Q. INSIGHTs & INTUITION

What is something business related you and your team have done over the past year that you’re most proud of?

Keely Schlichting VP Mortgage Production Manager Bank Division Bell Bank Mortgage Fargo, N.D.

In May of this year, we unveiled Bell Moving Forward. The program provides affordable lending opportunities to traditionally underserved and/or under-qualified communities. Unfortunately, not everyone has enough savings to use toward a down payment on a home. What’s worse is that many families are paying more to rent than to own a home. Bell Moving Forward is designed to target this problem. Bell Moving Forward allows qualified families with low to moderate income and credit scores in the low 600’s to purchase a home with as little as 1% down. In a short time, we’ve already helped 10 families in the area either purchase or refinance a home. Bell Bank not only designed the program, but also services and underwrites it. Another perk of Bell Moving Forward is that each applicant receives a required homebuyer education course to establish a budget. It allows buyers to see all of their monthly costs and how the mortgage payment will fit into that budget. With Bell Moving Forward, we are getting families into homes who thought it wasn’t possible. Not only is that something we’re proud of, but it feels really good to know we’re impacting lives through this groundbreaking program.

The Red River Regional Council has a small and fierce team that is 200% invested in supporting the businesses and communities in northeastern North Dakota, however needed. Over the past year, we have been focused on disaster recovery and resiliency planning due to impacts of COVID-19. For this work, we have been able to increase staff capacity, enabling us to complete more than 100 one-onone interviews with business owners/managers to learn more about their impact, current issues, and opportunities as the foundation to our planning. We have hosted three community conversations around the survey findings and featuring business owners with 170 attendees and more than 1,400 online engagements. We are hosting numerous lively conversations about growth in rural North Dakota that will result in strong action plans. We are in the process of launching a regional destination/ community development action plan with Roger Brooks, a national facilitator with 35 years’ experience in assisting communities in becoming high quality places to live, work, and play.

Dawn Mandt Executive Director Red River Regional Council Grafton, N.D.