(mysterious music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

- "R-Town," The show about Rochester, learns about the local sales tax referendum with city administrator Alison Zelms.

And we hear about a podcast centering women's health and pop culture.

We also find out more about the work of the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership and check out a group exhibition at the Rochester Art Center.

All that and more, coming up next on "R-Town," the show about Rochester.

(upbeat funky music) Coming to you from 125 Live in Rochester, Minnesota, "R-Town."

During this fall's special elections, Rochester voters are being asked to consider renewing the local sales tax.

A half cent local sales tax has been used in the city since 1983 when it was first approved by voters, and it was last renewed in 2012.

Here to tell us what we need to know about the referendum and the city's investment plan is city administrator, Alison Zelms.

Welcome back to "R-Town," Alison.

- Thanks, it's good to be here.

Nice to see you again.

- So to kick us off, can you tell us a little bit about what the goals of the local sales tax referendum are and what challenges is it seeking to address?

- Sure, well, as you mentioned at the intro, we have had the ability to invest in infrastructure for quite some time with sales tax in Rochester.

So the main goal is to really be able to continue to invest and reinvest with that critical source of revenue for economic vitality, housing, street reconstruction, looking at being able to build out and continue to reinvest in our flood control and water quality system and then be able to make a new investment in sports and recreation that is sort of overcrowded right now.

We're a growing community, so we really do need to try to keep up with that growth, and this is one way to do that.

- Yeah, you listed a few of those investment projects and opportunities.

Can you briefly walk us through the four sort of key projects that this investment would go through if approved?

- Sure, so that all adds up to $205 million, which sounds like a lot of money, and it is, but these are really big challenges that the city's facing, right?

So economic vitality would focus most of the $50 million for that towards housing.

We know that we are very short of housing of all types in Rochester.

The Maxfield Study says we need 18,000 more units by 2030, and a lot of those are for seniors, investing and reinvesting in existing affordable single family housing, but we also still need some multi-family for rental.

So we're short of all kinds of housing.

We have some critical needs there and not very many flexible funding sources to be able to really attack the problem.

So that's that economic vitality.

The other smaller portion of that would go towards workforce development.

We need to have our local folks skilled up to be able to fill the new types of jobs that are available in order to be able to keep, attract, and retain growing businesses in Rochester.

So that would also help with the housing problem if folks have more skills to be able to take new jobs that come to Rochester.

The second project, no particular order, is $50 million for road reconstruction.

That would be a new opportunity to invest with the sales tax, although we have had some transportation components in prior sales tax extensions.

This would be for roads throughout the community.

So we have over a hundred miles of roads that are 50 years or older, and that's kind of the time where you start needing to do a full reconstruction of the road, and that's different than what you see when we go and peel off the top and then do a new layer.

That's the full meal deal.

Then $40 million to continue to reinvest in flood control and water quality, which is really important.

We have areas of town that are not actually protected, and we're seeing localized flooding, and we're seeing different types of rain events in Rochester.

And then $65 million for a new regional sports and recreation complex that we talked with the community about since February that's got more multi-use indoor and outdoor courts and field space.

- That's quite a bit of projects.

- [Alison] It is.

- It feels really comprehensive though.

I know there've been some critiques about the referendum being posed as a single question, and especially if voters aren't understanding all of what's going into that, because the issues are so multifaceted and important.

What will happen if the local sales tax isn't extended, and what impact will that have on the advancement plan?

- Well, that would be new for Rochester for 40 years.

So it would be really challenging to be able to accomplish those types of projects at the speed with which we would be able to do them if the sales tax was extended.

So we would need to be having conversations.

I'm sure the city council would be looking at how do we continue to keep up with that?

The challenge is that the local sales tax is shared beyond our community.

So about 43% of that $205 million, so $88 million would come from non-residents.

If we don't have that source of revenue, most of our other options are really locally focused and for local property owners.

- What will the tax impact be?

- Yep, so it's just a renewal.

So it'd be that same 50 cents for every hundred dollars that's taxable.

Not everything is taxable.

- Where can people learn more about the referendum and just getting ready to vote?

- Sure.

Renewrochester.org is up and running and has a lot more information than what I shared, if it's something that you're interested in.

Early voting has started, so early in-person and absentee balloting is happening at the Campus Drive office for Olmsted County, of course, November 7th.

You can also vote in person at your polling place.

That's what we just wanna make sure people are aware that this is an extension, not an increase in the sales tax and what the investment would provide.

- Wonderful.

Thank you so much for joining us, Administrator Zelms.

- Great, thank you, thanks for having me.

(upbeat funky music) - Be sure to stick around.

We have much more coming your way on "R-Town."

We check out the statewide Health Improvement Partnership, and we also chat with the host of a community podcast all about women's health and pop culture.

But up first we check out a group exhibition featuring regional, national and international artists exploring the experiences of living in chronically ill bodies in this week's "R-Culture" segment.

(soft relaxing music) - The idea for the exhibition started in 2020 when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis myself, in the midst of a pandemic and all that was happening in 2020.

I really had the need to find community and to build resilience, and to do that, I looked at the work of other artists, and I read books of authors who really speak for the disabled and chronically ill community.

My name is Zoe Cinel, and I'm the curator at the Rochester Art Center.

The exhibition features 13 artists, regional artists, national artists and international artists, and eight artists were selected by a jury of four jurors, including myself, and we selected artworks from this international call and from a pool of 81 applicants.

So it was very well-received.

There 12 artworks featured in this exhibition, and there's wide variety of media and different kind of art techniques.

So one of the artworks that was selected through the jury call is called "Pain Journal Number 2" by Emma MacLean.

And it's a translation into a soft quilt an embroidered piece of her pain journal.

So something that has been traumatic and very laborious for her to keep track of her symptoms, she turned into something comforting in order to heal with from trauma and to invite other to see how she feels.

So the exhibition feature also the artwork "Masks," which is a series of print by artist Brothers Sick, which is a duo composed of Ezra and Noah Benus.

The artwork was created in 2020 as a response to pandemic.

As we know, masking is very important for the disabled and chronically ill community.

The installation at the art center is composed by four picture created by the artist where they stamped mask with really powerful statements.

But also we have a participatory component where people can stamp their own masks with 20 words that the artist selected for our visitors.

The exhibition features many other artworks that range from photography to textile art to video, and there's something to discover for anyone.

Because the exhibition is really trying to provide resources and a sense of community for people who feel the most isolated in times of needs.

There is a library section called the Care Library that features books and multimedia resources like podcasts and such for people who can just come and sit and relax and process their own experience and learn more.

We have many visitors who are also patients at Mayo or family members of those patients, and they come here to find meaningful experiences that might guide them through difficult times.

So the exhibition, being about chronic illness and disability, really helps to be a moment for people to find themself, find belonging, find other stories that might represent them and find community.

So there's really something for anybody here.

When they come and visit and see the show, they might resonate with a picture, they might resonate with a video piece, they might resonate with a sculpture.

So it's a way for, we have all these variety just to have people find themself in the art.

When you offer vulnerability, people respond and engage.

And I think most of all, this exhibition, it's not a display of pain, it's not a display of sadness, but it's really an invitation to start a conversation about topics that are relevant to us all as humans.

- [Narrator] For more information about this story and other "R-Town" features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter @KSMQ, #RTown, or ksmq.org/rtown.

(upbeat rock music) This is Danielle Teal with "R-Town Spotlight," where we highlight businesses, happenings, and events across Rochester.

I'm here with an amazing guest today, Ayo Oyebola.

Welcome for being here.

- Thank you very much for having me.

- Yes, share a little bit more about your business.

- My business is Emmright Business Management and Consulting Services.

We do a lot of work ranging from helping small businesses establish their businesses, and also I do some work on the diversity, equity, and inclusion space to help organizations to improve their outcome.

And also I do some strategic planning for organizations.

I do leadership training, I do leadership coaching, and also I do some work regarding culture, organizational culture, and also process improvement.

- Well, you do all the things which are really critical, especially with small businesses.

We do need resources in the community for that.

Can you share a little bit about how you partner with small businesses and what does that look like?

- I do work more, I work a lot with SBDC, Small Business Development Council, and actually today, actually I'm having a training coming up today with them.

So that's, again, we do training with business organizations, and also we help them like one-on-one counseling from ranging from bookkeeping, accounting, helping them to navigate their journey from, they have an idea to starting a new business.

- You know, and it's very complex, the navigating of establishing a business, creating a business plan, and then really getting integrated into the community.

How do you make it easier for small businesses?

- What we try to do is to really help them to take them through the journey one by one, helping them through what they need to do.

For example, we can use checklists with them.

So giving them a kind of line by line what they're supposed to do, holding their hands along the way, and also helping them to correct some of the, to prevent, let me say, some of the challenges that new businesses face.

For example, sometimes they run into challenges with taxes, with payroll.

So we help them in some of these ways.

- Which is a very valuable service to provide.

I know that you have this EID lens, which is really important, equity, inclusion, diversity.

In what ways do you think that lifts up our BIPOC population in the community?

- And I think that's very huge, especially because we, that one of the ways we can really improve the equity is through wealth creation, and being able to help them through all these challenges.

'Cause many of them, sometimes they're afraid of going through this, and helping them to go through that, showing them the will and how get there is crucial for achieving equity in our community.

- You're awesome.

Thank you so much for being here today.

- Thank you very much for having me.

- This is Danielle Teal with "R-Town Spotlight."

(upbeat funky music) - Hello, this is Michael Wojcik with your "R-Town Rundown."

Every 18 years when the Twins win a playoff series, I gotta pull out the gear.

Let's enjoy it, because we Minnesota sports fans, we know how this tends to end, so let's enjoy the success while we're having it.

Going on this weekend and through October 20th, the Rochester Repertory Theater will be putting on "Tick, Tick, Boom."

You can find tickets at the URL below.

Also going on, "Spookiest House on the Block" at Rochester Civic Theater.

That's being put on by that theater company.

I assure you that that is going to be an 18 plus event that you're going to want to attend.

Also going on, it's that time of year.

"Creepy Dolls" is back for the fifth year, and this year they're doing "A Murder at the Masquerade," which is an 18 plus event.

You can find out more information at olmsteadhistory.com.

Now, not all the events going on are more intended for adults.

There's also some great things for kids going on.

Nerding Out Con 5 is gonna be going on this weekend at the Rochester Mayo Civic Center.

And that is going to be all weekend, and it's all ages, whether it's cards, Magic, games.

You'd be interested in attending if you have some children.

Also going on, on October 13th, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra will be putting on a free family preview.

This is just like the regular symphony concerts, but they're shortened up and they're great for families.

Coming up at Pop's Art Theater, there will be a release show for Rogue Valley Shell Game.

This is an Americana band outta the Twin Cities.

Pop's is a theater, an independent theater here in town, and they're putting on more and more events.

You can find information at the link below.

And finally, on October 13th, here at 125 Live, our wonderful hosts will be putting on an age-friendly bicycling conference.

There'll be opportunities to learn about safe bicycling at every age.

And you can come join me at that event.

This has been Michael Wojcik, and that's a little bit of what's going on in Rochester.

(mellow country music) - Hi, this is Danielle Teal with "R-Town Walkabout."

I'm here with Chris Allen at the History Center, Olmsted County.

- [Chris] So this is called the Village Agricultural Cooperative Farmer's Market.

- Okay.

- Or the Village Farmer's Market for short.

We are two years old, second year.

We are here every Tuesday at the History Center from four to seven through October 24th.

- Let me see.

- Can we put 'em in the oil?

(oil sizzling) - What's the intent of the Village?

- Sure, so the Village actually is a way to grow farmers.

So we have a lot of families that come from other cultures, 24 different countries, and speaking as many languages, if not more.

And they're all used to growing their own foods for comfort's sake.

Just like the way we crave certain things, they crave pumpkin leaves or Cambodian long beans, or a vegetable called mope.

And these are things that are not readily available in the grocery store.

If you could find them, they'd be pretty expensive.

So our farmers want to grow their own food.

So right now we have six growing sites over 11 acres in urban Rochester.

Some plots are three and a half acres, like the one that's just beyond this farmer's market.

And in fact, we are just about to build our second greenhouse or hoop house, that you can also see in the background, to extend the season.

Some of our farmers are not used to winter, so when it comes on, they have really stockpiled their things in their freezers to prolong that feeling of fresh taste in the summertime.

It's so wonderful because it's also building community.

What we're doing here is meeting each other, breaking down barriers, creating a sense of understanding amongst all of us that live in Rochester and call it our home.

(upbeat dance music) - With a name like "Pelvis Party," this podcast takes a very candid and real look at women's health.

Here to tell us more about this podcast and its impact are Becky Montpetit, owner of Rochester Local, and Dr. Melissa Richards, OB-GYN, and Division Chair of Hospital and Surgical Services at Olmsted Medical Center.

Welcome both of you to "R-Town."

- Thank you.

- Thanks so much for having us.

This is really fun.

- I'm super excited.

I listened to like everything.

I was so excited about the podcast and its name and everything.

But before we get into talking a little bit more about the podcast, can you tell me a little bit about each of your roles?

You Becky, as owner of Rochester Local, and you, Dr. Richards, as OB-GYN at Olmstead Medical Center.

- Sure.

- And Division Chair.

- Perfect.

Well, my name is Melissa Richards.

I am by training an obstetrician gynecologist.

And I see women, or anyone with a uterus, basically between the ages of 13 to 99.

And just about anyone who's ever met me understands what an advocate I am for women's healthcare, and people in general to get the health that they need.

And then I met Becky.

(laughs) - We met about five or six years ago.

And eight years ago, actually this weekend, I launched a website.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you so much.

Launched a website specifically for moms.

I was a new mom myself, and OMC was one of my very first partners in facilitating, connecting women, parents, to resources in Rochester.

And from there, our partnership with Olmstead Medical Center has really grown.

And we are just really hand-in-hand in the work we do in the community.

- That's wonderful.

I feel like both of your roles as connectors and advocates really fit so well.

Rochester Local, Rochester Moms, that was like my platform when I first got here and started a family as well.

And the goal, can you tell me a little bit about the goal of the podcast, and really how it's empowering listeners?

- Right, so really, the goal is to have another platform for, you know, people are busy, and not everyone, you know, women make 85% of healthcare decisions, but maybe we don't make a lot of healthcare decisions for ourselves.

So to provide another place for people to find that information, that's part of the void we're trying to fill locally.

- [Becky] Right.

- Locally.

- Yep, right.

And I think too is, there's just been a lot of non-talk about women's health for a long time.

Or we might get snippets here, we might get snippets there, or health class this, or maybe not.

And misinformation is no information.

And just speaking openly about what is happening within our own bodies is really empowering.

And I think that that's the whole goal here is just to open lines of communication.

There's no shame in knowing what's going on in your body.

- [Melissa] Nope.

- That's excellent.

I think there is a prevailing sense even now that there's certain things that we don't talk about in terms of women's health.

- Right.

- Right.

- Things are taboo, there's some stigmas around them.

And so talking openly about these issues, like pelvic health, and urinary tract infections, right?

It's like, we don't say those things.

But how are you creating that open space?

I mean that there's so, I feel like that's something that really needs to be cultivated.

So how do you approach that?

- I mean, that's so funny that we were both almost silent in that moment.

- Right.

- Because I would say we are, together with our partner in crime, Brittany Montpetit- - Right, or Marshall.

- Marshall, sorry.

- Yeah, Brittany Marshall, Britt Marshall.

- Britt Marshal, working, you know, through this partnership through OMC, me as a clinician, and then having Becky here.

We're very open people just in general.

- Right.

- We share stories and I find myself even in the clinic setting sharing stories, and it creates this openness.

- [Becky] Yeah.

- And you know, I joke, I say vagina at least a hundred times every day, right?

And then all of a sudden it just, it brings a level where people feel safe.

- [Becky] Right.

- Safe to have conversations, right?

- I think it's simply approaching these topics like you would anything else.

And there is that slight hesitation, and you have to just move beyond it.

Because you being able to talk about your own health and these topics that you have hesitated about before, opens up the opportunity for somebody else to talk about that.

Well, what does that do?

Well, it just opens up the conversation in general.

And these conversations need to happen because they are really important.

In some cases they are... - [Melissa] Life.

- Life.

- Life.

- They're life-changing.

- Literally life.

We have made healthcare in some areas where that shame is threatening someone's life.

- Life, mm-hmm.

- And we gotta get over it.

- Yeah.

- We just have to get over it.

We've gotta take care of each other, and this is how we're making that space for people to be able to feel safe.

- Safe, that's exactly right.

- Yeah, that's so, I mean it's so essential, and it's sort of breaking down, yeah, all these barriers to understanding, to access, and yeah, to openness.

So thank you for that work.

I know in the description of the podcast online, it talks about how it's sort of women's health at the intersection of pop culture.

I love pop culture.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about- - Yes, we do too.

- About that and what role has pop culture played in sort of shaping our ideas around women's health and kind of how do you kind of use it in your podcast?

- Yeah.

I love this question.

So I'm gonna go.

- Yeah, please do.

- Okay.

I love this question 'cause I love pop culture and I think pop culture has done two things.

One, it's opened up the communication and the conversation, and two, it's given misinformation.

And I think that we can use pop culture as a tool to open up further communication.

And so we all love our favorite Earth mama Gwyneth.

- [Melissa] Gwyneth, Goop.

- And so she's got a lot to say about women's health.

- Yes.

- Yes.

- And a huge platform.

- And a huge platform.

And so we can talk about things that she says, and you know, Dr. Richards can approach it with what her medical input and knowledge would say about certain things that Gwyneth has said.

Or you know, maybe there's misinformation or I take the topic of a mammogram.

How many of us are terrified about a mammogram because of what has been fed to us in pop culture?

- Exactly.

- And how many of us have not scheduled our mammograms because we're scared to?

- So making it approachable, seeing it, then it becomes less scary.

- Yeah.

- Absolutely.

- And I love that sort of, I love what you said, Becky, about how pop culture has given us really good things and then also misinformation, and sort of being able to hold those two things, and then being able to then offer better information and better understanding to kind of help navigate all of that.

Do you have any favorite episodes of the podcast for someone who's like, you know, first listening to this, goes, "Ooh, I wanna listen to something."

- Go for it.

- So I think the nice thing is we have all the episodes, so what speaks to you is very important.

One of my passions is post-menopausal bleeding.

So for me, any person who's gone through menopause who still has a uterus, I want them to watch that video because it's so important.

It teaches so much about, like, what's normal, what's abnormal, and that's really where we're saving lives.

I look at that one I'm very proud of and I want everyone to watch the postmenopausal bleeding episode for themselves and the people around them.

- Yep.

I think I would probably talk about, I don't know.

- [Melissa] They're all so good.

- I know, it's really hard to say.

I think I would probably talk about where I had my, I had a lot of abnormal uterine bleeding and what it looked like to get that diagnosed through OMC, and then I had my device.

- [Melissa] Yep, your Mirena IUD.

- Yeah, my Mirena IUD.

- It shocked people, and it was great.

- And I talked about having that inserted and what it was like and the whole experience.

And it was very personal, but I felt empowered sharing that story, and I was really hopeful that my story would help empower other women who were having similar situations to have conversations with their healthcare providers.

- Wonderful.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We're so excited about all the work that you're doing and I'll definitely continue to watch and listen.

- Me too.

- Thank you for joining us today.

I hope you learned as much as I did today about all that's going on in our city.

For more wonderful content produced right here in Rochester, be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #RTown.

I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara, host of "R-Town," and I will see you next week.

(uplifting dance music) (mysterious music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.