March 2024 Board Meeting Minutes

by | Nov 25, 2024 | Meetings & Minutes

West Central Mountains Economic Development Council
March 2024 Board Meeting Minutes
March 12, 2024 3:00pm
New Meadows City Hall & Zoom
401 Virginia Street, New Meadows, ID

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88412171046?pwd=QWhaZGlDaHo4MUl1cHk4aUZuVytzQT09

Board Members Present: Sherry Maupin, Julie Good, Linnea Hall, Dylan Martin
Online: Vonna Torrey, Joni Osterman, Judith Nissula, Kelly Hill, Rachel Wessel
Guests: Trace McKellips, Lindsey Harris, Cole Keener, Tiffany Dobbs

Executive Session 2:30 (Open unless otherwise specified)

  • Review agenda items
    • Star News Opportunity- yes! Lindsey will reach out to Max to say “yes.”
    • Regional grant resource discussion – how can we better communicate who goes for what for funding?

Board Meeting

  • Call to Order at 3:03pm
  • Idaho Power Presentation: “Preparing for the Unexpected”
  • Approval of March Agenda ACTION ITEM
    • Motion by Julie, 2nd by Sherry. Motion passes.
  • Approval of February Minutes ACTION ITEM
    • Motion by Sherry with amendment of DC conference wording. 2nd by Julie. Motion passes.
  • Treasurer’s report
    • Approval of February Treasurer’s Report ACTION ITEM
      • Motion by Joni, 2nd by Linnea. Motion passes.
      • Lindsey will reach out to McKenzie to inquire about website hosting and costs of fees going up.
      • Discussion ensued regarding additional grants and additional funds toward administrative expenses and concerns about funding the ED salary on a go-forward. Concern that businesses have supported the summit, but focusing on the understanding the funding mechanism is beyond that.  Continued fundraising interest for the EDC. June suggested board meeting working session for ED Pro funding brainstorming discussion. Lindsey will send out a Doodle Poll for June for the Board to have a separate working session (up to 3 hours).
    • Letter(s) of support – NONE
    • Executive Director Update
      • Community Action Teams update, Infrastructure and Community Development yet to meet with.
      • Washington DC trip is booked, flight and hotel will be covered in the grant, seeking additional clarification on coverage; if Lindsey decides to stay, she will cover the costs associated.
      • Grants: City of McCall LOT will likely not be funded (see attached) and we will be going for a State Gem Grant. Will have to see if we can get on the Commissioner’s Agenda for the following Monday’s meeting to get approved to submit because the State deadline is that day as well. Lindsey will coordinate and write the grant. Looking at also adding funding for facilitation and continued round table discussions that were of high value in the site visit process. We feel bringing people together from private and public sectors will be critical to solutions and increased collaboration and communication.
      • Donnelly LOT due April 11; Idaho GEM grant application to supplement housing needs assessment funding needs to be submitted immediately.
      • Spring Conference update – IHFA at the end of April; and ?  May 1 &2 taking place in Fort Hall in Pocatello.
    • Executive Items
      • Valley County Rec District Survey – emailed in packet, strategic long term Recreation plan is forthcoming, identifying needs, community comments, survey is out at this time. Sampson Trail support and extension planned as well.
    • Community Reports
      • Valley County – 6 individuals running for Elt Hasbrouck’s position at this time. $2million “S Bridge” planning grant. Cannot go after federal money until we have a plan in place. 2020 – $318 million came into Valley County, around 7% increase over each year. Micron obtained $50 billion from the CHIP act. Treasure Valley connection with our region and their growth. Impact zones, STRs, farmland preservation, lodging taxes and mitigation conversation. Commercial property assessed capital – Scott Turlington will present to Commissioners on this program that is used in 35 other states. IDL lands conversation on the 21st. 18 people have RSVP’ed to attend. Discussion of exchanging Federal lands for State lands. County has a bid for the AmeriTitle building in Cascade. Will know back in the next 30 days or so. IRON middle mile project. Fairgrounds will be upgraded by the August fair. Invasive quagga mussels have been found in Idaho and in the Snake River. Hosted Dept of Agriculture to test our water.
      • Cascade – this summer will extend their Strand, received $400K from LHTAC to connect to further north of town. Goal to rehabilitate wetlands in that area. Brownfield opportunity? Stormwater mitigation project to help with drainage along HWY55. $100k brick grant for a stormwater management plan via FEMA. Always pursuing additional funds for roadways and sidewalks. Will need to collaborate with County on geothermal sidewalk discussion – seeking out some additional funding for that project. Brick grant for planning for geothermal for school heat pump system and for their well. Maria at the Library has funding for GED, plus expansion for the library with the $500k. Needing a new well site for the City that is not in a flood plan or in a wetland designation.
      • Donnelly – not represented
      • McCall – not represented
      • New Meadows – City event last Saturday to tour the new facilities to celebrate spring coming. Depot was open with their exhibits. City of New Meadows received $600k for the Workforce Development early childhood grant for the recycling center conversion project. Skate park now has $529k and can begin their project too. Community fridge food pantry project to be included at the recycling center. Mayor Good took a trip to Nogales, AZ and commented on how proud she was of the region with our regional communication here in our area after visiting another rural community and seeing their challenges. Easter celebration upcoming. QPR suicide training this spring, which is a priority for the Mayor. Next one is March 15th.
    • WCMEDC Updates
      • Early Childhood Education (Trace)
        • Milestones & Kingdom Kids grant expenditures for learning materials ACTION ITEM
          • Trace had handout of the providers request. Milestones request $1256. Kingdom Kids $1381. They both fell within the allotted $1500 budget each provider was given. IDAEYC has noted that Amazon will no longer be a covered vendor due to purchasing issues.
          • Motion by Dylan to approve expenditures up to $1500, 2nd by Julie. Motion passes.
        • $96K for early childhood funding for Ignite Idaho as well in addition to New Meadows. 2 for 2 on the grants applied for in the region for this early childhood grant. Exploring dual credit early childhood CTE with U of I. This would be a pilot program. 11th and 12th of April there will be the site visit.
        • Spring early childhood conference Trace will be attending, but will need financial support to attend. Would also like to invite providers like we did last year. Subgrant discussion of where to source the funds.
      • Housing
        • Regional Housing Assessment site visit update at the very beginning of the month. Went well. Nearly 50 individual businesses, organizations, local governments participated over the 20 day either sector group meetings or the advisory board meeting. 690 responses were collected from the housing survey. Consultants will continue to refine the community profiles based on feedback from community leaders and suggested data resources.
        • WCM Housing Trust – continuing to refine their internal systems and organization. Thanks to Sherry for helping get the digital files transferred successfully from Dropbox to Google Drive. This was a heavy lift and tedious to do.
      • Community Development
        • Creative District Update (Delta) – Delta was unable to attend so Lindsey gave the group a quick update on the Artrepreneur series, Artisans in the Mountain Tour, and the little, local art galleries project.
        • Payette River Scenic Byway (Cynda) – Next meeting 3/13 at Avimor (tomorrow).
        • YAC Update (Lindsey) Adult Summit postponed. Will reach out to YAC to express our hope that the event does not take away from our annual summit if they plan to do it in the fall. Lindsey will contact Patty Giardina.
        • Regional Conversations (Sherry) – due to so many other priorities and pressing issues, the regional conversations piece will be postponed this year. We feel we also are accomplishing this through the housing needs assessment, advisory group, and round tables. EDC will continue to work on regional communication and collaboration.
      • Infrastructure
        • Geothermal and energy efficiency conference for Lindsey “Better Building, Better Plants Summit” in DC
        • CAT will meet by next board meeting
      • Broadband
        • IRON Middle Mile Project update – Contracts were signed. Will be working with others on the community engagement and outreach peace.
        • Digital Literacy position update- thanks to James for stepping up immediately.
        • Ziply update – see attached email update
      • Workforce
        • CAT Meeting held 3/8 and we came up with some programming ideas, ways to partner with existing platforms and entities in the this work.
      • New Business – none
      • Public Comment – none
      • Adjournment at 5:07pm