The Vision for the Mississippi River in Central Minnesota

At the request of attendees at the November 2007 A River Runs Through meeting, your ideas, inspirations, and hopes for the future of our Mississippi River in Central Minnesota have been collected and consolidated into one comprehensive Vision. A kick-off meeting was held on May 21, 2009 to begin the process of collecting ideas to create a vision for a 31-mile stretch of the River within Benton and Stearns County. Data was collected from May-October 2009 via public meetings, river events, city and township newsletters, e-mail, public access channels, and an on-line survey. To avoid any bias, an outside consultant was hired to summarize the data and develop the Vision.

This Vision is unique to Central Minnesota and creates a foundation for future decisions.

The Vision is intended to be organic and elastic so that it can grow with the effort and allow change. The Vision was unveiled at a November 2009 A River Runs Through It- Unveiling the Vision for our Mississippi River meeting. Suggested revisions to the draft were accepted until December 1, 2009. Minor changes were made to the original draft. The Vision was presented to Mississippi River community leaders in early 2010 for their formal adoption and support. Below are the communities or organizations that signed Resolution is support of the Vision: