Martin County Star Newsmakers
Everything you want and need to know about what is going on in Martin County Minnesota.
We look at the paper and talk to the Newsmakers.
Mayor's, City Council members, Coachs, Police, Concerned Citizens, and everyday folk with a story to tell.
Tune in each Friday for a new episode.
Check it out at martincostar.com
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Martin County Star Newsmakers
Small-Town Charm and Future Visions with Mayor JoAnn Russenberger
Mayor JoAnn Russenberger joins us for a lively chat about Trimont, Minnesota, where the charm of small-town life meets innovative visions for the future. Discover how an early snowfall sparks memories of childhood school days and the nerve-wracking anticipation of parent-teacher conferences. We also share a fun, pig-themed true or false game that highlights Martin County's impressive status as a leading pig producer, with JoAnn exhibiting impressive piggie expertise.
Small towns offer unique opportunities, and we explore the affordable living and community-driven ventures that make places like Trimont and Sherburne so special. From the success of local eateries like the Huntley Cafe to the inspiring initiative of fifth graders creating a newspaper insert, there's a wealth of innovation brewing in these charming locales. And who knew that the once-fantastical wristwatch phones from the comics would become today's reality?
Mayor Russenberger reveals plans for Trimont's future, advocating for fresh ideas and a break from tradition. She emphasizes the importance of community input and the potential for growth with new developments like a café, beauty shop, and nail salon. As we celebrate the welcoming spirit of the area, there's an open invitation to explore, visit, or even settle in this delightful region—a place brimming with possibilities and a neighborly spirit. Join us for this engaging episode that blends humor, insight, and inspiration from the heart of Martin County.
All right, we are on, and you know we were going to make this the same podcast, the same episode as with Kelly, but Kelly and I went so long that I decided okay, we'll change things up. So, folks, here we are, episode number six. This is Martin County Star's Newsmakers Podcast. I'm Mike Ennis, I'm the host, and with me today is the mayor, whoa Mayor, joanne Ressenberger. Good morning here in Tremont. Good morning to you. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing good. I mean, I could do without the snow, all right. Well, we talked about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we talked about that last episode also. You know, kelly came in and I said what is going on with this? It's October 31st Now, when folks listen. This could be a month from now, a week from now or whatever, but October 31st and we have snow on the ground. We needed the moisture.
Speaker 2:Nobody will deny that.
Speaker 1:No, no, they won't deny that.
Speaker 2:It's that.
Speaker 1:That first snow of the year.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is. You look out the window and it's white and it's.
Speaker 1:And it's October. Even though it's the last day, it's still October. It is, I know, but if I was a kid I'd be going oh yeah, this is great, you know that wasn't that long ago that we would just love to see that snow as a kid. Yeah, yeah, I used to. Oh man, this was you know snow, yes, and now I'm like, oh snow.
Speaker 2:The good thing is, you didn't have to shovel today.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the best thing, yeah, and it's going to melt off. It will. It's supposed to be 60 next week, I mean, you know. But however, this is Minnesota, Things are all subject to change, it is Okay. So, folks, if you listened last episode, you heard Kelly. You know we had a question and answer time and we played a little game. And so, Joanne, is it okay if I call you?
Speaker 2:Joanne, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't know if I needed to be formal and say mayor every time, no, no. All right, so it's not like going to the principal's office. Yeah exactly Remember those days.
Speaker 2:I don't think I ever had to go to the principal's office.
Speaker 1:Yeah me either.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was not a bad kid, I was an ornery kid. Oh, there you go. You know, the teachers all loved me, but it was always Michael. Michael, please be quiet, michael, you know, and when they had those teacher parent conferences, all of a sudden, man, I'm on my knees. Please, lord, please, let the teacher not tell my mom everything that I did.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, uh-huh you know, and the mom would come home and go Mike, I go yeah, well, they say that you're a wonderful student. They did, and I'm thinking prayer works, this is great, you made it. Yeah. However, they always said that you could do without a little less talk. And I go uh-oh, well, that was just a prelude to bring you to this career. Exactly that's what I was going to say, was you know, it was all training? Yeah, yeah, so hit your button.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's when you log in. I have some. Now, this is yes and here's no. I like no. So I have some pig facts here. I thought we would give like true and false statements. You probably know all about pigs like true and false statements. You probably know all about pigs. We're in Martin County, for heaven's sakes, of course. You know Martin County is the sixth let me see how do you say this the sixth largest county for pig producers in the whole US. Isn't that amazing? That is amazing. That is amazing. Absolutely Number six, yeah, and I think we're number one in Minnesota, in Minnesota, that's my understanding also. Yeah, that's my understanding too, and that's pretty impressive. It is.
Speaker 1:It truly is yeah, you know. Fortunately, I love bacon, so I moved to the right place. Your first question is are piglets, are they sensitive to hot or cold?
Speaker 2:I would say they're sensitive to cold. Oh yay.
Speaker 1:That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah good, Kelly got three out of five correct, so you're already one for one so you're good. Of course you are the mayor. If the mayor says it, it's got to be right. Right, of course. Yeah, pigs are found on every continent in the world except Antarctica. Oh, you get. I hadn't even finished and you got it right. I knew that you get two. Yes, yeah, All right, all right, all right. Good, good answer. Yeah, do pigs sleep face-to-face, cheek-to-cheek or rumpus-to-rumpus?
Speaker 2:Cheek to cheek.
Speaker 1:Nose to nose.
Speaker 2:Nose to nose oh.
Speaker 1:Kelly and I were both talking about the same thing. I could not do that. No, I can't. That's my space. You need to breathe on your own, yeah that's interesting.
Speaker 2:That's why I thought, cheek to cheek, they would just be touching Right right. Oh, all right, no, no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, this is kind of interesting. I found this one In Europe and in America. Okay. In America, pigs their main diet is corn. Okay, in Europe, I'll give you options, okay, okay, corn barley or soybean. In Europe, barley, yep, you got it, barley. Okay. Oh wait, I'm sorry, no, that was good. Twice, yeah, twice, you are the pig queen.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go. I know the answers you did. Could you tell? I read the paper last week.
Speaker 1:Oh, I like that. I like that. However, I did mess up on her. I told all the candidates folks that they had 50 to 100 words that they could send me for a candidate's profile and Joanne sent me hers and when she sent it she said well, that's my 50 words. I thought 50 words. She showed up today and said how come everybody got more words than me?
Speaker 2:I said what do you mean?
Speaker 1:I got 50 to 100. On her email I sent 30 to 50. So, aye, aye aye. However, see, but you made it work in 50 words. I did, I did, but anyway, that was totally an error, a technical error A technical error. It's an operator error.
Speaker 2:Operator error. There you go, there you go. I'm the operator. You're allowed one mistake.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you yes. All right, so let's start with. First of all. You are the mayor, I am, I am. What has happened during your term in office?
Speaker 2:So I've been mayor for not quite three years. Okay, I came on filling a vacancy, oh.
Speaker 1:I see.
Speaker 2:Okay, a former mayor had resigned, okay, and I was on the council at the time and they asked if I would take the position. Okay, that makes sense. So what has been happening in the three years would take the position? Okay, that makes sense. So what has been happening in the three years? We, of course, are working on our wastewater infrastructure plan. That's what we talked about. It's been going on for quite a long time. We haven't gotten anything back yet from our PEI report. A lot of it just means that there isn't any money to get yet and we're in a holding pattern.
Speaker 1:Is that going to open up at the first of the year?
Speaker 2:Not necessarily A farm bill has to pass. According to Travis, our engineer, the funds are tied into a farm bill and they didn't pass a farm bill last year and what money there was had all been spent. And everybody needs infrastructure. Everybody needs to upgrade and fix and improve. Okay, so we're in the queue. Yep, trimont is in the queue. It's just a matter of waiting. So there's nothing more that you can do about it. There is not at this time. You know, we explored some land out east of town and then, with the flood that occurred this year, we kind of had an unfortunate, rude awakening where it wasn't as favorable as what we were hoping. There's still a possibility, but we do own some land west of town. There's still a possibility, but we do own some land west of town. Okay, and right now the engineers are looking at the land. There's no charge to what they're doing right now. So that was a huge plus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, looking's good.
Speaker 2:Yes, looking's good. We had a different engineer when we bought the land, and so Bolton Mink is our current engineer. I don't know if that's a plug for them, maybe, but they need to become familiar with what's out there and what possibly could be done.
Speaker 1:Okay. Yeah the infrastructure is in dire need. So while there's this holding pattern, waiting for funds, you're actually accomplishing things. We are yes, yeah, it's not like we're just sitting there, you know going well, what's going on Correct and actually having the heavy rains last spring revealed some things.
Speaker 2:It did, it did.
Speaker 1:It wasn't maybe what we wanted, but it was good that it happened before we started Before you spend a lot of money and go, oh, this is not going to work.
Speaker 2:Correct All right. So not totally ruled out, but it would have to be a change of plans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, that sounds good, okay, so that's a big deal.
Speaker 2:It is a big deal. I think a lot of it is simply because, for the amount of time that has been invested in it so far, yeah, but it's not something that's going to happen next year. I mean, you know we're looking at a, you know, a multiple year plan to three to three to five year tech deal probably more five to seven type of thing so okay. So, yeah, it's that's, that's the big be patient, yeah, it is. Be patient, and and you do have to have patience good things come to those who wait there you go.
Speaker 2:I like that. Yes, that's a good thing.
Speaker 1:Well, you know some things we can control Correct and some things we cannot Correct. So while you're in this holding pattern, you're doing things that you can control Correct 100%. I like it Makes sense, 100%. What else is accomplished?
Speaker 2:What else? Well, of course, our playground. We're really thrilled with how that turned out't we though? What a nice addition to our city. It looks great too. Oh, I tell you, it just brightens up the park it does, and, and to see it being used is just fabulous, yeah yeah, just fabulous.
Speaker 1:Well, there was something like oh, I read the paper, I didn't I read it. Uh, something like 83 hot dogs were served. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, that is.
Speaker 2:I wasn't able to attend that. My daughter got married.
Speaker 1:Oh well, yeah, and that's a priority, I mean, you know, it was a tough decision. Yeah, that's kind of a big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's okay though, but so it was. It was wonderful to hear all the people that were there, and celebrating.
Speaker 1:Did you see the? Let me see, I'm trying to think. Somebody had a video. Oh, I think we did. They had the kids hold the ribbon. Oh, the picture the kids were holding the ribbon.
Speaker 2:I saw the picture in the paper, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then Brad was trying to cut it, you know, yeah, he was in the front of the scissors and those huge scissors and it was pretty funny and I kept looking going. I hope he doesn't hit some kid's ear, Wouldn't that just be terrible, that would have been, but it worked out well.
Speaker 1:But it was a lot of fun. Yes, and I was telling Kelly and I were talking about her favorite piece of equipment. Hers was for the zero to six-month-old. That piece of equipment, that swing yeah, I believe so. And then I like the musical instruments. Oh you, that swing yeah, I believe so. And then I like the musical instruments.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, I wondered about them, but I think they're a hit. Oh yeah, the musical instruments.
Speaker 1:You know what I liked them is? We were standing over in just a different part and all of a sudden I could hear it yeah, and I thought that's kind of cool. I don't have to even be there, but I can still be a part of it.
Speaker 1:Yep, it yep. I enjoyed that. It was fun, just fun, to hear kids running, playing, laughing, being excited. Yes, yeah, just being kids, correct? We make them grow up so fast and we give them all these little electronic devices and stuff and you know, they just be a kid, go out and play so true, yeah, so true, play a lot, yep.
Speaker 1:So what are the plans for pretending, let's say, let's look forward, okay, yeah, I'm assuming that you're assuming you're going to win. Well, I would think, right, sure, and that's that's. You have to plan that way absolutely and if you don't, and you think and you move on. But let's say you win. What's the plans for the next couple of years? Um, you have anything on you?
Speaker 2:know anything on the cooker. Anything on the cooker? No, that's an interesting way to say that I like would love.
Speaker 2:you know, one of the things that I would love to see in Trimont is we don't have a lot of homes that are for sale. Homes come up for sale. They sell pretty quickly. We have a few empty lots around town not many and we're landlocked. We are landlocked as a city. It'd be wonderful if we could look ahead to the future and the potential of having some type of development that could offer someone interested in building a home a lot. Wow, I mean, you have to be able to look ahead dream a little bit, yeah.
Speaker 1:How about even a little subdivision? Maybe Absolutely? Oh, okay, little bit, yeah. How about even a little?
Speaker 2:subdivision, maybe Absolutely, oh okay, all right, absolutely. Wow, you know, the key is because we are landlocked. How could we do this? Where could we do?
Speaker 1:this Right.
Speaker 2:I was going to say and it's tough to convince a farmer to give up a little land. It is, but you never know when someone out there might go. Maybe that's not a bad thought. Maybe I could help the city of Trimont, wow, and I could sell them a little bit of land and see what could happen.
Speaker 1:That would be great, wouldn't it? It would be wonderful, you know, expanding on what you're saying.
Speaker 2:Then Medelia Health yes, they're talking about Exciting.
Speaker 1:Oh man, kelly and I were talking the same thing and I said this is almost like a little coup here. Yes, you know, this is I felt like we won the small city lottery. Yes, 100%. You know they want to put in a clinic, and you know this, of course. They're going to staff it five days a week. Yes, which I thought, maybe two days a week. Yep, you know, when he said that, I said what Wouldn't that?
Speaker 2:be wonderful, it's just. Oh, I am so excited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, a family then could move into town and say well, they've got a doctor, they have a great grocery store, our gas is the cheapest gas For miles around here. You know I drive all over the place. I'm keeping it to myself. I don't want anybody else to know and take my gas Now.
Speaker 2:I need to put that in the paper, our gas price, because $2.80 a gallon. I like to go places and say, well, what's the price of your gas? Mine's $2.80 at the town center. Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1:You drive a little bit and you're going to save about $0.30 a gallon in gas.
Speaker 2:This is great.
Speaker 1:So we've got a lot of good things in place, absolutely, but we need we need a restaurant oh, that would be so wonderful to have some type of a restaurant, cafe, a cafe yeah yeah, something that could bring people together, um, have a little breakfast, maybe a little lunch, um, you know, doesn't have to be all day if the person doesn't want to.
Speaker 2:It's amazing what small town restaurants can be if you look around the vicinity.
Speaker 1:Are you familiar with the Huntley Cafe?
Speaker 2:I've heard of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, huntley, there's nothing there. Okay, there's nothing there, and you drive in and there's this little cafe and they have on their sign make reservations make reservations you know bergens oh bergen, you know it's another place out the middle of. There's nothing there in bergen, but yet it's packed.
Speaker 1:We go there, we show up at five o'clock or 4 30 and it would be seated first right, you guys, you don't talk about yep, and you know, somebody said to me well, we, we can't, you can't have a restaurant in Trimont too small, and I said that's nonsense.
Speaker 2:Correct Total nonsense. If someone can dream it, it can be.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's true. That's the key. It's funny. You say that we were talking the other night about this. Remember Dick Tracy comic strip? Oh, of course, yes, oh, of course, yes, you know, I used to sit there and look at that and go a wristwatch camera, yes, or a phone, whatever it was, remember, and I'd sit there going this is nonsense. Hello, yeah, you know, we have them now, so lucky. What you just said, if you can dream it, it can be. It can be. Yes, you know, and so you know. I think it's a great idea. Candy and I were talking yesterday and I haven't approached the school with this idea at all yet, but we're going to. I want to approach the fifth graders and I think that they're a good age and I want them to work all year and then in the spring maybe April-ish, I'm going to make a four-page insert that they could work on all year. They'll be the reporters, they'll be the photographers, they'll do the reporters, they'll be the photographers, They'll do the layout. They'll even sell ads on it.
Speaker 2:What a wonderful idea, wouldn't that?
Speaker 1:be fun. Yes, I did this when I was a kid. In sixth grade we did this in our school. I wrote my very first article a sports page, okay, and I signed it. Anything we wanted to, he didn't care, he'd just he signed it, you know, and it was anything we wanted to. He didn't care, he just write, and he just wanted us. And we had some who were the salespeople, and so I thought, wouldn't that be kind of fun? Every year fifth grade, they could come in and they could do this, work on it all year long, yep, and learn not a trade, but learn something, yep, and then they could put it into practice and then we would print it and put it as an insert into the paper. For that one issue that would be wonderful.
Speaker 2:I think it would be great. The kids that love to write would have an opportunity. The artists, the people who like to talk could be selling. I mean, that's a fabulous idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like it. My granddaughter kind of sparked that she loves to write.
Speaker 2:They could come up with a name for that little insert that they could call their paper.
Speaker 1:Exactly, that's a really good idea. I'm going to approach the superintendent or the principal, or teachers or somebody anyway, I just thought of it yesterday I thought what an idea.
Speaker 1:You know it might be something. But going back to your point though, if you can dream it and if we give enough opportunity to people, they look and they go. Well, now, where do we want to live? In Tremont, you know, maybe. Or Sherbourne, maybe. Welcome Any of these towns. Yeah, you know, we move in, that's right. Yeah, we need a little industry and we'd be uptown 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean there was a reason we picked Tremont to live. Yeah, yeah, I mean everybody. And if people everybody's got their own, maybe it's family. For us it was a school. We had two young girls, oh, okay, and the school is where we wanted our girls to go to school.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Schools are. I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, oh okay, when I went to high school and you know my school, my graduating class was like 400 or 500 students, oh yeah, it was ridiculous. I hardly remember who anybody was. Yeah, but my kids, we grew up in smaller schools and they loved it. They had the opportunity there to play sports. Sure, you sports. Sure, you know you get some of these bigger schools and you better be really talented.
Speaker 2:Otherwise you're not going to play.
Speaker 1:Otherwise you're not going to play Yep. And there they had the opportunity and here it's the same way. You know the kids get to play the sports. They may never get a chance to do that again, but they do here.
Speaker 2:But growing up and a chance to play sports or academics whatever. The case is that they enjoy doing Right and knowing their classmates.
Speaker 1:Right, they make lifelong friends. They do, oh, they totally do. Yes, I know it.
Speaker 2:Good, bad, indifferent. We moved to town here and our youngest daughter met one of her classmates and still to this day she helps stood up for her at her wedding. You know, it's like those lifelong friendships mean the world. They do.
Speaker 1:They do. So next term we're looking at maybe some growth in town. Wouldn't that be nice? Wouldn't it be wonderful? You pulled a coup out of your hat with this election health care thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You had that on the back burner, right yeah exactly October surprise. I thought you wished you'd thought of that. Yeah, so I don't know something we can get going in town, Get some more business. Like you said, we need some homes. Yep, we do need some homes for the ones that are on the market. Just move pretty fast. They do, yeah so, yeah, okay. So make a pitch to the voter.
Speaker 2:Why, why, joanne um, I guess I feel that I am not. I'll just say it I'm not a member of the good old boys club and to me I maybe have a different view, a different opinion than that. And to help move Trimont into the future, we need to look ahead.
Speaker 2:We can't keep looking back saying well, this is the way we always did it. This is the way it was done. It's not how it works any longer. We need to look ahead. We need to see what's in the future and plan for the future if we want to grow.
Speaker 2:So, to me, I'm open, I am available to, I'm a good listener. I will listen to anything that someone has to tell me, be it an ideal, a concern, an opinion. Everybody deserves to have their viewpoint and I am open and willing to listen. We have wonderful employees for the city. Every business should hire good people and let them become good employees, and they're what helps to make the city run. Without good employees, you're not going to have the streets cleaned, you're not going to have the streets plowed, you're not going to have someone answering a question in reference to their water bill or calling the police for a problem that's occurring. So to me, trimont has wonderful employees that are helping the city to become what we are.
Speaker 2:It's neighbor helping neighbor here in our little city. You know that's what is lost in big, big towns Calling up a neighbor and saying, hey, do you have five minutes? You can help me do this. We're working on our kitchen and twice we called a neighbor over here, we called a neighbor over there. I need some muscle to help me carry this out and both times they dropped what they were doing and came over and helped us. And that little stuff means a lot. And I'm not saying that it's going to happen if Trimont, that we won't have that if Trimont grows, but it's the hometown, the little town, neighborliness that makes Trimont what we are and so that's so important. You know I wish more people would become involved in the council, attending meetings potential to run. Serve on the council. You know we've got some a lot of new people. Serve on the council. You know we've got a lot of new people that are on the ballot this year for council, and that's good to see.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's nice that people want to become involved and I can look at you know, oh, this town only has two people running and there's two spots available, or you know it's like we have quite a few candidates for people to be picking from.
Speaker 1:Yeah, truman has no one running from air. I know that that's wild. Okay, so Trimont is a thousand-piece puzzle. Yes, how many pieces are we missing?
Speaker 2:How many pieces, oh, you know, you're putting it together, we have the edge pieces. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1:We do, and we have a lot of the infrastructure in place. We have great employees, we have maybe a medical coming in, we have the grocery store and great gas prices, but we are missing a few pieces, aren't we?
Speaker 2:We are, we are. What could we get? I mean, of course, a cafe would be wonderful, it would be great, just a place for people to meet.
Speaker 1:Is there any?
Speaker 2:building that the city owns that they could help somebody out with. You know I thought about that, did you? Okay, and you know we own the clinic.
Speaker 1:Right right, I know it.
Speaker 2:And you know it would be wonderful to see that become a clinic again. Yeah, you know thinking about the buildings that are up and down Main Street and where are their office spaces, even for, you know, maybe it's an insurance or a beauty shop to come in or anything along that line, and it's like that's really narrowed down.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, it's funny. You mentioned beauty shop because that's one of our things. Here we have three office. I'll show you when we leave we have three offices up front that right now we're converting a portion of this building into our own personal residence. Okay, and when that stuff gets taken out, we want to put in a beauty shop and nail salon. Oh, wonderful, we want to put in a beauty shop and nail salon. Oh, wonderful.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we're doing our part. I did not know that you were looking at that. We kind of kept it quiet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice, but that's something that we will do. It'll probably be next year, before it happens, because we've got to finish the other side, yes, and get our place going. But we also are looking at putting in a little guest house in our apartment building. That would be nice, just want to be one room, yep, you know. But it'll be a place that people over at Seasons maybe somebody you know visiting, or even an employee who drives in, can stay or somebody in town. So that's coming. So we do. We have some things coming, yep.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful. That's good to hear, mike. More pieces of that puzzle, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, more pieces of that puzzle, right? Yep, yeah, a restaurant would be nice, it would go a long ways, it would be.
Speaker 2:I mean, just something that would offer some basics.
Speaker 1:The reason I'm saying this so much is because you never know who's listening. True, we actually. You know, I can look on my schedule and see where people listen from. Okay, and I know that we have some listeners in the cities. Okay, lysenter, minnesota. We have a big following there In Lysenter. I don't know why I got to look and see who's living in Lysenter that does listening, because we have a good following. We have lots of people out of Fairmont who listen. We have people in Wyoming and in Texas and you know, and are these I'm curious are these people who lived in Trimont at one time?
Speaker 2:I don't know who they are.
Speaker 1:Oh, I just know where they are Okay, sure. So I don't know who they are necessarily Sure, but we had a listener out of St Louis, Missouri. So my point is we're not just talking to people in Trimont or Sherbourne are welcome. You know, we're talking to people from down in Iowa. We have a lot of listeners in Iowa and so maybe somebody down there going huh Trimont's looking for somebody to run a restaurant, Well, Maybe I need to check that out a little bit further.
Speaker 1:This is why I keep bringing this kind of stuff up, because you never, ever know who's listening and who has a dream, and who has a dream Absolutely. And we've got a great little town here.
Speaker 2:We do. It's fabulous.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:We've lived here for probably 23 years. My husband grew up outside of town, okay, but we've lived here for 23 years, okay, it's a wonderful place to live.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's fabulous.
Speaker 1:My first exposure I was pastoring the church in Sherbourne, Okay, and my first week there, Tom Kramer called me and he goes, Mike, one of your congregational members passed away and I said who? I didn't even know him because they were in a nursing home at the time.
Speaker 1:And so he goes. Anyway, come to Trimont, to the office. I said, well, where's Trimont? And I was still in Jackson, and so you know, I goes well, trimont, you don't know where it's at. I said I have no clue, yep. So I drove, I found Trimont and I drove out here and the first thing I did I said, wow, cute little grocery. The grocery store had just opened, okay, okay that week. And then I drove around. I said, well, what's your address? He goes, you won't, it is there, it is, yep, yep. But when I was driving around, though, I thought, wow, this is a cute little clean town, yep. And then we ended up buying, you know, the old duplex, the old Fromm house. People always talk about us as the Fromm house people, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, nobody ever knew our name. They just knew it was the Fromm house and we had that for when the apartments opened up. Yep, I'd always walk by and I'd go. Man, I love those apartments.
Speaker 2:Ah, I didn't even know this was the old hospital. Yeah yeah, I didn't even know that was the old hospital, yes, and we're laying in bed.
Speaker 1:One night, after we signed the paper to buy it in candy, my wife, she goes. I said what can we put on the other side, in the clinic side, where we're at now, maybe a store, because we used to own a couple of consignment stores? Okay, and we talked about that. Finally, that was on a Tuesday. On Thursday, al called me and offered to sell me the Martin County Star. I said I go, well, I'm not sure I can pass this up. It seems like it's something I should do. So this is how it happened for us. But you never know who's listening. You never know what their dream is. Yep, and so, folks, if you are listening and you've got a dream, trimont would be a great place. It would be a wonderful place, not just Trimont, sherbourne too, sherbourne, welcome.
Speaker 2:Our entire area.
Speaker 1:Our entire area. It's a great area, it just so happens I'm talking to you yes.
Speaker 2:So, that's why I put Trimont.
Speaker 1:Yep, but you County grow Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Especially our side of Martin County, the West. Yeah, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:I love Fairmont also. I know you do too, yes, so anyway, good luck, thank you. Thank you for coming. I appreciate you having me. You know you have an open invite, right.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, I appreciate that you have an open invite. Yeah, this is just. I know right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're very comfortable, so it's like being home, you know. Anytime you have something, though that's going on and you want to share it with the people, just stop in.
Speaker 2:Fabulous, I can do that. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you, mike, all right folks, that does it.
Speaker 1:That's episode number six. Number seven we just finished episode number seven, all right.
