Can volunteers save city budgets? Can working with the city next door?

The city of Red Wing has cut 25 jobs since 2009 and reduced spending by $2 million. Can a network of 200 volunteers make up the difference?

Of course not. But City Administrator Kay Kuhlmann estimates the city has gotten $100,000 worth of service from volunteers -- keeping up city parks, gathering trash, maintaining signs and bus shelters and more.

Organizing volunteers, either with unpaid programs like Red Wing or with a paid coordinator like Mankato's, is one way cities have responded to increasing budget pressure, pressure that will only become more intense as the state deals with its deficit.

Another has been to find ways to collaborate with neighboring towns. Annandale, Howard Lake and Maple Lake northwest of the Twin Cities built a sewage treatment plant together and saved money. Other cities are combining clerical and other work.

All these efforts are coming into focus as DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature tackle the state budget, so we are rolling out a new version of our "Cities in Crisis" topic page. Reporter Jennifer Vogel is producing several new stories focusing, not on the angst city officials are feeling, but on the steps many have taken to deal with the new reality.

And the page continues to provide a host of links to summaries of what other cities are doing, research on the "new normal" cities find themselves in and resources for more information.

Check out the page, and you can hear Vogel talk about her reporting today on All Things Considered with Tom Crann.

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