Urban renewal board member enjoys investing in Post Falls' future

Larry Carstensen spent much of his career promoting and selling products that helped farms in rural America.

Today the Post Falls man spends some of his retirement time making decisions as an urban renewal agency board member.

Whether his focus has been on fields or priming the economic development pump in Post Falls with urban renewal decisions, he's stuck to the philosophy of not settling for second.

"Something I've lived by is, if we're going to do it, let's do it right," Carstensen said.

When he worked as a regional sales and marketing director for Cenex, which sells farm products, a quote he saw at a co-op in Wheeler, Wash., caught his eye.

"Whatever we do, let's do it better than everyone does," it states.

Carstensen had the quote engraved for all of his representatives as a reminder to go for the gusto.

Raised on a farm in southwest Minnesota, taking pride in your community and doing whatever it takes for it to stay connected were values instilled in Carstensen. Being in the Air Force for eight years after graduating from high school put an exclamation point on those.

In addition to serving on urban renewal, Carstensen volunteers at the American Legion in Post Falls with recruitment and at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Coeur d'Alene as a board member, documenting veteran stories and reaching out to active duty military.

In Jackson, Minn., he earned a Distinguished Service Award from the Jaycees and served as a county commissioner.

It frosts him, he said, whenever he sees someone or an agency not cooperating to make North Idaho a better place.

What are some examples where you've seen that cooperation or collaboration lapse?

Some people choose to let their yards and homes look terrible. Why are there two fire department training facilities just five miles apart (in Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene)? I think it's a darned shame that cities and counties can't work more together instead of building their own empires.

How do you think Post Falls is doing about maintaining a sense of place?

There's community spirit, and I think the small-town feeling is still here ... if you're willing to go out to help keep it. And we need to help make everybody feel that they're a part of it. There's civic groups that do a wonderful job, but there's less volunteers (overall) doing things. We need the younger generation to step up to the plate. Many of them are stepping up to is texting and cell phones.

What have been some of the big urban renewal projects in Post Falls you've been associated with?

The Greensferry overpass (at Interstate 90) and improving Spokane Street are the big ones lately. (Both are still in the planning stages, but have been approved.) The overpass will be good for business on both sides of the interstate.

Why is being involved in urban renewal rewarding?

Hopefully it's making Post Falls a better place. If you don't have businesses in a community, it's not much of a community.

Urban renewal has had a negative connotation to some folks. Any thoughts on why that is?

I think there's a lot of misunderstandings. Also, if there's one bad decision, it's lumped to all urban renewal agencies. But I believe we do a good job in Post Falls of closing districts. If it wasn't for urban renewal, who would build the Greensferry overpass? Urban renewal is useful as long as we have incentives to help the region grow. As the economy appears to be getting better, there should be renewed opportunities for other businesses and people to relocate to North Idaho.

You grew a convenience store and gas station business in Minnesota before moving back to this region. What were the keys to that success?

It was the little things such as saying thank you, calling people by their first names and being available. I've been to businesses where I've had to search for an employee to help you.

You were a county commissioner in Minnesota. Any plans to make a run in Kootenai County?

A lot of things cross my mind, but will it ever happen? I think I'm probably too opinionated or too old. But I still want to continue to be involved. You can only watch so much TV.