• Every community has its own personality, that something that make the place unique. Those of us who live and work in Groton know what make Groton special, and soon others will have the chance to see it too.
• Over the past three years, some members of the Groton community have taken part in a study learn why people have chosen Groton as the place they wanted to live and work. One of the things that makes Groton different is fact that while many small towns are slowly dying, Groton is growing, both in population and in businesses.
• Once this information was gathered, the committee was able to formulate a plan to help entice visitors and potential new community members to the community. One part of this plan was to design and develop a new website that could result in increasing tourism and add economic impact for the community. With the help of a grant from SDSU, Kay Brandt of Kay's Computing, and the City's employees, set up a website. The new site is: http://www.grotonsd.gov/. The site helps promote the area's sports, youth activities, clubs and organizations, the school and everything else that make Groton a community worth visiting.
• Recently David Olson, Community Development Program Director with SDSU Extension, meet with the committee to wrap up the project. One of the things that Olson stressed was the need to keep the website fresh and up to date.
• "Now that the site is up," Olson said. "You need to find a way to keep the information looking fresh and up to date."
• The website has plenty of photos, but some of the photos are out of date. Ideas were tossed around by the committee in order to find a way that photos of current events would always be available for use on the website.
• Another area of concern was that the community continues to look at ways to grow and make the community better.
• Cheryl Jacobs, a Community Development Field Specialist from the Aberdeen Extension office also attended the meeting and expressed several ideas and programs that were available to the city. Some of the possible programs that the city has to choose from are: Community gardens and farmers markets, youth involvement programs, advanced leadership and entrepreneurial support.
• Another program that garnered some interest was The Great Community Book Read. This program encourages citizens to learn about and discuss community wide issues. Participates would be challenged to identify and implement simple action steps to address the issues that are selected.
• For those interested in learning more about the study and its findings, the principle investigator of the grant, Dr. Randolph Cantrell and David Olson are tentatively scheduled to present at the annual Chamber of Commerce dinner on January 18. More information on this will be available at a later time.

• Char Telkamp