December 2024 Board Meeting Minutes & Strategic Planning Session Notes

by | Jun 2, 2025 | Meetings & Minutes

West Central Mountains Economic Development Council
December 2024 Board Meeting Minutes
December 10, 2024 2:00pm
Meadows Valley Public Library & Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88412171046?pwd=QWhaZGlDaHo4MUl1cHk4aUZuVytzQT09

Board Meeting 2:00pm
Attendees; Delta James (online), Cynda Herrick (online), Julie Good, Joni Osterman, Kelly Hill, Rachel Wessel, Sherry Maupin, Dylan Martin
Guests: Lindsey Harris, Trace McKellips

  • Call to Order at 2:20pm
  • Summit Thank You Cards – group effort and Kelly, Rachel, Sherry, Joni will be pitching in. Thank you!
  • Approval of December Agenda ACTION ITEM
    • Addition of City of New Meadows Letter of Support action item – Rural Federal Aid by Julie Good
    • Motion to approve with addition Joni, 2nd by Sherry. Motion Passes.
  • Approval of November Minutes ACTION ITEM
    • Motion by Julie for Approval. 2nd by Joni. Motion passes.
  • Treasurer’s report – 2025 facilitated budget discussion further down in agenda
    • Approval of November Treasurer’s Report ACTION ITEM
      • Motion by Dylan for Approval. 2nd by Kelly. Motion passes.
      • Sherry asked for clarification of general funding designation in November minutes. Treasurer clarified that no funds are moving or changing, just the way they are designated in the general budget.
    • Letter(s) of support:
      • City of McCall LHSIP Transportation Grant ACTION ITEM
        • Motion by Julie. 2nd by Sherry. Motion passes.
      • City of McCall Federal Aid: Rural Transportation Grant ACTION ITEM. These funds are available in 7-10 years. Will add turn lanes as well. They will requesting the full eligible request.
        • Motion by Sherry. 2nd by Joni.
      • City of McCall Public Library Grant ACTION ITEM Request from the Library Foundation for the T-Mobile Community Grant. These are funds for placemaking.
        • Motion by Dylan, 2nd Motion passes.
      • ADDED ITEM City of New Meadows 1. 8 million ask for two of their City streets that allow clear access to schools and the parks. They will be brainstorming on the match portion of this grant.
        • Motion by Sherry, 2nd by Rachel. Motion passes.
      • Executive Director Update
        • Summit survey results: people want to hear from their community leaders, perhaps we have that every year. Are there other ways we can accomplish the engagement piece throughout the year so they don’t just look to the summit for that? This will be Sherry’s last year likely on the EDC board before Katlin Davis hopefully takes the Valley County seat, but she is always happy to still help plan on the summit.
      • Executive Items
        • Resignation of Linnea Hall ACTION ITEM
          • Linnea did verbally resign, but we do need a formal written resignation, which we are waiting for from Linnea. We will table this item for January’s meeting where we hopefully
        • 2025 Strategic Planning Session
          • Region 3/CED, Dept of Commerce discussion. Federal/State funding discussion. EDA opportunity is money left on the table. Geographically, what does this region need to entail? Delta willing to participate in this conversation due to her background having worked with this region in the past. Sherry spoke to professionalizing the organization and the Executive Director position with salary, benefits, etc. Lindsey spoke to the fact that she does get asked regularly where the EDC office is and that the organization is primed for these next steps.
        • 2025 Budget Session
          • Fundraising discussion with Board on how to fund the executive director position and the EDC
        • Community Reports
          • No discussion due to time
        • WCMEDC Updates
          • Early Childhood Education (Trace)
            • Dylan presented to the board new information on Trace’s contract renewal. His salary can be approved in the 2025 budget action item. Discussion about defining $2,500 of the grant funding that can be allocated for training/conferences for Trace.

The additional normal reporting was not conducted due to lack of time from the strategic planning session. Will resume normal agenda reporting in January 2025.

  • New Business – None
  • Public Comment – None
  • Adjournment – 5:07pm

2025 Strategic Planning Session Notes:

  1. Board Organization
    1. How are we doing: check-in
    2. Committee Chairs discussion – board members willing to step-up and lead. Joni willing to take on workforce development, Kelly willing to take on housing, Julie willing to take on infrastructure, Dylan has early childhood, Lindsey will take on community development & Broadband.
    3. Additional board member discussion – Sherry Maupin will be stepping down from the Board and likely Katlin Davis will be stepping in as the Valley County representative, which will be nice to also have additional southern end of the Valley representation. Linnea Hall is stepping down so the board will be looking for an Adams County representative to fill her spot.
    4. Audits – Julie suggested the board add this on their radar to conduct to also prepare us for future need. Board will add in the budget $3k for this.
    5. Revamp for Board Contracts/Non Disclosure/ Training et al
  1. Housing
    1. Regional Housing Needs Assessment
      1. Phase II – Completion by End of Summer 2025/Beginning of Fall
      2. Update this annually
    2. Housing Trust Support– in the housing trust bylaws has a designated WCMEDC position. Lindsey does serve on this board. Board agrees that the EDC’s continued participation is important for regional housing efforts.
    3. Next steps would potentially be a Housing Action Plan
      1. Group wants to engage with the cities on their own potential action plans and see where these conversations go. Through the Phase II, EDC will naturally be engaging with all the local governments.
  1. Broadband
    1. WCM Fiber Coalition
    2. Middle Mile
    3. Ziply’s BEAD funding
    4. USDA Grant with Imagine Idaho/Entry Point
  1. Workforce Development
    1. 10k Valley County Funding that the workforce committee will be configuring a plan to deploy.
      1. Three main areas that were identified in the summit survey workforce question: start-up/entrepreneur, CTE/Apprenticeships, and general small business resources (marketing, finances, business planning etc)
    2. Culinary Program with McCall College- Workforce CAT discussed sponsoring the jackets/materials needed for the first-year. Sherry mentioned that the County is very interested in this program succeeding too and potential partnership opportunities with community/senior centers.
    3. CTE with regional high schools – Cynda mentioned CDL as a continued conversation.
    4. SBA/ISBDC/DOL/Regional Chambers workshops and partnerships
    5. Cascade Geothermal –$20k total funding (75% in 2025)
    6. Small Business Retention/Expansion
  2. Community Development
    1. BSU HCRI Resiliency Assessment
    2. Natural Resource Management Planning with Valley County
      1. 10K for this program already allocated
      2. Land management discussions
    3. Annual Economic Summit
    4. Creative District – EDC has stepped back, overseeing $7500. Programming has been handed off to engaged, established nonprofits already conducting that work. The Creative District will be an umbrella regional artist support organization.
  3. Early Childhood
    1. Retention of existing centers
    2. Expansion opportunities in Cascade
    3. New Meadows project support
    4. Expansion of ELAC participation through ongoing partnerships
  4. Infrastructure
    1. South Lake Sewer Conversation
    2. North Fork Watershed Coalition
    3. Geothermal
    4. HWY 55 Corridor Discussion
    5. Fall Annual Transportation Meeting
      • Now Added a Spring Meeting
    6. Other:
      1. Board Structuring
        1. Policies – Lindsey pulled some examples of things the board can incorporate
      2. Committee Chairs – board members graciously agreed to step-up to help. Kelly Hill for housing, Julie Good for infrastructure, Joni Osterman for Workforce Development, Dylan Martin for Early Childhood with Trace, Lindsey will cover Broadband & Community Development
      3. Refining financial systems
      4. EDA opportunity- Delta is happy to assist with this since she used to work for the Region 3 EDA. Board shared responsibility.