Time and Attendance

Meeting start and finish: 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Members Present (alphabetical order): Don Bailey (City of McCall), Ken Minshall (City of Donnelly), David Papiez (member at large), Bill Willey (unincorporated Valley County), Willem Braak (non-voting/UI Extension).
Members absent: David Carey (McCall chamber), Scotty Davenport (Cascade Chamber), Karla Miller (member at large), Rob Terry (City of Cascade).
Non-members present (all or part of the time): Michelle Groenevelt

Decisions and notable points

Welcome & Agenda

• Rob Terry will likely represent the Cascade City Council at future meetings; he had to excuse himself for this meeting because of a schedule conflict.
• Blake Watson from Idaho Power wanted to briefly discuss Idaho Power’s Partnering for Economic Development grants, but was not able to make this meeting. He related a link to the program to share with the council: http://www.idahopower.com/ServiceBilling/Business/Service/partnering.cfm

Project Updates

VC Energy Team: Tim O’Leary reporting

Tim reported specifically on progress of the Y-project: a collaborative project where a team of 4 undergraduate EE students and 1 graduate student from UI work on a net-zero energy implementation for one of the camp’s buildings. The project is intended to be a demonstration for camp-youth as well as Valley County community on how pocket energy generation can create local jobs and strengthen a local economy. Tim also involved the science teachers of Cascade and McCall high-school in order to have high-school student participation. The council invited Tim to again present an update at the May meeting.

Business plan contest: Wim reporting for Karla Miller

• Regarding the two prizes to be awarded: the team concluded that separating the prizes specifically for the north and south would only further separation, whereas the quality of the business plan should be the overriding criterion. County-wide participation will be better achieved by effective promotion and coaching and a judging rubric may incorporate location as a strategic choice.
• The team will reconvene on April 23rd at 2:00 pm at the Hub to discuss the promotion budget and will again present to the VCEDC on April 24.

Sub-committee updates

VCED Structure Formalization – David Papiez

Students from UI Law School had provided an overview of economic development organizations in Idaho with their respective exempt status, mission and some organizational parameters. Blaine County seems to have many similarities with Valley County considerations, and the council suggests a “field trip” coinciding with the “Chef’s contest” ( May 11 or 18?)

RFP Department of Commerce – Don Bailey and Bill Willey

The ongoing discussion on potentially funding a paid professional to support regional economic development through a grant described in the above RFP continues to revolve around two issues:

The council should develop focus areas first:

The council is still finding its way in developing useful focus areas for economic development in the county; i.e.

• where can the council/community pave the way for economic growth and promote a fertile environment for entrepreneurship
• how can the community encourage initiatives that improve year-around employment and bring higher wages to the region.

Several council members feel that it is important to develop those focus areas before considering if and how a paid professional can support the council in its efforts.

Recreation is an  agreed upon focus:

Through the 2011/12 workshops and further council discussions there is a clear recognition that the region’s recreational opportunities are a two-edged sword: they inject “outside monies” from tourists, retirees and 2^nd home owners into the local economy, but they also provide a “quality of life” reason for business-owners and individuals to relocate to our region and strengthen the local economy.  Several of the funding requests and ideas that have come up in council meetings somehow touched upon recreation. A concerted regional strategy could strengthen the local recreation infrastructure and mitigate the employment seasonality. This approach is decidedly different from that of a chamber-driven “visitor bureau”, and should focus on:

• Balancing seasonal unemployment through encouraging or facilitation of specific (spring and autumn) recreational opportunities;
• Investment and stewardship to sustain and improve the region’s (vast) natural capital and amenities that underlie recreation (i.e. prevent us from “loving our amenities to death”);
• Assisting communities and businesses to present regional synergies
• Encourage “up- and downstream” activities to keep monies from “leaking out”

The DOC funding for an economic development professional includes the focus as described above, and at the March 16 council luncheon with Department of Commerce and Tourism representatives the council posed the (informal) question if the funding could therefore be allocated to such a position. This idea also parallels preliminary ideas at the county level, where commissioners started a discussion on a Park’s and Recreation position as an outflow of the positive working relationships between the Winter Recreation Committee and the County’s snow-grooming operations. A first formal discussion on this subject will take place on Monday, April 1.

 This led to a discussion on “best practices” and how other regions work at being competitive.  A reference was made to how Leadership Park City visited McCall and Boise in 2008 to learn and compare (report-link). The Park City example brought up the difficulty of coordinating developments in cities and county, and how a regional land-use map or vision can greatly coordinate the management of regional amenities like viewscape, landscape and recreational water quality. This type of map facilitates a community-wide discussion to make comprehensive plans of cities and county compatible and incentivizing implementation more effective. It also can create the predictability that developers and investors look for and preemptively alert investors and residents to potential incompatible land-use

Decisions:

• Bill Willey and Don Bailey will try to get input from Rick Certano, since Rick has considerable experience in working with the McCall Chamber and the Winter Recreation Team on collaboration and synergy between winter sport activities.
• The council’s tentative position is positive towards a county Park’s and Recreation position and would be willing to try and acquire a 1-3 year monetary support from the DOC through the above mentioned RFP.
• A regional land-use vision, provided it would be supported by businesses and community, could greatly assist in synchronizing comprehensive plans of cities and county and providing clarity for future investments and economic & community development.   Wim Braak suggested that a small team including County P&Z (Cynda Herrick) and McCall Community Development (Michelle Groenevelt) could evaluate and prepare a discussion. The council will bring this item to the next meeting agenda.

Other agenda items

The previous agenda item resulted in a long but productive discussion. Because of time considerations, the following items were just briefly discussed:

• The KWP meeting was very well received by the council, particularly in its emphasis on how to make our amenities and assets work for us.
• Analytics and Council Development: Unemployment and revenue numbers were posted on March 25 on the Council Website.  The council development was extensively discussed under the RFP agenda item. Wim asked the council members if there was an interest in an ED workshop (possibly Friday night/Saturday Morning) that would bring some of UI’s faculty in Economic Development to the county who could discuss the regional economic profile. This workshop would be open to anyone in the community. Michelle asked if the workshop could be tailored to cover specific interests – like downtown economics.  The council expressed interest, and Wim will report back on this at the next meeting.
  

Roundtable

• Michelle Groenevelt reported that McCall was applying for a grant to receive the iCount training program from ITD and Idaho Smart Growth: bicycle and pedestrian pathways are strong assets for communities and recreation, and this training is to help develop consistent applications of bicycle and pedestrian data collection methodologies across Idaho. Michelle noted that Cascade and Donnelly communities are welcome to join into the McCall training program if/when McCall will be recipient of the grant.
• The council wants to make sure we are still partnering with the Winter Recreation Committee in organizing a social/educational event in April or May. Wim to contact Rick Certano.