May 2024 Board Meeting Minutes

by | Nov 26, 2024 | Meetings & Minutes

 

West Central Mountains Economic Development Council
May 2024 Board Meeting Minutes
May 14, 2024 3:00pm
Donnelly City Hall Community Room & Zoom
169 Halferty St, Donnelly, ID 83615

Board Members Present In-Person: Delta James, Joni Osterman, Dylan Martin
Board Members Online: Joel Ockunzzi, Kelly Hill, Rachel Wessel, Belinda Provancher, Julie Good
Guests: Melissa Hamilton, Tiffany Dobbs, Lindsey Harris, Trace McKellips

Executive Session 2:30 (Open unless otherwise specified)

  • Review agenda items
  • Contractor discussion about expenditures and contractor guidelines
  • Office space discussion
  • June special session: create clear delineation of fundraising language and who the fundraising is directly benefiting, which is our organization.
  • Lindsey’s contract for June meeting
  • Grants – May 31st for Stibnite & Progressive Club discussion
  • Rural ED Pro Grant due May 31st

Board Meeting 3:08pm

  • Call to Order
  • Approval of May Amended Agenda ACTION ITEM
    • Motion by Julie, 2nd by Delta. Motion passes.
  • Approval of April Minutes ACTION ITEM
    • Motion by Joni, 2nd by Joel. Motion Passes.
  • Treasurer’s report
    • Approval of April Treasurer’s Report ACTION ITEM
      • Motion by Belinda, 2nd by Joni. Motion passes.
    • Next month will have budget vs. actual report. Did get $17,500 for early childhood. Check sent out to Agnew Beck.
  • Letter(s) of support ACTION ITEM
    • Meadows Valley Preschool Blue Cross of Idaho grant application. They are asking for $50k
      • Motion by Delta, 2nd by Dylan. Motion passes.
    • Executive Director Update
      • Conference & Grant Season
      • Rural ED Pro Grant Due May 31st
    • Executive Items
      • Contractors – will have a contract for Board’s review at June’s meeting
      • Setting a date for June’s “special session” for fundraising and planning: defining perimeters for fundraising, talking points, refining the mission and focus,
    • Community Reports
      • Valley County – got the bid for the “AmeriTitle” building. Road department will be moving to Gold Dust. Fairground updates.
      • Cascade – infrastructure improvements. Geothermal implementation grant was not awarded, but they are not discouraged. Will offer more time for honing in on engineering and pricing for the project.
      • Donnelly – Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but as of May 24th will be open seven days a week. Hardware store is open and doing well. City of Donnelly looking to hire someone for public works to expand capacity. Development off W. Roseberry is moving along and is annexed into the City already.
      • McCall – Library grand opening from 1-3pm for Chapter 1, first phase. 2nd phase will be the original building renovation. Rec department will move to this building and rentals, etc will be available. Community rooms will be in Chapter 2. Construction projects are underway. The housing planner position is still open. Closed the City Manager position and will start to interview in the coming weeks. Business call sent to us – thanks Delta. Village Plaza building discussion downtown. Vibrant Spa is moving in there, barber shop is in there currently geared towards men with a bar and pool table. Five year lease. Flying M is going into the former Payette Dream business. Kelly mentioned that people are still looking for commercial space.
      • New Meadows – Crossroads 3 four-plexes with garages are being built rapidly. Set-up so they can be sold individually. Commercial site potentially to the north of the townhomes. Hartland Inn is also doing some remodeling and expansion, plus Miss Kitty’s. Gold Line will be moving five-days a week. June 4th will be the kickoff for that expanded service. Sack lunch service begins this summer with collaborative effort with a handful of organizations. Preschool opening date in October and daycare in February. Additional funds coming in for the youth center side of the recycling center project. YAC applied for a grant, no word yet, plus private donations as well have been dedicated. By March of next year, they are hoping to have it all completed, which is far quicker than anticipated. New City Engineer was appointed, Keller and Associates, last night. They have expertise in the new projects the City is seeing. Skate Park is moving along as well to start breaking ground this summer. City of New Meadows was awarded top priority by DEQ for their wastewater expansion. 500 more water hookups, 250 more sewer, plus more will be available for future use.
    • WCMEDC Updates
      • Early Childhood Education (Trace): Organizing 3 events with Patrick Mitchell, Idaho’s Down to Earth Dad: June 4 – Meadows Valley Library 5:30-7:30, June 5 –McCall Library 5:30 – 7:30, June 6 –Cascade Library 10 – 12. Speaker just came to Donnelly Bible Church last week. I plan to send the Star News info to list in community events. Visited Brundage to discuss their plans for childcare. They want to open ASAP. August/September is what they are hoping for. While they have not received the official sign off from the powers that be, they are planning to provide free childcare for Brundage Employees. This is incredible! I connected them to Idaho Stars. I also visited Wildhorse Daycare, Tamarack’s daycare. They are looking for a new Director, but have big plans. They want to have two separate childcare facilities, one for employees and the other for guests. Recent grant support: Helped submit a Roots Forest School grant application to the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation for new outdoor classroom/office space, Ponderosa Park is hiring staff so they will not long be able to share the activity center for their operations. Asked for $150K. MDECC received a $2k grant from Payette Lakes Rotary for additional outdoor materials
      • Housing
        • Needs Assessment: rental data with a few property managers. Cascade meeting with NeighborWorks and landowner, Emily, and the WCMEDC who had connected the group. Kelly stepped-up to attend because Lindsey was gone. Thank you, Kelly.
      • Community Development
        • Creative District Update (Delta): Artrepreneur series continues. Next up in June. Idaho Commission on the Arts annual listening session was asked to be hosted here so working with the Creative District to host in conjunction with the summer soiree we plan to host. Aiming for July 31st in Donnelly at Roseberry to also encourage people to stay for music afterward. When Idaho Arts does go statewide, we will have re-up for designation and the requirements. That is a few years down the road.
        • Payette River Scenic Byway (Cynda) – Lindsey
        • YAC update (Lindsey) – Educational event for early fall for adults around youth mental health and activities. Aces & paces, BSU, potential Officer Gomez back, also his last week’s presentation is online as well to watch remotely. Youth Summit wasn’t as well attended because it was held on a Friday. They learned host midweek for next year. Next YAC Planet
      • Infrastructure
        • Readiness Document – Delta brought up business readiness and how is that relative to this? Could it be joined together? Demographic, market research. Updating information on the document question. Could be a difficult thing to tackle.
      • Broadband
        • NTIA/BEAD
        • Middle Mile
      • Workforce
        • May 22nd Events in McCall & Cascade
      • New Business- Idaho Power community meetings throughout the region in early June. Lindsey will connect Trace with Micael McKenzie Inc. for ELAC graphics needed to update some early childhood materials. Water Steward training upcoming for water quality monitoring through UI. Water coalition is on June 12th.
      • Public Comment – None
      • Adjournment at 5:05pm