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hopfen@startribune.rnm "We knew that volunteers couldn't replace
our layoffs, but the were looking to sce if we
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" could continue proriding our services with
DeebyICadriestafledthexeceptiondeskof diminished staff," said Wayzata Mayor Ken
the Wayzata Public Workspe
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ast Willcox.
Plus,Iwantedpeople(residents]to
week, fielding calls, preparing a mailing and undershtnd the stress that the econom
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gning for parcels. She loves the job -even putting on the city budget."
though she isn't getting
aid
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. While volunteers long have helped parks
Kadrie is among about 120 volunteers andrecdepartments,theynowareventurin
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e
ping the western suburb cope with the into new territory as cities and government
loss of 10 employee positions in the
ast two
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t
J p
agenc
es
ook for ways to soften budget cuts.
years, or about 15 percent of its workforce. "There's definitely a trend;' said Kevin Fra-
-
j Across the stake, volunteers are bailing out
i government. Cities continues on A6 p
ELIZABETH FLORES • eAores@staztribune.com
Lov/ry Nature Center voltuiteer Max Schorman weighed a bared ~~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~~~~~~, i ~~~~~~. r'~.fDiAt, ~ ~ ~~• ~~;,~~' ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~
owl during a recent two-hour volunteer shift. ~Cl'I'f-1T' CY"1"S' )) Deeby Kadrie, a retired office worker who volunteers in Wayzata
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ELIZABETH FLORES • eFlores@sta[txibune.mm
Schorman prepazed a merlin falcon to be weighed. Mimiesota has long been among national leaders
in terms ofvohmteeririg by its citizens.
.,
zell, member services direc-
torforthe Minnesota League
of Cities. .
The League found 55 ex-
amples of cities fuming to
volunteers to help fill in staff
or budget gaps. For the first
time, it will award a city for
"Effective Use of Volun-
teers."
For fo]ks such as Kadrie, it
makes sense to tap residents'
time and talent. "This is work
I know how to do. Plus, I'm
contributing to the city," said
Kadrie, a retired office work-
er who spends four hours a
week in her secretary job. "I
hope other municipalities do
~»
Minnesota has long been a
national leader~rinvolunteer-
ism. About 1.5 million Minne-
sotans volunteered 171 mil-
Iionhours in 2009, according
to the Corporation for Na-
tionalCommunity Service.
With. the economic down-
turn,voIunteers are keeping
sernices running for nonprof-
its and government agencies,
according to a new survey
by the Minnesota. Associa-
tion for Volunteer Adminis-
tration. Fiftp-five percent of
the 350 agencies and non-
profits surveyed said they re-
lied on voluhteersmore than
two years ago, and 30 percent
reported volunteers had pre-
servedtheir services.
Mary Quirk, an associa-
tionmanager, said calls from
governmentgroups aze grow-
ing. °in one week, I got five t
requests from government
agencies aslang about infor-
mation on volunteers," she
said "Normally I get five a
yean„ s
itiIot repladng,butfilliaegin
Cities say they're not re-
placing workers, but filling
gaps left by staff and budget
cuts. The volunteers support
paid workers, many of whom
are shouldering more respon-
sibilities.
Mankato, for• example,
has designated a city voI-
unteer coordinator to work
with department heads and
nail down ways volunteers
can support them, said Lau-
ra Elvebak, volunteer coor-
dinator.
Adding volunteer mus-
cle to labor-intensive city
' gazdens was a priority last
yeaz; Elvebak said. The Pub-
lic Works Department pre-
pazedthe flower beds and or-
dered the flowers, she said,
but volunteers did the plant-
ing. Volunteers also helped
mow grass in the pazlcs,'dig
weeds and care for cityflow-
erplanters.
Red Wing, which lost 20
employees in two years, has
posted neazly 20 volunteer
jobs on its website to do tasks
that in the past were handled
by city staff. Jobs include
cleaning bus shelters, raking
community gardens. When it
cut $10,000 to a nonprofit pro-
vidirigactivities at asenior cit-
izencomplex, it recntired vol-
unteers to leach genealogy,
computer skills and more.
An upsfde of down atraelzet
One of the most labor-in-
tensive volunteer jobs in-
volvedscanning Ciry Council
minutes from 1940 to 1980 for a
digital archive.Sue Schroeder,
a computer programmer to ok-
ingfor work, volunteered part
timeforfourinonthstr~nsfer-
ring decades ofineetings. She
also taught computer classes
to seniors.
She represents one reason
cities fmd so many volunteers:
4i ~~C3PL~ ~ T®~Et~l
Noreen Bt rhmann, volt>_rtteer coordinator
for the Three Rivers Park District
the city cemetery and help'
with "staking and inspectin
city construction projects."
Other cities are using vol-
unteers on a case-by-case
basis. Ham Lake, for exam-
ple, eliminated funding for
its senior center coordina-
tor. Instead, it tapped a fed-
erally subsidized~worlcer and
picked up extra volunteers,
said Doris Nivala, city ad-
ministrator.
Wayzata took a focused
approach. After cutting
$700,000 from ~ its budget
over two years, it "hired" an
unpaid volunteer coordina-
or and chose three priority
areas -city gardens, city ad-
ministration and Boazdwallc
Senior Apartments. "Those
were the azeas that were cut,"
aid Lynn McCarthy, a re-
redpublic relations execu-
ve who's the volunteer co-
rdinatoL
At City Hall and the Public
Torks Department, they ex-
erimented with secretarial
rpport Folks such as Kad-
e staffed the phones a cou-
ie of hours a day so the paid
>cretary could run business
;rands and the phone rnuld
answered during lunch
reek..
The city recruited more
mg A lot of skilled people are out
g ofworlc "Pve been out of work
and watching my retirement go
down," said Schroeder; named
the 2010 Volunteer of the Year.
'"11ris allowed me to use my
skills ... and keep my sanity."
Not all jobs are creat-
ed equal. Wayzata tried us-
ing volunteer receptionists at
City Hall, but callers wanted.
information volunteers didn't'
know Red Wing tried using
volunteers to maintaisa com-
plex community garden, but
they weren't up to the task
The key to tapping volun-
teers successfully is to fmd
meaningful, fun opportuni-
ties, said Noreen Buhmann,
volunteer coordinator for
the Three Rivers Park Dis-
trict, which has I,700 volun-
teers. "People want to'leam
and contribute," she saicL The
work "should be enjoyable or
rewarding. And you need to
provide training for the more
complex work"
Cities stress that volun-
teersalone won't solve budget
woes. They're looking at oth-
erideas as we1L "We just have
to get the cost of government
down," said Willcox "There's
a lot of imagination directed
that way."
than 100 residents to plant Jean Hopfensperger • 612-673-4517