West Central Mountains Economic Development Council
Meeting Minutes
June 9, 2020, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Remote: ZOOM
Members in Attendance: Jill Chapman (President), Dylan Martin (Vice-President), Sherry Maupin, Linnea Hall, Lindsay Harris, Gene Tyler, Nicole Musgrove, Judith Nissula, and Andrew Mentzer (Executive Director).
Members Absent: Thom Sowers, Julie Good, Cynda Herrick, Patty Wold
Executive team meeting, open at 2:30pm. General discussion.
Regular meeting underway at 3:02pm
Agenda adoption: Gene moved to adopt the agenda as presented, Dylan second, approved
Approval of minutes: Dylan moved to approve the minutes from May, Gene seconded, approved
Guests/intros: Jenny Hemly from Idaho Commerce, Delta James from McCall, Joan Edwards from Ponderosa Center, Tiffany Dobbs from St. Lukes.
Community reports:
Cascade is rearranging furniture at City Hall and things are busy in town.
Donnelly is issuing LOT dollars, LOT collections are slightly up this year, Huck fest is still TBD.
McCall is looking to alternative events for 4th of July, board elections are this month for the chamber and they are following health protocols. Town has still been busy. Delta: city hall is reopening, city is painting crosswalks soon. Also pushing their pick up and picnic initiative alongside the COVID task Force.
Valley County is working on the waterway ordinance, county building is reopened by appointment, and working in 2021 budget.
New Meadows–the school had graduation, and all businesses are now open. The Front Porch Pizza (new outfit) seems to be doing well. The Community Center and planter boxes around town are all cleaned up and packer john park is getting cleaned up soon.
Treasurer’s report: Linnea moved to approve as presented, Nicole seconded, approved.
Valley County Pathways has requested $500 to $1000 for trail construction between the north valley rail trail and norwood as the beta test for the singletrack sidewalks program. Other grant options this fall include: RTP and working with National Parks Service. Sherry moved to fund the last $500 in for construction of trail between North Valley and Norwood, Jill seconded. Approved.
Byways update: signage inventory will happen soon with ITD, website has been updated, the group also weighed in on ITD projects near Goose Creek. July and September meetings will further these discussions.
Andrew’s contract: executive team has been working on getting things updated–mostly minor revisions, but remains compliant with contractor status. Lindsey moved to approve Andrew’s 2021 contract, Gene seconded. Approved.
New position hire: The position has been posted to indeed.com, Labor, LinkedIn, Facebook and IEDA. 6 applicants so far. Interview panel: Dylan, Sherry, Gene. Need to push out in star news and possibly radio. Board to review initial applicants Friday the 19th, with feedback with top 3 by the 24th of June for interviews.
BSU fall programming: We need to get some open houses set up with various stakeholder audiences to get the word out: counselors, business owners, others. Promote scholarships and time frames. Joan noted Ponderosa Center is looking to elevate scholarships alongside BSU to enhance enrollment.
Census–we’re way behind the curve. need to work with the new boots on the ground staff to get some more traction with outreach.
Covid task force update: We have been meeting weekly, marketing and information campaign has been successful. Working on the bring your own blanket program to encourage dining in open spaces, working on hand washing stations. There’s a new case in valley county as well.
Cascade wayfinding: nothing to report–waiting on IDPR to move things forward.
Broadband: state funds may be an opportunity in 2020. working with ziply’s new leadership on opportunities and have meetings next week.
BRE: with development applications up regionally, there is a lot of activity. River District project will lead to more commercial CapEX downstream too.
Economic Summit will move forward. Jill will reach out to Jeff Smith to see if he might be interested in participating or being the keynote speaker.
No new updates on marketing, but Dylan noted the good work that was put into protectyourmountainplayground.com website. Big thanks to the chamber partners who worked on this as well.
Teleconference technologies: board would like to move to Microsoft Teams for security considerations for next month.
Meeting Adjourned at 4:58pm.