We Want You!

We Want You!

Downtown Clean-up

Tuesday is when we clean up our act in downtown Fargo. When we clean out the cobwebs, the junk, the garbage. When we pick the weeds and erase graffiti. When we join forces to do a dirty job.

Many hands make work light. By joining up with friends and neighbors next Tuesday night, beginning at 5:30 in the U.S. Bank Parking lot on Broadway, we will make light work of a yeoman’s task, namely cleaning up our own back yard—and front yard, as well as the gutters and alleys.

Fargo’s downtown is booming and bustling. Some estimate that we have a little big community downtown numbering 20,000 people. With the reinvigorated downtown comes more mess. And, truly, things are a mess.

The Great Downtown Clean-up is a partnership sponsored by HPR, AM1100 The Flag, the Downtown Neighborhood Association, and the Downtown Community Partnership. It goes until dark.

While this is just a first-time effort, we suspect the event will become an annual deal, or maybe even twice a year: a spring and a fall clean-up. And, once cleaned up, folks will maybe think twice before throwing their garbage into the open or dropping cigarette butts or gum on the sidewalk. And just maybe the sense of pride will instill in all of us the notion that we ought to pick up crap when we see it and throw it away right then and there.

What began as a seed of an idea in an HPR editorial not very long ago has indeed sprouted into something tangible and rewarding. We want to thank Norm Robinson from the Downtown Neighborhood Association—along with Downtown Dave (Anderson) from the Downtown Community Partnership—for giving the clean-up idea structure and form. They literally breathed life into the idea with a truly can-do attitude.

Several businesses are participating and supporting the event with manpower and rallypower. HPR and AM1100 The Flag are happy to provide media sponsorship.

As you can well imagine, when new events get a start out of the gate, we get feedback and ideas from other people telling us what works and does not work in other communities. We welcome such feedback.

Also, we get our creative juices going. One such idea ruminating around in at least one brain (be nice, now) is to replicate a practice we found over at the Hotel Donaldson, namely artistic painting of garbage dumpsters. They are beautiful works of arts by dumpster standards and they are an inspiration to get the ball rolling to have a dumpster painting on the prairie project…

But that is another editorial.

Meanwhile, we hope you show up Tuesday night to spruce up our downtown and to have fun at the same time. Pass the word. Let’s make this a shining success.

Sales Tax Vote

Speaking of Tuesday, we cannot overlook reminding Fargo residents to get out and vote in the election calling for a half-cent, 20-year sales tax to help fund flood protection efforts. The tax would raise an estimated $200 million if approved by 60 percent of the voters in Tuesday’s special election.

Regardless of your position—or ours or anybody else’s—get out and vote and make it a mandate of the people.

HPR On The Grow

Even though HPR is nearing its 15th birthday in September, that does not mean we do not continually reinvent how we do business. We have some exciting things to share.

Initially, we are saturating the Fargo-Moorhead market more and more. You will be noticing a full-blown effort in the next few months to dramatically grow HPR’s presence here in Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo.

We are on the grow. For example, beginning this week, HPR will be dropping 900 additional copies each week in our North Fargo - Moorhead route. And this is just the beginning. We intend to increase our market penetration by one-third by this fall, which will bring us to 10,000 copies picked up each week.

A side benefit will especially be reaped by our advertisers who will get the benefit of several thousand additional readers seeing their print messages each week, and all at no additional cost.

We also will soon be launching an entirely new approach to what we typically call Classified Ads. The web and print versions of HPR will easily facilitate and fuel this community-based development.

It’s fun to grow and expand and to think big. HPR’s editorial team is getting great traction under our great new editor Zach Kobrinsky. Our sales team—now comprised of Jay Miller, Liz Pearce, Michelle Carney and John Edmonds—is top notch.

July Birthdays

Happy birthday to the following folks celebrating their birthdays this month: Martin Jonason, Marvin Jonason, Darin Loven, Jack Mihelich, Cory Holter, Margie Bailly, Dan Killian, Bert Meyers, Klaus Meyers, Diederich Harms, Dana Nichols, Kyle Rudolph, Gwen Berg, Trish Gavin, Jana Strand-Rakowski, Lance Thorn, Eric Short, Laurel Litchfield, Kasi Miller, Roylene Jacobs, Sharon Martens, Jaclyn Gomez, Jana Tronier, Jon E. Flatland, Kia Ullrich, Rick Steen, Martin Wishnatsky, Charles Hinton, Deb Broker, Blind Joe, Arlette Preston, Martin Woods, Andrew Thomson, Jamie Langness, James Burgum, Cody Johnson, Jesse Rock, Becca Mellem, Jean Kelly, Brooks Johnson, Barry Nelson, Tim Stabo, Joanna Nedberg, Les Lindsay, Ryan Gustafson, Ben Holtz, Crystal Dueker, Isaac Kobrinsky, Nathan Kobrinsky, Wally DeSautel, Dave Holand, Joe Steffan, Candy Strand, Joe Curry, Robyn McDaniel, Kevin Moriarty, Kirby Berg, Mary Thoelke, Kim Winnegge, Derek Green, Janet Letexier, Kristy Young, Matt Bossert, Georgia Hill and Abby Gold.