Greetings All!
Next week will be a busy one for Vision West ND with both Williams County beginning its strategic planning process and members of the Vision West ND Consortium meeting in Bottineau.
The Williams County Planning Session will begin Monday, August 19 at 8:30am CDT at Target Logistics' Bear Paw Lodge on the corner of Highway 2 and County Road 6 north of Williston. Community members from throughout the county will have the opportunity to inventory the county's assets and capabilities in terms of economic development and quality of life issues and then select which issues to include in its county-wide plan. Once the economic development strategies and quality of life initiatives are selected by the steering committee, a strategic county plan will be developed and put into motion.
In order to get the community input necessary for a successful strategic plan, two public "town hall" meetings are also scheduled. Community members from around the county will meet for a community supper and town hall meeting at the City Auditorium on Monday, August 19 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm CDT. Similarly, community members will have another opportunity to input their ideas on Tuesday, August 20 from 5:30-7:30pm CDT at the Tioga Senior Center. Be sure to visit the Vision West ND website for more information on the Williams County planning session.
Also scheduled for next week is the August meeting of the Vision West ND Consortium. Consortium members will meet Wednesday, August 21 and Thursday, August 22 at the Cobblestone Inn in Bottineau. Items on the agenda include a review of an ambulance service need analysis commissioned by the ND Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties as well as extensive work toward the Vision West ND regional plan.
The Consortium leadership strongly encourages plan directors, members, and all interested parties to attend this meeting as the bulk of our regional planning will be conducted over these two days. We need everyone's input. Voting Consortium members who are unable to attend are encouraged to consider naming a proxy to serve in their absence.
Since the August Vision West ND Consortium meeting is set over a two day span, a room block has been established at the Cobblestone Inn in Bottineau. Please call (701) 534-2121 to set up your reservation. For a listing of meeting documents and the Consortium meeting agenda, please click this link.
County Plan Directors are reminded to create a Drop Box folder through the invitation email sent directly to them and Steering Committee members on May 22nd. The Drop Box folder contains Plan Implementation Workbooks and the action steps that were created by each county's Steering Committee for the selected economic strategies and quality of life initiatives in each county plan. Also included in the Drop Box folder is a copy of the latest version of each county's Strategic Plan.
In addition to their own Drop Box activation, it's also recommended that all Vision West ND Plan Directors contact their Steering Committee members and urge them to accept the Drop Box invitation if they have not already. Many have done so, but a majority have not. Those that do not have their own Drop Box folder already established, don't worry. You may contact Vision West ND Plan Facilitator Brian Cole at [email protected], and the process of getting one started is quite easy!
Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Vision West ND Newsletter. Please stay tuned for future news on how the communities of western North Dakota are working toward a completed regional plan.
Have a great rest of your week!
The Vision West ND Team
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