Florida family gives up on small-town North Dakota

[alienlovechild 75]

HAZELTON, N.D. – A tiny North Dakota town's promise of cash and free land lured only one family from out of state. Now, Michael and Jeanette Tristani and their 12-year-old twins are trying to move from the town without a traffic light back to Miami.

Tired of crime, traffic, hurricanes and the high cost of living in Florida, the Tristanis moved four years ago to Hazelton, a dwindling town of about 240 that has attempted to attract young families to stay on the map.

"We don't have to look over our shoulder to see who's going to rob us, or jump out of the bushes to attack us," Tristani said. "Taxes are low, the cost of living is low and the kids enjoy school."

But the family also found a cliquey community that treated them like outsiders. "For my wife, it's been a culture shock," he said.

Rural communities across the Great Plains, fighting a decades-long population decline, are trying a variety of ways to attract outsiders. But the Tristanis show how the efforts can fail even at a time when many people are desperate.

"It's been quite an experience, 50-50 at best," Tristani said. "It hasn't been easy. No one really wants new people here."

The Hazelton Development Corp., formed by a determined group of citizens, began running ads in 2005 offering families up to two free lots and up to $20,000 toward home purchases. Businesses were offered free lots and up to $50,000 for setting up shop in the town.

Besides cash and free land, Hazelton had little else to offer except elbow room. Surrounded by flat farm land and livestock, the century-old town boasts three churches, a bank, a grain elevator and a bar.

Tom Weiser, one of the city leaders behind the project to lure new residents, said Hazelton had hundreds of inquiries from around the world when the community's proposal made headlines across the country. Several families from other states visited the town but only the Tristanis made the commitment to move.

Michael Tristani came from his native Florida wearing gold necklaces and a Rolex and driving a Lexus. He proved as foreign as a flamingo in a place where pickups, farm caps and flannel shirts are de rigueur.

"People thought I was a drug dealer," he said.

Tristani said he was prepared for Hazelton's bitter winters — when wind chills can reach 50-degrees below zero and snow drifts are measured in feet — but not the small-town drama.

"People prejudge you without getting to know you," Jeanette Tristani said.

The couple bought a house built by students at an American Indian college in Bismarck. The home was moved to town and put on two lots donated by the city. The Tristanis bought a third lot and were later given $15,000.

Tristani, a former grocery worker, and his wife, a former real estate agent, opened a bistro and coffee shop. But within weeks of moving to the city, the couple petitioned for a restraining order against the owners of another coffee shop. The Tristanis allege one of the owners drove by their house yelling obscenities and threatened to damage the family's new home.

"He appears to be out of control," The Tristanis wrote in court papers. "At times, it's difficult to understand the rest of the words he's using on my family due to his uproar."

Both businesses are now shuttered.

After his bistro failed, Michael Tristani said he began buying old houses in Bismarck, fixing them up and reselling them to earn money. Jeanette, 44, lost her job last year at a call center in nearby Linton when the business failed.

The couple's home in Hazelton has been on the market since August, though the for-sale sign has been covered with snow for weeks.

School Superintendent Brandt ####### said losing the Tristani twins, a boy and a girl in the seventh grade, would be a blow to the shrinking enrollment.

####### said there are 72 students enrolled at the local high school, and that the number is expected to fall to 31 in four years.

"We are declining in numbers and will continue to decline unless something changes," he said.

Bev Voller, a member of the nonprofit development group, said the incentives were funded largely through private money, much of it from "an anonymous donor."

But, she says, "the cash thing is over now."

Kim Preston, a spokeswoman for the rural advocacy group Center for Rural Affairs, based in Lyons, Neb., said the offer of free land to lure new residents to wilting towns is a phenomenon that started in the past decade.

But the small communities that have had success are near larger communities, she said.

"For it to work, it needs to be no more than a 30-minute commute," she said.

It's a 45-minute drive from Hazelton to Bismarck — in good weather. And the weather is often bad.

Jeanette said the main reason she wants to move back to the Miami area is to care for her elderly parents. Michael said he couldn't convince his wife's parents to join them in Hazelton.

"The cold weather has them freaked," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_...saving_hazelton

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I don't think I'd want to live in ND or MIA.

[mawilson 2,133]

There's a reason small towns are small - no-one wants to live there.

[Fandango 1,440]

Small town people can be weird...when my family first moved from South Fla to this small suburb of Orlando, I was expecting women coming by with homemade pie, lol. It's nowhere near as small as what this article talks about, but at the same time, we found them cliquey in Church of all places! My mom is actually gorgeous....she resembles Susan Lucci from AMC, and we'd walk into church, and this one woman would grab her husband's arm. When it came time for the 'peace be with you' handshake, they would never shake either of our hands. Hello? My mom is happily married, you crazy beotch!

My mom would wear something, and the next week, this woman would be wearing something similar. Without fail. It's really crazy.

One time, the husband (an usher) shook our hands...I looked at his wife, and the look of horror on her face was that of someone killing her pet. He never shook our hands again.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Small town people can be weird...when my family first moved from South Fla to this small suburb of Orlando, I was expecting women coming by with homemade pie, lol. It's nowhere near as small as what this article talks about, but at the same time, we found them cliquey in Church of all places! My mom is actually gorgeous....she resembles Susan Lucci from AMC, and we'd walk into church, and this one woman would grab her husband's arm. When it came time for the 'peace be with you' handshake, they would never shake either of our hands. Hello? My mom is happily married, you crazy beotch!

My mom would wear something, and the next week, this woman would be wearing something similar. Without fail. It's really crazy.

One time, the husband (an usher) shook our hands...I looked at his wife, and the look of horror on her face was that of someone killing her pet. He never shook our hands again.

crazy

I found most people in Colorado to be very friendly when I moved there.

[Danno 1,228]

I have found people to be friendly both in small towns and big, especially once you have the mildest of introductions.

[sara..... 371]

We live in a small town about 600 people total.....a few from California have moved here....they never stay long im not sure why, the old farmers they gather at the local coffee shop and drink coffee early in the morning and talk about anything from sally mays cow to that new combine that so and so bought (14) years ago.........

seriously i think the biggest problem is that people that come here from larger communities dont understand the small town mentality.....

the people working at the city hall have been there since out of high school and prolly their mothers or fathers held the job before them......we dont have any real problem with gangs because the good old boys in school will catch the wannabe out of school some time and show them what beat down is.......

our way of life is slow everyone knows everyone and their kids, a lot of times people will move here thinking they can bring this and that change but give up after a few years and leave......we will never have an espresso drive thru, night club or anything that is more than a bar where people go to play pool...or get drunk ....the biggest event in our area is lambs festival where farmers slaughter lambs and cook them up in town......sheep dog trials are held with a parade.....small carnival and brings in about six hundred people from out of town and state for three days a year

lets face it we are boring

sara

[Fandango 1,440]

We live in a small town about 600 people total.....a few from California have moved here....they never stay long im not sure why, the old farmers they gather at the local coffee shop and drink coffee early in the morning and talk about anything from sally mays cow to that new combine that so and so bought (14) years ago.........

seriously i think the biggest problem is that people that come here from larger communities dont understand the small town mentality.....

the people working at the city hall have been there since out of high school and prolly their mothers or fathers held the job before them......we dont have any real problem with gangs because the good old boys in school will catch the wannabe out of school some time and show them what beat down is.......

our way of life is slow everyone knows everyone and their kids, a lot of times people will move here thinking they can bring this and that change but give up after a few years and leave......we will never have an espresso drive thru, night club or anything that is more than a bar where people go to play pool...or get drunk ....the biggest event in our area is lambs festival where farmers slaughter lambs and cook them up in town......sheep dog trials are held with a parade.....small carnival and brings in about six hundred people from out of town and state for three days a year

lets face it we are boring

sara

I think it'd be ignorant to come to a small town and expect to change the everyone around you. Like you say, there is a small town mentality and I get the good bits of it. I lived in a small village in England, and I can say that once I was 'accepted', we'd be in our local, and a new face would come in and everybody would be all '####### is that?' It can be daunting to an outsider.