RIPPLE Community Forums

Would like a different view point

2008-12-21T10:01:28-08:00

Hello

Greetings from Rural Northern New York.

I am not sure if this is appropriate for your forum or not, please advise and remove if it does not meet your criteria. I wanted a different view point for a proposed undertaking in our rural community. I will post below what I have recently posted on a fire related forum. I feel that some of the challeges facing rural communities in the PNW are similar to some challenges facing rural communities everywhere. Any information that you could provide would be very helpful. We are a town located close to the Canadian Border in New York, we have about 1850 residents and 49 square miles.

Here are our stats:

As of 2007, Madrid’s population is 1,837 people. Since 2000, it has had a population growth of 0.49 percent.

The median home cost in Madrid is $103,500. Home appreciation the last year has been -3.35 percent.

Compared to the rest of the country, Madrid’s cost of living is 21.79% Lower than the U.S. average.

Madrid public schools spend $8,317 per student. The average school expenditure in the U.S. is $6,058. There are about 15 students per teacher in Madrid.

The unemployment rate in Madrid is 5.20 percent(U.S. avg. is 4.60%). Recent job growth is Negative. Madrid jobs have Decreased by 2.31 percent

Here is the post and related questions. Thanks for looking,

Originally posted 12-18-2008 at http://community.fireengineering.com/forum/topic/show?id=1219672:Topic:106478

“Our town is looking at building a building that will house the town’s fire and rescue squads. Currently these organizations are separate entities in separate locations. I would like to explore the possibility of forming a corporation that will handle the building of the structure. The reason behind this is because we will have three separate entities involved with this construction; the fire district, the fire department, and the rescue squad. With three entities it would be difficult to have a “lead” agency and still keep all transactions transparent. My intentions on forming a Corporation would be a place that we could funnel construction money through and be able to represent all stake holders equally. The fire department would disperse money and the rescue squad would disperse money. Intent is to have an oversight of construction and once the building is occupied we would then have an “owner” to whom the fire district would also lease from, this lease agreement would be a lease to purchase, and after the loan was paid then the “corporation” would dissolve, and any remaining assets would be equally distributed between the fire department and the rescue squad. Building maintenance, heat, water and sewer would be the responsibility of the “corporation” who would hold the insurance on the building during its ownership and collect lease payments. Because of the cost of construction the corporation would be in existence for the length of the loan that will need to be taken out after the one time payments from the rescue squad and fire department.

The corporation would be formed of two stake holders of the fire department, fire district, rescue squad, and four community representatives. The community representatives would be one member of the school board, one member of the senior citizens group, one member of the agriculture community, and one other member at large. This would be a group of 10. Meeting minutes would be made public and open to the public.

Does this seem possible, does anyone have suggestions including an entire other way of going about this??

We are at the start of the planning stages.

Updated on 12-21-2008: I have had no replies, maybe this is too vague? If anyone has any experience in consolidating buildings and even services in rural areas (does not have to be in New York) please share your experience in how you did this, what road blocks you came across, how the public reacted, how you “sold” it to the public etc. Anything would be helpful. This is for all volunteer department, rescue squad, located in Northern New York in a very small town of almost 2000 people. Stats: Squad responds to about 160 calls per year and the FD answers about 70. Squad membership is about 9 and FD is about 40 +/-. The perception that I have is that we are respected by the community and they would be supportive of something that would improve responses. As in all areas money will be the limiting factor. If anyone also has some plans/pictures for modest stations that they have used or seen used that seem to make efficient use of space, is designed around functionality and not looks, and uses practical materials (not a tajmahal) that would be also very helpful. Thanks

and again we are at the very beginning stages trying to lay the proper groundwork so that this will be perceived positively down the road.

Differences between logging in and being a member

2008-12-05T23:18:43-08:00

I’m a newbie to message boards - can someone provide a quick description of what the difference is of being a member versus logging in to view or including information in our profile? Thanks!

Book reviews

2008-10-08T10:08:54-08:00

Hi! I am a member of the Ford Foundation Leadership Class in LaPine, Oregon (30 miles south of Bend, Central Oregon).

I have just finished reading my first book from the SELECT BOOKS program offered by the Ford Institute and I wonder if anyone would be interested in sharing their book reviews?

I read THE TIPPING POINT by Malcolm Gladwell and am willing to share my review. (I can recommend this reading).

P.S. I look forward to meeting all of you in Eugene in November.

Judy Forsythe

RDI Leadership minutes , one more time

2008-02-24T18:50:05-08:00

The RDI Leadership Development group meeting was held on Feb 23. Clark was the facilitator and Ellie was the recorder.

We first discussed our participation in the Conference of Communities at Kaneeta in April and asked for volunteers for the different displays and presentations that will be featured at the Conference.
For the Community Display, Ellie will be the Chairperson and the team for this will be Kathy, Judy, Kurt, Ellora and Jennifer.
For the Community Presentation, Melanie will be the Chairperson and the team will be Lane, Mac, Joanne, Jesse and Cliff.
For the Project Presentation, the Chairperson will be Clark and the team will be Aaron, George, Steve, and Bill.

We then asked for more input on the cost of the presentations and were assured that there would be a laptop, power point and projection equipment available at the Conference.

We then discussed some of the additional details that were needed for our project. We need more information about trail construction, we need to wheel off the distance of the proposed trail and an artist rendering of the trail. We will get a plot map from the County to show the exact location of the trail. We also need a time-line for the permit process for the County. George, Jennifer, Tim and Ellora will help gather information.

The time and date for the next meeting will Tuesday March 4 at the Blue River Resort in the Conference Center from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Lane will be Facilitator and Connie the recorder.

See you there.

RDI Leadership minutes

2008-02-24T17:31:57-08:00

How do I post the minutes of our last Leadership meeting on Ripple page? If I post it here, will everyone be able to access them?
Ellie

Cornelius Project

2007-11-15T21:56:57-08:00

Contacted Mr. Bacon at Grand Central Rental and he advised that they will take care of digging the holes for our trees.
That takes care of one major labor end of this project.

On thing to keep in mind, according to him, is that this is one of the better times to start preparations for planting. He was surprised at the size of the trees recommended but said they can handle it. He recommended that the trees be “hardened off” or basically stored after excavating and this will reduce shock by forcing the trees dormant before they are planted.
Getting them into the ground should be from now until early spring would be the best time.

If we go the large trees, remember that moving the trees is going to be another logistical issue.

The other projects should be held for better weather, but the trees should go soon or be considered on hold until next winter/spring.

Minutes from RDI Leadership re Recycling Project

2007-11-18T21:46:38-08:00

Hi all:

Here are the minutes from the speed meeting we had in Coos Bay regarding the proposed recycling project, which include the questions we had (many of which were answered by Bill Richardson during his meeting with Carolyn, Kelly and I); the action items; and our assignments.

Let me know if you have any questions. Carolyn will be posting her notes from the meeting with Bill, and Kelly is contacting a representative from the very exciting “Green Schools” program.

Recycling Questions and Issues from Ford Foundation Leadership Meeting

1. Who does the collecting?

2. Is there a limit on the number of sites?

3. Where is service available, and who is using it?

4. What is being recycled?

5. Do we want to expand the recycling items?

6. Which item(s) would be more beneficial to recycle? Some materials are easier on the environment than others.

7. Regarding commercial recycling bins, what are the sources and types of bins (include the criteria for the selection process)?

8. Why were bins removed from certain businesses?

9. What makes us (this Ford Foundation group) unique with respect to the recycling process?

10. Who are our strategic partners for the large commercial bins, and where would the potential sites for these bins be?

11. Investigate schools’ and others’ policies on recycling items.

12. Gather a list of concerns that the schools and other organizations have.

13. What is the nature of educational materials we might provide, and would the media be involved in disseminating the information?

14. Make a list of barriers to recycling – why people don’t do it, e.g.

15. What is the nature of existing educational materials?

16. Look for models in other communities.

17. PLAN.

Action Items

1. Contact recycling concerns in Eugene for more ideas about ideas that can be recycled.

2. Contact schools, municipalities, and large businesses.

Assignments

Steven Broocks – Other programs in other cities via Internet

Carolyn, Shirley & Kelly – Meet with Bill Richardson of Waste Connection

Molly – Determine concerns and current status at District 9 schools

Carolyn – Determine concerns and current status at other district schools

Char & Naida – Discuss installation of large recycling bins with businesses

Mary – Determine SOCC philosophy re recycling

Tracy – Photograph the bins

Elliott – Meeting with principal of North Bend High School re recycling

Maggie – Research on barriers to recycling

Kelly – Meeting with Jerry Miller/Star of Hope re their recycling efforts

Sam & Tracy – Research on bin design

Ann & Elliott – Determine policies of North Bend elementary and high schools

Samantha & Valerie – Determine current educational materials available

Communication Site

2007-11-14T15:17:57-08:00

I wonder if this site could be used by our leadership group to post mothly progress reports concerning our project. We thought that it would be useful to have an on line place for these reports, and others could keep track of what we were up to also. Any comments from others about this idea?

Joan

Not sure where to post.

2007-10-24T16:08:33-08:00

After we got out off our last meeting I was very eager to learn more about the proposed projects, so I took a field trip down to BACAP baseball fields and explored with my children, I see alot of potential but it seems kinda out of the way to really help the youth in that area, maybe I’m wrong it’s just not how I envisioned it. Definitely a great plot of land complete with an apple tree. We traveled down many paths, which got me thinking about how cool it would be if part of the area could become a biking path for families.

Next we headed down to the Hallmark Creek area where I shared some ideas with two local frequenters of the area, during which I learned that they would welcome the change and feel that alot of the other homeless folks in the area would be delighted to help. They asked me if I had a card which I don’t so I gave them my cell phone # not wanting to be rude and one of the men actually text me a few times wanting to know more about our project. I just text back that it wasn’t solely my decision. My point being there is definitely some interest there and whether or not it becomes our project it is surely one worth investing in.

That’s all I got for now and I thought I would share this in class but as Heidi mentioned in her Email time is limited in class. I’m not sure if any of this helps anyone but I found it interesting, look forward to seeing everyone in class.