HOWARD - Work got under way Wednesday on an $8.1 million rural learning center that's expected to help revive this small South Dakota community.

The Maroney Rural Learning Center is the latest project in a decade-long effort to reinvent the farm town as a leading-edge experiment in reviving rural America, largely by taking advantage of green technology such as windpower.

The Maroney center, to be built downtown and completed by late 2010, will be a meeting, lodging and education center focused on the kinds of things that can spur job growth in rural areas, such as renewable energy. It's projected that as many as 2,500 people will visit the center yearly for outreach and education programs on green industry. The building itself, designed by Koch Hazard Architects and constructed by Henry Carlson Co., will be built to the highest environmental design standards so other builders can study those techniques.

During the groundbreaking Wednesday, Pam Flaherty, president and CEO of Citi Foundation, announced a $250,000 foundation grant for the design and development of a wind, solar and geothermal employment training program to be conducted in the Maroney center classrooms.

Bob Sutton, president of the South Dakota Community Foundation, referred to "the wind overhead" and added, "I think of the men and women who cursed it for decades, only to be replaced by a generation who embrace it."

Sutton said the revival of Howard is nothing less than reimagining rural America.

"It wasn't whether or not they were dreaming dreams too big," he said of leaders in that effort. "It's whether they could afford not to. That's how important it is to reimagine rural America."

Randy Parry, president of the Rural Learning Center and a former teacher and basketball coach in Howard, inaugurated the revival effort by bringing teen and adult residents together to talk about the future of the rural county. In the past 80 years, it's seen its population plummet from more than 8,000 to barely 2,000 as farms consolidated and local businesses lost out to communities with larger retail bases. In 1999, the students and residents created the nonprofit Rural Learning Center, which has gained national recognition for creative efforts to help rural communities survive.

In Howard, perhaps the most important aspect of revival took place in 2001, when the Northwest Area Foundation partnered with Miner County for 10 years and gave it a $3.8 million grant, according to Parry. The foundation made Howard do strategic planning and think deeply about the community, Parry said. Then it let Howard do the work itself and did not try to impose a solution from outside.

Flaherty and Citibank South Dakota President and CEO Ken Stork say the homegrown aspect of the revival effort makes Howard an attractive grant recipient.

"When you choose a project with a strategic plan, with leaders, and it's well thought out, those are the ones we feel best about," Stork said.

Howard's bid in the past decade to create a renewable energy sector has brought three companies associated with wind power to Miner County. Heartland Consumers Power District partnered with Howard on municipal wind power. They employ about 150 people. Gary Kanaby, vice president of sales for Knight and Carver, said the turbine blade manufacturer and service provider plans to expand its Howard plant that already employs about 60.

"That goes right along with the learning center," he said. This type of training center can really help our company."

Howard also has stemmed its outmigration, according to Parry.

The town these days resembles the place where she grew up before moving away for 22 years, Cheryl Moore said.

"In 22 years, it had gone downhill bad. Now it's been brought back more to what I remember," Moore said. She returned to Howard to raise her children in a small town.

She and Becki Mommaerts were enjoying the lunch after the groundbreaking. The Rural Learning Center is a heartening example of what her 6-year-old son can look forward to, she said.

"By the time he graduates from high school, there are going to be good jobs around here."

Miner County is projecting a population increase in the 2010 census. School enrollment is rising, and city sales tax revenue has tripled in the past 10 years.

The Maroney Center is named for Pat Maroney, a local businessman, Rural Learning Center donor and chairman of the Rural Learning Center Board.

"This town was dead at one time," Maroney said at the groundbreaking. "All it needed was the dirt shoveled in. But we're coming back, and we're thriving."

Reach Peter Harriman at 575-3615.