Fish Farm Project Gets Public Relations Help

By John Weiss, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.

Jun. 2–SPRING VALLEY — The man trying to upgrade a trout farm outside Spring Valley into a tourism center has hired a public relations firm to get more public support for Spring Valley Ponds.

That move by John Bondhus of Monticello, Minn., comes as part of a two-pronged public relations push to increase support for the project that is stalled because of problems getting permits. The other prong is a petition drive started a few weeks ago by the Spring Valley Economic Development Agency.

Bondhus said he hired New School Communication of St. Paul as a way to counter opponents who are contending his project might harm Spring Valley Creek, which flows through the pond.

The center of the controversy is a large spring that feeds the ponds where trout, which need cool water, are raised. Bondhus said the water would be cool enough when it reaches the creek and would actually help it stay cool in summer. Opponents fear the water will be too warm when it gets to the stream and that will hurt the trout there.

At first Bondhus wanted to stay out of the public eye, but he hired the firm to counter misinformation, he said. Just a few people in the Department of Natural Resource and some trout anglers are holding back the project, he said.

To build the project, he needs an environmental assessment worksheet, and to get his fish hatchery license back.

The push began this week, as Blois Olson of New School Communications handed out press kits to the media showing the benefits of the $3 million project. It would have fishing ponds, an interpretive center, a walk-through area to let visitors get a fish’s view of the pond and a playground where children can wade and catch frogs. Most of the fish raised for sale would be raised in special tanks inside buildings.

Besides adding about a dozen jobs, the project would draw tens of thousands of visitors who would spend money in the area, said Brian Hoff, Spring Valley economic development director. The petition has 400 to 500 signatures and will be given to elected officials, or state agencies, to show support, he said.

Jeff Broberg, head of the Minnesota Trout Association, said he isn’t against the project if Bondhus can get all the permits. “If he does that, fine, we’re all for it,” he said.

He doesn’t think the public relations push will help. “It (the decision) will be based on a technical basis, on a technical review, not on a public opinion survey,” he said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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