Otter Tail County approves $225,000 renovation bid for New York Mills center

Otter Tail County approved a $225,000 bid from a Menahga contractor to renovate the New York Mills Family Resource Center, moving the project from planning into construction. The work gives county leaders a concrete next step in turning the New York Mills site into a more durable place for families who need services close to home.

County officials have framed Family Resource Centers as community or school-based welcoming hubs that connect families to support, services and opportunities. In practical terms, the renovation should improve how the New York Mills building functions for residents who use it for referrals, support services and community programming, with updates that can make the space more accessible, better laid out and easier to maintain over time. That matters for county spending as much as for the building itself, because a more efficient facility can deliver the same services in a space that is easier to operate and more useful for the people who depend on it.

The approval also sits inside a longer county effort to build out family-resource services in smaller communities instead of concentrating everything in a larger county seat. Otter Tail County issued a request for qualifications in 2023 for a community assessment facilitator tied to family resource center development, using Sauer Family Foundation support under the Building Strong Family Relationships assessment and exploration grant. That work ran from Aug. 1, 2023, through March 15, 2024, and the county completed a Family Resource Centers community needs assessment dated April 4, 2024.

The renovation is also backed by outside grant money. The county board later accepted $882,860 in Multi-Purpose Community Facility Projects Grant funding from the Minnesota Department of Education to support renovations in New York Mills and another county location, reducing the degree to which the local project depends on county dollars alone.

New York Mills has already been part of the county’s service network for decades. Otter Tail County added an office and staff there in 1994, and the building, formerly a school, sits at the north end of Main Street. The county lists the site at 118 Main Ave. N., New York Mills, MN 56567, and human services listings include the New York Mills phone number, 218-998-8308.

A county family-resources guide now lists New York Mills as one of its contact points, alongside Fergus Falls. With the renovation bid approved, the county has taken another step toward making the New York Mills center a permanent, more functional hub for services that residents can reach without leaving town.