County Population: 26,911
Largest City: New Ulm, pop. 13,594
Land area: 610.9 sq. mi.
Industries providing employment: Manufacturing (23.4%), Educational,
health and social services (20.1%), Retail trade (11.3%)
Median household income: $39,800

Traditionally smaller rural areas in Midwestern United States have had a harder time evolving like the larger cities, as they were mainly agricultural communities that don’t have funding to create the transportation system that larger cities have. Because these are smaller areas federal and state level governments are less likely to provide the resources needed for these communities to evolve into modern day societies.

The goal of these smaller communities is to form joint ventures with neighboring communities to enhance their abilities to operate. So Bridging Brown County would work with its neighboring counties to allow for growth, sharing with each other legal services, safety services essentially joining their forces together to form the necessities that larger cities take for granted.

During the 1998 tornado which damaged many parts of Bridging Brown County Katie Rasmussen, from the University of Minnesota coordinated the efforts of Brown county and neighboring counties to share in volunteer clean up around all the communities. This lead to other communities being more involved with one another, it wasn’t uncommon for these close by communities to not even know some of their neighboring counties.

A board was subsequently formed with people from the various counties to work together and collaborate with neighboring counties. As more and more joint programs were organized business of each community got involved and began advertising their services in neighboring counties, which never happened before.

Katie began to spearhead more events forming more meetings with neighboring counties, and this began the Bridging Brown County project.

Aside from forming and establishing their efforts for Bridge Brown County this is also a model idea that can be applied businesses. As an example a law firm without the proper resources can work with adjacent law firms to expand their services. As much as this is a model idea of how to enhance and improve a county, the same lessons can very well be applied to business.

Our goals are to make sure we provide adequate service to the citizens of Bridging County, once in awhile we run into situations where DUIs are prevalent. In a city with a smaller population and fewer activities, many people enjoy an occasional drink of alcohol every now and then. When drinking alcohol you must make sure you abide by the laws, such as no drinking and driving.

Many times we may not be aware that we are impaired by alcohol until an accident happens or until you get pulled over by the police. DUI Attorney Orange County have estimated that average person of around 180 pounds it takes about 4 drinks before the person is impaired. If someone is drinking on an empty stomach it takes about 30-45 minutes for someone to begin to feel intoxicated if someone’s drinking on a full stomach they may feel the effects in about 2-3 hours. This just goes to show, although you may not be feeling that alcohol is affecting you at the moment the effects can kick in further along the time line preventing you from having proper judgement.

The goals of the project from the onset where to allow the communities to evolve better and be able to better compete with the cities. By joining several communities together and having each utilize each other’s resources, this will undoubtedly enhance the livelihoods of all those involved in the communities, by working together. Advertising in each other’s counties also expands the market for each community, this is the same result of the North American Free Trade act where businesses from other countries are able to compete for customers within other countries.

In conclusion, the county building strategies employed by Bridge Brown County were ideal for their situation and in the long run this will improve the community, and allow businesses to grow. In the future if the population expands and a transportation system is put in place this would completely transform the county into a city, but this is most likely decades away. However most people living in counties are use to the small town environment and may not want to change that, preferring the smaller and quieter counties to larger metropolitan areas.