“Our school was dropping. Our last census was 292. We were losing our rail line, our elevator, our SaskPower,” Wayne Myren, the mayor of Ogema, Saskatchewan, Canada, 40 miles north of Montana, was talking about the town’s situation in 1989. From that dismal start the townsfolk started working together, pooling resources to purchase the rail line to keep the grain elevator and starting to develop a plan for the salvation of their community. A formal planning process, begun in 2001, has resulted in the town creating 90 new jobs in the past five years and becoming a model throughout Canada.
How did they do it?
“Teamwork! We’re blessed to have 20 or 30 individuals here that will not say no. They will all take a leadership role or champion a project. And, to me, that’s the No. 1 key.”
Besides buying the railroad, a new motel has been built, the train station has been restored, they built a 28-building historic village, recruited in a major hog operation and recently helped set up a business to rebuild railcars. The population of the town has grown to 330.
One of the local business owners, Dana McCracken, owner of Omega Steel, said it best, “We’re in the middle of nowhere, but in the middle of everything.” McCracken has grown his business from 2 employees in 2000 to 22 today.
Be sure to check out their website at http://www.ogema.ca/index.htm. I’ve seen towns 100 times their size that don’t have anything as nice.
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