With twin daughters, city work, Keller has his hands full

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

Nate Keller has his hands full, in more ways than one, with a double dose of tasks to do, besides his full-time work as Sartell’s community-development technician (See related story).

Keller, the father of 1-year-old twins, is busy, busy, busy morning, noon and night.

“The mornings can be insane,” he said. “We have to get them dressed and ready for school and daycare. That’s three heads of hair.”

Daughter Nahara, 6, goes to the Stride Academy. The twins – Naomi and Nava – go to an in-home daycare facility in Sauk Rapids.

Keller, his wife Barika and the daughters live in St. Cloud.

He started as a part-timer for the City of Sartell. When Therese Haffner, one of the Sartell city staff members quit last January, Keller was named to his full-time job as community-development technician.

Barika works currently through an AmeriCorps job as a reading specialist at Talahi School on St. Cloud’s east side.

The Kellers are, of course, thrilled to have twin daughters, but the bundles of joy came with challenges and a period of adjustment.

“It’s getting more difficult in some ways because now the twins know what they want,” Keller said. “For example, they will demand food. If one cries, and the other is sleeping, the crying wakes up her twin and she cries too. If we give them each a sippy cup, one of the twins will want both sippy cups, one for each hand, and they will start to fight.”

Work, too, can bring challenges for Keller, as well as job satisfaction.

“I like interacting with people and with residents,” he said. “It’s a good work climate here, and I get to know a lot of people.”

One of Keller’s first tasks was to write a proposal for a Safe Routes to Schools grant, and the proposal was a success, with $199,000 granted to the City of Sartell, money that will become available in 2019. Before Keller, Haffner also wrote a successful Safe Routes to Schools grant proposal. Both have put Sartell in the forefront of cities planning for a Safe Routes to School program. The funds will be used for a variety of safety improvements and sidewalks for students to and from schools.

Among his other work duties are processing building permits, issuing zoning permits, handling zoning questions from the public and following up on violations of the zoning code. He also does lots of inspections of erosion-control and sediment-control efforts, as well as violations of them.

Keller said personal interactions can sometimes be frustrating when trying to explain city regulations to someone who sees no sense or need for the regulations, such as the need for erosion control. It takes a lot of patience and at times a lot of patient explaining, he noted. Keller said there are only from 5 to 10 percent of residents who do not abide by rules and regulations. Those are the ones who require patience when he explains, for instance, why soil erosion regulations keep soil and possibly pollutants from getting into the water, into the environment.

Keller is excited about seeing responses to his latest park survey (See related story.)

“We’re trying to target different neighborhoods when we do the surveys,” he said. “We need feedback from residents, especially about neighborhood parks because those are the parks that tend to get overlooked.”

Another goal of Keller’s is to start a successful program to welcome new residents to Sartell, possibly with tours and partnerships with Metro Bus and the school district.

Keller was raised in Brooklyn Center, graduated from Champlin Park High School in 2006, then went to St. Cloud State University, earning a degree in community development and planning, graduating in 2013. Barika also graduated from SCSU, with a degree in special education.

The couple met when they were both working for a Target store in Brooklyn Park. Barika, born in Chicago, grew up in Brooklyn Park.

“Our families still live down there,”Keller said, “and that’s why it’s really hard to find a babysitter.”