Other options included maintenance funds for upkeep on the disc golf course and lighting for the tennis and pickle ball courts. Some respondents also suggested work to improve the steep hill leading to the beach at Kineowatha — though Donald said there are some complications with that idea.

Donald currently has full approval for spending on the courts — barring some limits on paving.

He anticipates the new poles and backboards will be installed by late May and hopes the paving will be completed by the end of August.

Donald will return to the board in the future with solidified ideas and quotes for work on the pavilion.

In other business, Wilton is reopening the Share Shack at its transfer station. The announcement was made at the Select Board’s Tuesday, Feb. 4, meeting.

Selectperson Tom Saviello anticipates the Share Shack will reopen April 1. The date of the opening hinges on approval of a set of rules for the shack by the select board.

The Share Shack first opened in 2010 with the intent “to take usable items out of the waste stream for individuals who need them.”

The Town of Wilton’s website currently states that acceptable items include wooden furniture, housewares, tools, building materials and children’s toys. Among unacceptable items are air conditioners, dehumidifiers, glass doors, grills, large appliances, mattresses and box springs,  stuffed or upholstered furniture, televisions and computer monitors.

The town closed the shack down at the beginning of the pandemic due to restrictions. It reopened in 2021 and closed again in November 2021 due to concerns of misuse.

At the board’s Nov. 11 meeting, Public Works Foreman John Masse explained the station has had issues with people dropping off “unacceptable items” and creating “pretty much a disaster” despite having “posters everywhere saying what you can and can’t put in.”

At the November meeting, Selectperson Tiffany Maiuri also said she’s seen people “hoarding” items, selling them at yard sales.

The board decided then to close the shack, review the policies, clean it out and figure out how to move forward.

Saviello told the board at the Feb. 15 meeting that the recycling committee is going to write up a set of rules that put limitations on donations and usage.

Saviello told the board the anticipated rules include barring more than one visit to the shack a day and the donation of items that are wrapped in boxes. He also suggested a policy that they clear out items that have been in the shack for a prolonged period of time.

However, Saviello was clear to say they would not to do anything to prevent Share Shack items from being taken and sold at yard sales.

Saviello added in an interview that the committee also plans to have a town employee oversee and approve what people put in the shack.

Saviello will return to the board with rules to approve at some point in March.

Hit the gaps.

February 22, 2022 by Steve Andrews in Instruction, Opinion with comments

I love asking people about their bags and why they carry the discs they do. I was talking to a friend in our club and noticed that they had two Destroyers, a Raider, and a Boss. He also had three midranges that seemed very similar to me: an EMac Truth, a Roc3, and a Compass. When I asked him why he had those particular discs, each one came with a story – a great shot they had thrown with it or the tournament where they had won it. This was a bag built by adding discs, each carrying the memory of a great moment on the course.

Many people’s bags are like this, built like a collection of their favorite songs. They like each of these discs a lot and so their bag has become a kind of greatest hits of their plastic. But a collection of favorite songs does not always work together as a whole. Instead, you should think of your bag as an old-fashioned mixtape — all the tracks need to flow and sometimes this means leaving out a favorite that just doesn’t work or including a song that holds everything together.

The important thing is to see your discs as a set. Each one plays a role, and they cooperate to help you navigate the course. You want manageable and consistent gaps between your discs to help you always have the right tool for the shot you need.

Build Out from a Solid Core

Your discs must cover all the shots you will need from your shortest approach to your longest drive. How you get there will depend on the discs you decide are the “center” of your bag. This will be different for every player, depending on their power level and the kinds of shots they like to throw. If you love hyzerflips, you may need a completely different lineup than if you rely on flex shots. It is not just whether discs are “great discs” – it is whether they fit the shots you throw the best.

Your bag should start with a disc that you love. This tentpole disc will then determine the discs you choose to fill out the rest of your lineup. Once you have that disc, you can build outwards in two ways – by finding similar discs in other speeds and by filling gaps around your tentpole disc. For the first method, look for discs that allow you throw the same shot at different distances. For example, if you are a powerful forehand player who leans on the Raptor, you can build off that disc. If you throw the Raptor around 300 feet, then you need other discs that give you a similar flight but with different distance potential. You are essentially looking for a driver, midrange, and putter version of the Raptor. For example, this player’s bag might have a “spine” of the Force, Raptor, Malta, and Zone. With this lineup, they can throw the shots they like best and use one style of throw to cover a wide range of distances. On open courses, they might only throw this shot with these discs all day.

Another way to build out your bag is by adding discs that compliment the tentpole discs. As a player with only moderate power, fairways are often the most important discs I carry, and I like to build my bag out from my main fairway driver. I have had several discs in this slot as my bag has evolved and right now my bag centers on the Teebird3. It is exactly what a tentpole disc should be: it is straight enough to be a go-to disc for a wide variety of situations and flies over 300 feet while being stable enough to resist some wind. As one of the Innova “3” models, it is also flat enough to be a good fit for my sometimes shaky forehand.

I need to fill out my bag with discs that fill the gaps around my Teebird3. In my fairway lineup, that is a straighter fairway that works great in the woods, a less stable fairway for hyzerflips that ride right, and an overstable fairway that can hold up better in the wind and be more reliable on a forehand. For me, I put in a Leopard3, which is much straighter than a Teebird3, a Roadrunner for hyzerflips, and a Firebird, which is much more overstable. I will throw the Teebird3 whenever I can, but those other discs are there to give me very manageable gaps between the discs in my fairway lineup.

This is the place where some players cycle discs instead of adding extra molds. A different player might simply beat in a Teebird3 until it was flippy enough to fit that slot instead of adding in a Leopard 3. That is also a great approach. The goal is to have useful gaps between your discs so you can cover every shot you need, and every disc has their own lane. Getting there by cycling discs or adding discs can both work. You can also mix these approaches; I like to cycle my drivers while carrying multiple molds for my short game discs.

This is also where you need to pay attention to variations within a mold. I can find Leopard3s, especially in the halo plastic, that are almost as overstable as my more beat-in Teebird3s. But though I love the feel of those halo Leopard3s, I don’t carry them. Instead, I bag a mellow middle stability Leopard3 because I want to maintain the gap between my Leopard3s and the other discs in my fairway lineup. Every disc in my bag has a specific role; the Leopard3 is there to fly dead straight and land flat.

Sometimes, you find a new disc you love and want to include it in your bag. Resist the temptation to just toss it in without thinking about how it will relate to the other discs you already carry. When you add one, think about whether it overlaps with other discs in your bag. I fell in love with the Mako3 and, when I added it to my bag, I discovered I needed to move other discs out because their flights were too similar.

I love the Berg. It is a great disc, it fun to throw, and has a completely unique flight. But the strength of my play is my short game, and it has been fine-tuned by hours and hours of joyfully monotonous field work with a Harp. Adding the Berg would require moving things around and could affect one of the best parts of my game. Maybe I should do it, but until I can pull the trigger to really shake things up my stack of Bergs stays in the basement.

Discovering a Gap

Sometimes you find a gap when you confront a shot that just doesn’t seem to be in your bag. You might discover that your midranges are too overstable to hold the turnover you need or find out that your bag has trended too much to the understable side and you can’t trust your drivers or fairways in the wind. This happens frequently if you always do your fieldwork in calm conditions. After throwing in the field, I often find myself adding discs that go further with a little more turn and then find out that disc with a perfect little turn becomes a roller when the wind blows in a tournament round.

One way to find these kinds of gaps is by playing rounds with a limited bag. A few weeks ago, I went out and played a “mids only” round. When I started, I was happy with my midrange lineup – a very overstable RocX3, a mellow Mako3, and an understable Tursas – but my gaps collapsed when the wind started blowing. It wasn’t howling, but it was enough that the Mako3 was flipping over and the Tursas became a roller. These discs, which seemed very different from each other during my field work, became very similar with just a small change in the conditions. Another problem was that the RocX3 was so overstable it flew too short off the tee.

Before this round, I thought the Mako3 was my long stable midrange. It is…as long as there isn’t any wind. Once the wind picked up, I couldn’t trust the Mako3 or get the distance I needed out of the RocX3. I needed to make a change, so I moved to a more overstable Mako3 and replaced the RocX3 with a Westside Bard that gave me the same overstability with more distance. Now I have better gaps between my discs and can face changing conditions with more confidence.

Some gaps you will find in your bag are situational. You may discover that the straight mid that you love for most of your rounds isn’t that straight when you must throw down a wooded tunnel. The fifteen to twenty feet of fade at the end of the flight that you hardly notice on a wide-open approach may send you down a 30-foot ravine in the woods. I have Raiders that are reliably overstable on a calm day but flip in a 20-mph headwind.

When this happens, there are a couple of questions to ask – is this a common situation, or a shot you aren’t likely to need very often? If this is just a unique situation or an oddly shaped hole, then you probably don’t need to change anything. However, if the situation is common enough to necessitate a change, sometimes the solution is easy, such as just adding a more overstable driver. But if you have common shots that are hard to pull off – if you can’t throw turnovers very well, for example, and you play courses where they are necessary – your bag may have become too full of overstable discs and you need to think about making some changes.

It may also be that you don’t need a new disc, you need a new shot. You may just need more field work working on turnovers or forehands with the discs you have. Often it is a blending of the two, you may need a disc that can more easily hit a particular line and more time in the field dialing in that shot.

Everyone’s Gaps are Different

A forehand dominant power player should have a different bag than me, a righthanded backhand player who builds their bag around moderate stability discs and accuracy. Where his bag might be built around the Force, Raptor, and Malta, my bag may center on the Sheriff, Teebird3, and Mako3. These bags are completely different, but they are both built around the kinds of shots we throw the best and supplemented with discs that help close the gaps.

Your playing style will reveal the gaps that need to be filled. One of my weaknesses is my forehand – I simply can’t throw them for distance. On the other hand, I love throwing hyzerflips that ride out to the right. I have much more confidence on throwing with my standard slight hyzer angle whenever I can and letting the discs do the work. My bag reflects this – right now I carry a Roadrunner and a Tursas, two discs that are very understable and perfect for this shot. The problem is that there is about 100 feet between their average distances. That gap is unmanageably large. I need a disc that will sit between them and be reliable on a hyzerflip with a right finish and go about 300 feet. I am still looking.

If I developed a great forehand, I might not need to carry these discs at all and my bag would look completely different. That’s fine. Build your bag around the discs and shots you like to throw. If you don’t throw many forehands and you don’t have a lot of power, you may not need many overstable discs in your bag. If your main shot is a huge forehand flex, then you may not need many understable options. You want to fill in the gaps around your favorite discs but build a bag that fits your game.

Yes, we should all strive to throw every shot we need with every disc we have. If you have gotten to the place where you can carry a bag like Philo’s – only five molds broken in perfectly that you can throw on every angle – then that is great. And, to be honest, I envy you. Until then, build a bag that fits your game and gives you manageable gaps – each disc working together to allow you to get the most out of your game.