A little catching up...

It's been a little while since I've given you an update on what we've been up to. Last we met, I was attending the CDA 2030 Summit at NIC and I was allegedly going to give the low-down right after. Well I obviously dropped the ball on that one. Oops.Well, I'm here now (well over a month later) and I have some information for you.I chose to be in the "Community and Identity" focus group for the day. There were six groups total:

• Jobs and Economy: Jobs and workforce, economic and business development, career and professional development
• Growth and Development: Planning, land use, transportaion, housing, neighborhoods, infrastructure, utilities
• Environment and Recreation: Environmental quality and protection, rivers, lakes and natural areas, parks and recreation, and trails
• Health and Safety: Public safety, health care, wellness, social services, children and families, youth and elderly
• Education and Learning: Schools, community college, university and graduate school, lifelong learning
• Community and Identity: Governance, engagement, volunteerism, community image and identity, arts and culture, faith

So those were the different groups available and a brief description of the topics they were supposed to cover, however, there is always some level of overlap and that's fine. The goal of the summit wasn't to develop all these areas and solve all of North Idaho's problems, even though I think there were multiple people who thought that's what we were doing. Rather, our job was to look at the proposed vision that the committee already came up with based on all the surveys and workshops that had already wrapped up, and see if we wanted to make any changes.Some of the larger issues discussed included:

• A shortage of "living wage" jobs - we wanted the term changed to "completive wage" because we'll continue to lose a lot of skilled workers to Washington until we can close the wage gap a little more.
• Growing targeted industries such as technology, aviation, medical services, and sustainable "green" technologies.
• Transportation improvements including access to public transportation, bettering traffic flow and creating more city-wide urban trails to accomodate runners, walkers and bicyclists.
• Protecting our open space and improving the quality of our lakes, rivers and shorelines.
• Improving community health and wellness through education and awareness, recreational activities, environmental and safety measures, and further developing our comprehensive medical services.
• Maintaining Coeur d'Alene's small town feel and enhance our friendly, welcoming atmosphere while also continuing to develop public places where people can gather and connect.
• Continue to grow and enhance our arts and culture.
• Provide stable K-12 funding which will ensure the best teachers, facilities and resources possible for our community's children and enhance our university partnerships to provide more opportunities for students including research and scholarships.

Of course there was a lot more than that discussed throughout the day - but it would take me forever to include everything and you'd be reading this post for probably like a week. Or a day. Either way it would be way too long. You can learn a lot more about the results at the CDA 2030 website and find ways you will be able to participate down the road.What are some of the issues you'd like to see come up?I promise to post a few more times before the holidays, sorry again for being so behind!xoxoAndy