Greetings All!
On January 28th, a display in the Legislative Hall of North Dakota's State Capitol showcased the accomplishments for the first year of the Vision West ND initiative. It was very impressive to see the tangible results of the first year of work, which included the contributions of nearly 1,000 North Dakotans. Booth displays included summaries of every county plan completed, full copies of the 26 Infrastructure Assessments done in communities throughout the western half of the state, the Planning & Zoning Workbook for Cities and Counties, and the managing growth webinars and study information from our partner, the North Dakota Western Energy Project. Other booths included the Vision West ND project partners, the Rural Economic Area Partnership, and the ND Association of Oil & Gas Producing Counties along with our federal support partners, North Dakota USDA Rural Development and HUD. Photos are available on the website at http://www.visionwestnd.com/VisionWestNDLegislativeSummit.asp. Some of you may have attended one of the Western North Dakota Energy Project Shale Projection Webinar Series presentations made during January and March. This series provided the projections for employment and population growth based on data from the Department of Mineral Resources and North Dakota State University. There are projections webinars for each of the 17 oil producing counties in North Dakota. There are also regional projections, dividing western North Dakota into the three segments for the areas of Minot, Williston, and Dickinson. Over 400 people attended the webinars live and another 1,000 have been recorded as accessing the archived versions and items on the website. The archive includes the presentation, PowerPoint, and a printout of selected data for each county or region. Many people are using the printout as a great summary document to share with local boards and committees. The Vision West ND Consortium met last week in Watford City. The primary focus now moves toward assembling a Regional Plan, and the membership has set an equally impressive pace to complete this plan in early 2014. The Consortium's next meeting is April 11th in Killdeer.
Vision West ND is also continuing to gather input from community members through the Vision West ND MindMixer tool. As an added bonus for people contributing their comments on the MindMixer site, their names will be added in for a drawing of a Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a tablet device with a 7" screen that can be used to organize data, connect to the internet through Wi-Fi, play games, or even check the weather. Contributing a comment on MindMixer may be a small price to pay for this device, which retails for around $200. Be sure to check out the MindMixer site! Have a great weekend!
The Vision West ND Team
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