Hwy. 14 site sought for Hmong center

BIG PLANS — Tracy EDA Coordinator Jeff Carpenter (left) discusses the proposed Hmong community cultural center with Virajita Singh of the Center for Sustainable Building Research (center) and Khou Lor of Project Uniting Southwest Hmong (PUSH).

Plans at former greenhouse include areas for growing food

By Per Peterson

Visions of flourishing farm plots, and gardens and wetlands surrounding a museum, meeting and event space, classrooms and a gymnasium at a proposed Hmong cultural center in Tracy were on display at an informational meeting Sunday at the Walnut Grove Community Center.

And the best part is, the building that would house all these amenities is already standing.

The 2.7-acre site that used to be home to Tracy Floral by MAJSDAC has been targeted by Hmong leaders as the site for the new center that would serve as the hub for the Hmong community in the region.

“This all started off conversations about the community; there are a great amount of Hmong families though out this area,” said Khou Lor of PUSH, which stands for Project Uniting Southwest Hmong, a leading force behind the drive for the cultural center. “Through some of the conversations, we’ve found that there’s a need for preserving the culture, the language and the traditions of the Hmong community here and to provide a support system for that community in southwestern Minnesota.

See this week’s Headlight-Herald for more on this article.