Menu

Local Solutions in Action in Long Beach

May 2025 

By Imani Mosher
West Central, MN

Across Minnesota, there is growing momentum around resilience hubs as communities seek locally driven solutions to climate challenges, emergency preparedness, and energy resilience. More cities and organizations are exploring or establishing resilience hubs to provide critical resources during disruptions while also serving as year-round community assets. The Long Beach Resilience Hub is part of this expanding network, reflecting a broader desire across the state for spaces that support neighborhood-level resilience.

On April 24, 2025, community members from Long Beach and the surrounding area gathered at the Long Beach Resilience Hub to explore some of the practical solutions they’ve made to improve their resiliency.

Highlights from the Long Beach Resilience Hub meeting

welcome slide
sitting group discussing at a table
Imani Mosher smiling in black CERTs shirt

CERTs and GreenStep Cities

At the event, CERTs provided a brief background and a few updates on the Community Energy Ambassadors program, highlighting that the most recent CERTified Ambassador is from the west central region.

GreenStep Cities also attended the event to celebrate 150+ GreenStep communities in Minnesota and Long Beach’s progress in the program. The city  completed 30 best practice actions and with support from Cole Felton, an Americorps member at CERTs, successfully logged them into the GreenStep Cities database. Moving Long Beach from Step 1 to Step 3 at record speed! Long Beach already has a handful of other actions that are in-progress. 

Erica speaking to group
group sitting down and gathered at a table
Close up of a red haired woman lecturing to a group

Some of the work they were able to complete includes:

  • Installed LED bulbs along the exterior of the Hub and adjoining parking lot, with Xcel Energy, so that they are DarkSky compliant.
  • Participated in Xcel Energy’s Energy Efficient Buildings during the planning phase of the renovation that replaced the 70-year-old City Hall building with the Hub.
  • Adopted a new floodplain ordinance with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and /FEMA in 2024, while  also frequently collaborating with their county engineer on zoning and land use opportunities.
  • Expanded their organics recycling program to include an additional collection station at the Hub and exclusively use biodegradable drinkware, plates, and flatware for all events hosted there. 

GreenStep also shared their new Gold Leaf Challenge which focuses on pathways for communities to take local climate action. It is open to counties, neighborhoods, educational institutions, watersheds, and more. Using the GreenStep program resources, Gold Leaf aims to challenge, assist, and recognize local climate action efforts.

community members lined up to receive food
Imani Mosher posing with a red shirt person
Imani Mosher, Mayor Mike Pfeiffer, and Kristin Mroz posing in front of a beach

Meeting with Mayor Mike Pfeiffer

Mayor Mike Pfeiffer presenting in front of crowdTo conclude the event Mike Pfeiffer, the mayor of Long Beach, shared a presentation about the Long Beach Resilience Hub and led a tour of the facility — a multipurpose building space that serves as a community meeting space, a home for city offices, and a disaster relief center should the community need it.

Attendees were impressed by the mayor’s leadership within his community to make the Hub a reality — and he’s not done yet. Mayor Pfeiffer is pursuing both solar and battery storage for the Hub. By installing a solar and storage system Mayor Pfeiffer envisions the Hub as a space for community members to charge electronics, connect to Wi-Fi, refrigerate medications, and warm up or cool down should the city lose power. 

The Hub in Long Beach is one rural community’s approach to local resilience. Projects like this matter because they put the power of change directly into the hands of communities. The work we do today, makes our communities more prepared, more connected, and more hopeful for tomorrow.

group gathered inside of a garage with Mayor Pfeiffer in the center
people gathered outside
Group photo posing in front of the community building

More Event Recaps

CERTs staff at table
March 2025

Building connections at the first Metro Community Energy Ambassador event

Nik presenting to a group
September 2024

Connecting communities in northeastern Minnesota

Sign up for Minnesota Energy Stories

We encourage reuse and republishing of this story. All Clean Energy Resource Teams stories are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning you can share and adapt the work as long as you give us credit. We'd also love it if you link back to the original piece. Have questions or want to chat? Drop us a line.