Attend a city council meeting. Register for city services. Obtain a pet license. Ask questions, receive helpful information about Staples, and set up utility service for your home. Located in the middle of town, the beautiful City Hall building houses city administrative offices, the public library, and a large conference room.

The Staples Public Library is a member of the Great River Regional Library (GRRL) System. Library patrons have access to materials—books, DVDs, CDs, audiobooks, and much more—from across the state with GRRL’s huge 900,000-item collection.

The library has a wonderful children’s area with child size tables and chairs, boxes of puzzles and games they can play while listening to a book. The Staples Library hosts story times throughout the year, meet-the-author events, hands-on and interactive programing, LEGO build challenges, and other dynamic library activities. Their schedule can be found on their website, Facebook page and the community calendar website. 

The library also offers WiFi access, public workstations, online catalog access, and programming for all ages throughout the year. Need help finding something? Ask one of the friendly, helpful staff.

The Staples Area Chamber is a non-profit focused on strengthening the local business community and improving the quality of life for all residents. The Chamber is comprised of dues-paying business owners and individuals from Staples and the surrounding area. They are an active advocate for local businesses and represent their interests at the local, state, and national level. The Chamber concentrates its work primarily on community events, business-to-business networking, and promoting both its member businesses and Staples as a whole.

Sourcewell is the regional service cooperative for Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties. As a service cooperative, Sourcewell is a self-sustaining government organization charged by Minnesota state statute to partner with education, government, and nonprofits to boost student and community success. Locally, Sourcewell delivers training and contracted services. Statewide, Sourcewell provides a self-funded group health insurance option for public agencies. Throughout North America, Sourcewell offers a cooperative purchasing program and technology solutions for schools. Sourcewell staff aim to be force multipliers, empowering public employees as they fulfill their public service mission.

The Region Five Development Commission’s purpose is to enhance the vitality and quality of life for all people in Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties by bridging resources and relationships. Region Five addresses regional critical issues without duplicating private, public and non-profit entities. They ask residents “what keeps you up at night” and address those issues by partnering and collaborating with other organizations, businesses, non-profits, and local units of government.

Established in 1977, the Five Wings Art Council is one of 11 designated Regional Arts Councils in the state of Minnesota that provide grants and services to nonprofit arts organizations, and individual artists.

The Five Wings Art Council was formed as a response to a legislative initiative that called for more development of the arts in Minnesota at the local level. FWAC is funded through appropriations from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the State’s general fund and Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund (Legacy Amendment) as provided by the Minnesota State Legislature through the vote of the people to pass funding for the arts. FWAC also receives a generous grant from the McKnight Foundation.

The Staples Motley Area Community Foundation is a partner fund of the Initiative Foundation, established with the mission to develop and strengthen community resources and to enhance the quality of life of individuals, families, and organizations in the Staples-Motley School District. They use local dollars to provide direct grants to projects within the community that:

Strengthen Youth and Families: Supplementing the endeavors of others in developing and implementing positive opportunities for youth and families.

Improve Community Appearance: Making our community attractive and inviting to visitors and improving the appearance of the community to make residents proud to live here.

Increase Community Involvement and Leadership: Promoting citizen community involvement by developing and identifying leaders within the community in order to instill a sense of solidarity based on the assets of our community.