(upbeat music) - Stay tuned for "On Q."

For KSMQ I'm Eric Olson.

We're going to talk with Sarah Hartman and Laura Helle.

from the Austin Human Rights Commission.

We're gonna learn about their work in the community.

Very important work and learn also about Austin Area Arts.

Also, we're gonna chat with Marcus Thompson.

He's the Mower County solid waste officer talking about recycling.

It's all coming up next "On Q."

♪ Local ideas that matter to you ♪ ♪ Sharing our region's unique point of view ♪ ♪ Telling the stories that you never know ♪ ♪ On Q ♪ ♪ On Q ♪ - The mission of the city of Austin Human Rights Commission is to cultivate, adjust an inclusive community where diversity is valued, human rights are respected.

We're gonna learn a lot about that here in our time together.

Here with us to discuss the mission and their involvement, commission chair, Sarah Hartman and commissioner Laura Helle.

Community representatives, welcome to you both.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- How did you become involved in the interest in serving, it's a volunteer work?

How did you become interested in it?

- Sure, so we moved here at the end of 2017 and I didn't know anybody, and my husband had become part of the chamber already.

So I also joined that and just to kind of take it a step further, 'cause I was really passionate about LGBTQ rights.

I wanted to join the city's commission and be a part of that and help make a change.

- So you were already familiar with this type of body that engages in cities, human rights commission.

- Very lightly.

I had never done it before, but I figured we're in a new place and might as well jump in and be as much integrated with the city as we can.

- Laura, what kind of work does the commission engage in agent mostly on garden variety type issues.

What are they?

- Sure we have a couple of goals every year and one of 'em is to help people find and access the state human rights department.

So if you have a human rights violation of some sort, we do have a state resource that will help you address that situation and remedy it, whether it be at work, or renting, or in any other format.

So we wanna bring awareness to those resources.

And then we also do a lot to celebrate diversity and celebrate, sort of the individual populations and communities within Austin.

So we help support Taste of Nations every spring, which is a celebration of all the different refugee and immigrant communities here in Austin.

And so there's an events type calendar, different things that we do throughout the year.

And then there's the ongoing work of making sure people are aware of the state resources.

- Okay.

That's interesting because you think of the word commission and I think of like a courtroom or something where these serious issues, but you're helping get information out to people.

- Right.

To call out each individual group, as Laura said, and we have quite a few events throughout the year that we do as well.

Like Martin Luther King day is a big one for us.

We are doing... We did a Pride event last year in collaboration with 4th Avenue Fest.

This year it'll be a separate event along with a 5K run.

And all of those proceeds will be given to The Trevor Project when everything is said and done for a good charitable cause.

Two, I'm trying to think what else did we do.

- [Laura] Welcoming Week is another big one.

- Welcoming Week.

- Okay.

Do you work with the Welcome Center on things because there are also to help communities from immigrant communities?

- Yes, we work with the Welcome Center, all throughout Welcome Week, whether it's sponsorships or volunteering our time.

We like to have a commission member at most of the events throughout Welcome Week, even if we're not hosting or sponsoring too.

So just to show our support.

- What issues are there any large issues in Austin specifically that you deal with that maybe other places don't or what are the hot topics these days?

- [Sarah] Sure, you wanna take that one?

- Or maybe there aren't any, I don't know?

- Sure.

Yes.

I think as the national news cycle goes and national events kind of shed light on more local issues.

So certainly there have been law enforcement and police violence.

And so our role as the Austin Human Rights Commission is to kind of bring that advice and special human rights lens to the city council, the elected officials.

And so we'll sometimes draft a statement or a policy that we, and then ask them to adopt it, whether it be about ethnic, and racial justice, or any other kind of issue.

- Okay.

So they come to you for a voice.

- [Sarah] Yes.

Communities of color primarily will come and say, "I'm concerned about issue X, but nobody is, how do I do this?

How do I make change happen?"

- Yeah.

Whether it's communities of color or LGBTQ communities, we have... We're the voice for them trying to advocate for them to get, you know, their needs shown and the problems come to light versus hiding them.

- Sure.

Laura, how about you?

How did you become interested?

I know in past you've served on the city council also, so you're aware of government operations.

Is that what led you to this service work?

- It is actually.

I was leaving my city council commission and heard that there was an opening on human rights commission.

So I applied, I knew I was gonna miss my city involvement.

And human rights is a core issue for me just personally.

So it was a good fit, but yes, I kind of... A lot of people join boards and commissions, and it becomes a feeder system for elected office, but I went the other way.

(Laura laughs) From elected to... - I guess I didn't realize that that's how some folks.

- Yeah.

That's how some folks get familiar with city government and understand the issues and get to know the people and feel comfortable.

So I think of it as our farm team to make a baseball analogy.

- Like for example, Oballa Oballa was on the human rights commission for quite a while before he joined the city too.

So, and that...

I don't know if that was his stepping stone.

I can't speak for him, but he was on it for quite a while and very involved.

And I know he was an honorary city council - [Eric] city council member as well also.

- As well.

- How often do you meet and how do you get members?

- We meet once a month.

It's the last, well, we've changed it.

It used to be the last Monday of every month.

And now it's just kind of, we go with the flow.

Usually it's a Monday or Tuesday, depending on, make sure everyone can make it.

And then if you want to apply or are interested, you can go out to the city website and fill out a very, it's a really simple application.

And then we, as a commission will review.

And of course we always wanna get diversity on the commission as well.

So we do what we can to do, keep that up.

- What's your favorite part?

Do you have a favorite part of this role for you?

- I'd say planning like I had a blast planning Pride last year and it turned out so well.

I was really surprised.

We had such a huge turnout.

Everyone.

We had people from Owatonna, people from like big surrounding cities that had come down, a lot of early teens and, you know, and they're teenagers came out too.

It's a family friendly event.

So I think everyone had a really good time.

There were kids there and 4th Avenue Fest helped going on too.

So that was also a great event to bring everyone out too.

So I just like seeing their faces.

I was so surprised that it went over so well.

- I thought when you said, I like planning, you like planning the meetings.

I thought that's what you were gonna say, but no.

Okay.

The events.

- The events.

I like planning, yep.

Planning the events.

- Laura, what about you?

It sounds like a stressful issue and just like, it could be corrosive, but you find good things happen.

- Oh, absolutely.

For me, everybody we're helping are vulnerable for one reason or another, they're vulnerable in our community and we're able to help them.

And I, a lot of times see my role as a bridge, that I'm the approachable, trusted person who can then explain how you apply for a fencing permit at the Planning and Zoning.

And then maybe I go on and tell the Planning and Zoning department, "Hey, could we have some of our materials in several languages.

That would be more helpful."

So it's very much a bridge position where I'm helping vulnerable people access city services, which I happen to know about.

So it's natural for me.

I enjoy the process.

- Okay.

And we're fortunate in Austin, the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota has an office in Austin and a lot of expertise about issues.

Do you ever interact with those folks to get information or what's happening at the state level.

- We have in the past, the previous chair, Sarah.

- [Laura] Karki.

- Karki, yes.

Sara Karki was the... She worked there as well.

So she worked closely and did a lot more work with that.

I have not since I took the chair position yet, but they are still, you know, on our radar and we always, if we need to, or, you know, I think we've been trying to get the state level commission to come and talk as well.

We just haven't had the opportunity yet.

- You mean the State Human Rights Commission?

- [Sarah] Yes.

- [Laura] Yes.

- Is that sort of the above, I mean are you all part of a connected network thing or how does that work?

- Not exactly.

It's actually a department like the DNR or Economic Development.

It's the Minnesota State Department of Human Rights.

But so they do outreach to us.

And then in turn we can, this is our plan, which has been derailed a bit by Covid, but the plan is to bring those state officials down to share their story of what the state resources are with particular populations in Austin.

And so that's one of our roles, but as I said, COVID has made that a lot more difficult to just physically bring people together.

- [Sarah] One of our goals.

- Yes.

- And as you said, you're an advisory, that's your role as advisory.

Advising the city council Of Austin.

And you have people that come from the city to be part of your meetings.

- Yep.

Yes, we have a city liaison, Jeff Austin currently, and then Trish Weichman is also... She does our budget reports and she's the, I don't know her official- - [Laura] Staff liaison.

- Staff liaison.

- But a member of the city council.

And that's pretty important, I would guess.

So you give recommendations.

How does it work?

Do you get complaints and then things get changed.

What's that process?

How would that work in theory?

- Well, if we could kind of go back to the fencing example.

So in the city of Austin, if you're gonna put up a fence in your yard, you have to get a permit and then they wanna check your fencing, and make sure that it meets all our planning and zoning.

So let's say there's a household that comes forward because Miguel Garate is on our commission and they know Miguel and they say, "Miguel, we're building a fence.

We don't understand what we need to do."

So Miguel says, "Okay.

This is what you do.

You go to planning and zoning.

They'll help you with the paperwork.

You have to pay a little fee."

And so on and so forth.

And maybe Miguel even will translate the forms.

And then he'll come back to the meeting and say, "You know, we should really advise the Planning and Zoning department to get their forms translated."

And so then we would in turn go to the city council and say, "You know, we have an idea, suggestion, have you ever thought about getting these forms translated?

And you know, is that something that you can find some budget for?

Or how can we help?"

So it goes from very informal, just passing on ideas to more formal, asking them to adopt an official proclamation or even to adopt an ordinance that's within the realm of possibility, but day in and day out, bread and butter.

It's much more conversational and passing on ideas and feedback from people's actual experiences.

- I think the literal, how can we help is probably a good statement for us.

- Simple help.

But it can be complex waters working with governments.

That's very important stuff.

Thank you for your service in the city first, as can be a thankless situation.

So thank you for that.

Thank you for your time here.

- [Sarah] Thank you for having us.

- [Laura] Thank you.

- That was Sarah and Laura.

from the human rights commission.

(upbeat music) Welcome back.

The Austin Area Commission for the Arts was founded in 1990.

The mission of the founders was to promote and develop the arts in Austin, as well as to oversee the ongoing preservation of the historic Paramount Theater.

In the decades since Austin Area Arts has organized the annual Artworks Festival coming up in its 11th year, this year.

And opened the Artwork Center on Main Street.

To tell us more about the art center and her work with them is executive director, Laura Helle.

Welcome Laura.

- Hi Eric, how're you doing.

- Very well.

Thanks.

Your organization has become sort of a central focus of the city and of downtown with art being a real positive part of the Austin experience.

And it wasn't always, so.

Tell us a little bit about your work in developing this interest.

- Sure.

So I'll mention since your intro, you said Austin Area Commission for the Arts, that is our legal name, but in 2017, we started doing business as Austin Area Arts.

Because we did confuse a lot of people with having commission in the title.

They thought it was a government or at least government related, and it's not, it's an independent nonprofit.

And we like to think of ourselves as an umbrella organization.

So we're the arts organization, and we have performing arts programming happening at the Paramount.

We have the Summer Festival to celebrate the arts.

We have visual arts at the artwork center and a retail area.

- Classes.

- And then...

Yes in education.

And then other opportunities do come along here and there where we can bring in additional arts or just support and partner with others who are also doing their work.

- It's easy to stop remembering all those pieces when you just think of the artworks festival, because that is something that wasn't here 10 years ago and it's become this big event, you would think that's all that you all do there, operate.

But you're running the historic paramount for folks that aren't familiar with that facility.

Give us a little taste of what that historic theater is like.

- Sure.

It was originally built in 1929 as a first run movie house.

And at that time, the styles, what they call atmospheric theaters.

So the idea was to do the decorations and the theme that when you walked in, you were transported to a different time and place.

And so when you actually walk in the theater itself, it's transporting you to a villa in Italy in the 1200s.

So you see some scenery of the villa.

And of course the ceiling is a domed blue sky with some starlight sprinkling in.

So that atmospheric theater was very popular in the 20s but there aren't very many of them that remain.

And that's one of, one of Austin's real true assets in terms of a historic building is the Paramount Theater.

- And it didn't always look like that in the last years, it had sort of fallen on disrepair.

A lot of dedicated folks stepped up.

- Yes, absolutely.

In the 70s, 1972, it went out of business as a first run movie theater.

And then as often happens with big old buildings, it changed hands a bunch of times.

And one of the owners ran a nightclub, which I'm sure some of your viewers got to go, it was called the Theater.

And I'm sure some of your viewers have happy memories of dancing at the Theater, but the owners of the nightclub painted all of that scenery and the sky and everything black, which I bet looked great for a night club in the 70s.

But then when the Austin Area Commission for the Arts was founded in the 90s, they started the restoration work to bring it back to how it looks today.

- Oh my goodness.

That was a lot of work.

- Big challenge.

- And the future holds, perhaps there'll be some more changes in the future years.

- Yes.

We would really love to expand.

We have some pretty serious ADA challenges.

So if folks are ambulating on a wheelchair or with crutches, or have other mobility issues, it's very hard for them to get to our balcony or our stage, or our restrooms.

And so we'd love to be able to expand our footprint a little bit, have a bigger lobby, which would add safety and also address those ADA issues.

- And what's the website address and you have Facebook that updates your schedule.

- Yep.

AustinAreaArts.org is our website.

Everything is there.

We're also on Facebook, Austin Area Arts.

- Wonderful.

Thank you so much, Laura.

Thanks for your work.

(upbeat music) Welcome back.

This is "On Q" the show about Mower county, and Freeborn county, Albert Lea, Austin, everywhere in between.

And from Mower County Public Works right now, we have Marcus Thompson solid waste officer, here to discuss his work with the county.

Thank you for being here.

Tell me a little bit about what you do.

You work at the recycling center.

- Yep.

And what's your responsibility there?

- I oversee the recycling center in hazardous waste facility.

I market the materials that come in.

I educate the public.

I oversee the staff that sort through the material because you gotta get the glass and cans separated and maintain the equipment, apply for grants, run the budget for the facility.

There's a lot of little things to it that someone wouldn't realize.

- How did you become interested in this work?

How did you get in with the county.

- In 2017 I started as a mechanic for the county.

And so I used to have to go over there and kind of help with the work on some equipment once in a while, because they don't have all the tools.

So like the previous guy, he did a lot of maintenance on the equipment, but sometimes you just don't have the tools that the county shop has.

And so I found interest in it.

And then when it came open, I'm like, "Wow, that seems like a nice fit."

- That's great.

Any special education certifications required?

- Yeah.

Once I was hired on there's a lot of state certifications you gotta do for like hazardous waste and OSHA stuff and safety training.

But other than that, it's mostly just, you know, being a leader, you know, you don't really need a master's degree, you know, you just gotta show that you can handle it and be a leader.

- Is most of your work in an office, or desk, or are you out in the field a bit?

- It's about 50/50.

So that was a nice plus for me 'cause I'm not one to sit behind the desk, but I do enjoy it once in a while pushing numbers.

But yeah, I get a lot of time either in the facility trying to improve things or outreach to the public.

So yeah.

- Is there an operation with Steele county or do we have our own landfill in Mower county.

- We don't have a MSW landfill.

We just have one for construction, industrial waste.

- MSW municipal.

- Yes.

- Solid waste.

- [Marcus] Solid waste.

- Okay.

It's an acronym.

- We have the transfer station by Austin and so it all gets shipped to Iowa.

- Oh Iowa.

Okay.

You mentioned enjoying crunching numbers.

What other things do you like about your job best?

What would those be?

- I'd say the most rewarding part is when getting somebody new to start recycling.

That's one thing I've enjoyed the most.

I'm not best at interviewing or doing tours, but I have done some tours for students in the area.

And there's one time I did one and over 1/2 never even heard about recycling.

And I knew I made a difference when two of the kids drove there to the recycling center on their own time after school and got recycling bins for their house.

- So there's still a lot of education that needs to be done.

- Yes.

That's a big thing I'm gonna push for the near future.

- Huh.

And then we were talking before you went on that we pay, if you're a taxpayer in Mower county, you can get curbside pickup.

- Yeah.

For city residents for Austin, and most of the rural towns have it, but we don't go like in the country, but we have drop off sites all over the county.

So it's very convenient to drop 'em off.

- And they're already paying for it you had said.

- Yeah.

It's an assessment on your taxes and I'm not sure the exact number and it varies by your house and stuff, but yeah, someone should take advantage of it because I mean, you pay for garbage.

Do you use that?

- Very true.

We're talking with Marcus Thompson, the solid waste officer for Mower county.

And we were chatting beforehand about, for people that do recycle, there seems to be a number one of those recycle numbers with the little arrows around it for everything, but not everything belongs in a recycling center can even be recycled, even if it has that number on.

- Yeah.

That's the biggest challenge.

And to do that outreach because it's confusing.

And I didn't know before I was in this position and neither did most of my family.

So I'm kind of like that guy, like, "Oh, the recycling nerd or something."

But yeah, it's confusing.

So that's my goal is to try to help people and help keep the contaminants out of our facility so we can be more efficient and recycle more.

- So you told me basic rule of thumb.

I think you said is if it's a bottle and it's plastic.

That's- - Container... Consumer contaminant type.

- For sure it's good.

You can do that if it's a sheet of paper or like glass, that's glass from a window.

- Yeah, not recyclable.

- No.

- Bottles.

Only for glass.

- And what's changing in that industry?

I suppose manufacturers are making new containers that are sort of a mystery of what they're made of.

- Yeah.

Like, yeah.

A lot of it's one use containers 'cause it's cheap.

It's the end of the life plastic.

So once you know, aluminum can, can get reused non stop.

It can never not, not be recycled.

It goes from a can to another can, but plastic, you know, it kind of has its in life.

It can only be remade so many times, like, it'll be a bottle.

Well, it doesn't go back to bottle.

It might turn into the carpet or clothing after that.

- Oh it loses some of its elements or something.

- [Marcus] Yes.

- And you called it one use, what'd you call it?

One use containers or something?

- [Marcus] Single use.

- Single use.

Which means they don't get recycled.

- Correct.

- And that's what food things.

- To go containers or- - Frozen food boxes.

We use a lot of those in our house.

They have that kind of waxy.

- Yeah, that's a new thing that it can, those can be recycled in the cardboard because, or the newspaper I should say 'cause right now we have a really strong market that's taken our paper and they make insulation.

So they don't care that it has that waxy film but it won't be able be used to make a box again.

- Oh, that's interesting.

So your markets go up and down.

- Yeah.

And so that's part of my job is to find what market we can get the most bang for a buck for, and it saves, you know, so we can keep our program sustainable and not raise taxes.

- Well, you can go to the recycling center or sign up at the curb for curb service if you're in the city of Austin, what's your address there, if folks haven't been there?

- It's 1111 8th Avenue North East.

It's kind of by the big Quick, the truck stop Quick drive.

- The big new Quick Trip in Austin.

And that's what is that?

11th?

Is that the exit, or 18th, I can't remember where it's at.

I think it's 11th.

- It's by the public works building.

- Somebody will correct me.

I'm sure.

Hey, thank you very much, Marcus.

It was very interesting learning about your work.

- Thanks for having me.

- You betcha.

- And that's it for today.

Thank you for joining us "On Q."

For KSMQ, I'm Eric Olson.

See you next time.

(upbeat music)