(Jim Clark) – This week I am departing from my usual conservative bias to pen a column that should be of interest to local Republicans and Democrats alike as well as non-partisans and even non-voters.
Have you ever watched a politician or pundit on broadcast news saying something that offends you? Did you stand up and shout: “That’s just dead wrong!” at your TV set? And then when the commercial came on, did you realize that there was absolutely nothing you could do about it?
Well, that’s not entirely true. You can vote for a candidate or support a party that agrees with your position. But you have to wait for an election. And even then it would be unusual to find a candidate or party that is 100% in agreement with your ideas.
Incline Village and Crystal Bay residents will have an unprecedented opportunity the week of June 18 – 21 to express their opinions and be listened to. But wait, there’s more. Not only will your opinion be listened to, it will be recorded and reduced to writing along with those of your friends and neighbors. These sessions will be called, appropriately, listening sessions conducted by the Nevada Rural Development Council.
The Council consists of a “resource team,” independent trained volunteer who appear by invitation at various Nevada cities, counties and towns to hear what locals think their community’s major problems and challenges are, what strengths or assets the community has and what projects citizens want to see accomplished in this community over the next year, five years and twenty years.
After the listening sessions are concluded, the resource team compiles all of the comments and assembles them in written form. Then a “town meeting” is scheduled at which the responses are read and discussed; major themes are identified and reported and more community input is encouraged.
Finally, resource team members write up recommendations in the form of a report. Local residents then establish priorities for goal attainment and an action plan is adopted. The final report is typically used as a tool for grant writing for funds to pursue agreed on goals and can be used to support requests for county ordinances and state legislation which may be necessary to clear paths for goal attainment.
The overseer of this effort is “IV/CB 3030 VISION,” a Nevada non-profit corporation. Parasol Foundation Chair Dean Meiling heads up the corporation aided by Gene Brockman, its president. Your humble columnist is corporate secretary and Lee Weber Koch is in charge of marketing. Another 25 or so advisory board members function as counselors and communication resources representing subsections of our community, such as realtors, educators, retailers, public safety, medical, professional, students, etc.
Residents should check the corporation’s web site: www.IVCB2020Vision.org. There you will find a preliminary schedule of times and locations of upcoming “listening sessions” listed by interest group. Also available on the web site are recent finished final reports prepared by the Council for Churchill County, Douglas County and the City of Fernley.
These sessions will be very much like the IVGID sponsored Creating Our Future conducted in 1999 at a cost of over $30,000. That endeavor produced the new Chateau, the hospital upgrades, the new elementary school, a vacationer trash policy, the Crystal Quad chairlift and the ski lodge rebuild among other projects community members ranked as high priority goals.
Be a part of our future. Participate and make your thoughts known.
(Jim Clark is President of Republican Advocates and has served as a member of the Washoe County & Nevada State GOP Central Committees.)
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