McKenzie County Public School District Superintendent and NDAOGPC President Steve Holen leads group discussion on a section of the Vision West ND Regional Plan dealing with education.

The Vision West ND project is rapidly nearing completion of its Regional Plan. The plan draft was released for Vision West ND Consortium review at its meeting last week Thursday, February 6 in Minot. Following elections of 2014 Vision West ND Consortium leadership, newly-elected chairman Daryl Dukart, Dunn County Commissioner, divided attendees into work groups to further review the Regional Plan draft. When each group had completed its review, their discussions were shared with the whole body and the changes were voted upon. Group work focused on further developing specific action items that will be used to move the Regional Plan forward.

Sixteen regional initiatives were identified through local planning sessions held in the nineteen participating Vision West ND counties. Among them, child care, emergency services, housing, infrastructure, and water were most often selected as issues of importance by community leaders in the region. Click here for KX News coverage of the Vision West ND Consortium meeting.

One progressive transportation initiative that is included in the Vision West ND Regional Plan focuses on transportation across Lake Sakakawea via a ferry transport service. Such a ferry service would potentially connect the two segments of Highway 8 separated by Lake Sakakawea, from Highway 8 Bay to Elbowoods Bay. The group responsible for reviewing the transportation initiatives recommended conducting a feasibility study in advance of presenting the concept to the ND Dept. of Transportation.

The group will finish four sections of the Regional Plan at its next meeting scheduled for March 6, 2014 in Williston, ND. More details on this meeting will be released when they are available.

The Vision West ND Team