| OLIVIA 4/4/01 -- Sheldon Melberg of Hector turns to migrant
workers to help him tend his sugar beet fields for about six
weeks of each year.
He, and neighboring producers such as Jim Elfering, are
among a number of Renville County farmers who also provide
temporary living quarters to their migrant workers. They offer
trailer homes on farm sites or in some cases pay their
workers' way at a hotel in Olivia.
Those days may soon be over.
The Minnesota Department of Health will be getting out of
the business of regulating migrant labor camps next year. When
it does, Renville County will have to treat the camps as if
they were mobile home courts and demand that separate sewer,
water and other services be provided to each unit, said Jill
Bruns, public health director for the county.
Melberg and Elfering told the Renville County Board of
Commissioners Tuesday that they and other producers cannot
afford to invest in full-scale mobile home courts to serve a
labor force that is needed for only about six weeks of a year.
Nor is there any certainty that existing, privately
operated housing will fill the gap. Officials in Olivia are
already concerned about alleged health and safety issues at
the Big Motor Inn. Mayor Bill Miller of Olivia described the
condition of another housing facility as being in a "dire
state of repair.''
It has the county commissioners looking north to Brooten
for the possible answer to Renville County's farm labor needs.
There, Dee Bayer manages a one-of-a-kind facility for
Minnesota. It offers apartments for seasonal farm workers and
their families.
Bayer told the commissioners that the 40-unit complex on
the edge of Brooten provides housing to 400 people through the
course of a season, from mid-April to late October. The
tenants pay rent based on their income. Most have been
returning each year, and there is always a waiting list.
The nonprofit operation long ago "weeded out'' those
who were not sincere in finding farm jobs and paying their
rent, she said.
"The ones that are coming now are just wonderful
people,'' said Bayer.
The Brooten facility was constructed in 1986 and expanded
in 1992, according to architect John Korngiebel of Korngiebel
Architecture, Hutchinson. Federal grant funds provided for 90
percent of its construction costs.
The Brooten facility is among a number of farm-state
residences promoted by the United Migrant Opportunities
Services (UMOS), according to Heladio "Lalo'' Zavala,
operations director. He said it provides farm workers with
"better living'' facilities than they can often find
otherwise.
Vangie Thompson, with UMOS resource development, told the
commissioners that there also is help for developing permanent
housing for farm laborers. UMOS has helped develop facilities
in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
The commissioners took no formal action Tuesday but
instructed Jamin Johnson-Schneider, county housing and
economic development coordinator, to explore the county's
needs and options.
The commissioners noted that a portion of the county's
migrant work force actually serves two different sets of
employers. They work part of the year tending the fields of
farmers, and another part of the year working at processing
facilities, such as those operated by Minnesota Beef Producers
and Jennie-O. |