River District Community Coalition Newsletter

Vol. 1 Issue 3                                    May 13, 2010      

“A unified community.”

Welcome to the third edition of the RDCC newsletter.  We have had three meetings since our last newsletter—two regular RDCC meetings where our group has continued to plan around our vision (above) and three priorities: safe and positive opportunities for children; connecting and protecting our seniors; and connecting our communities.  We met in  April on the 8^th to finalize plans for the community meeting we held at Hillside Elementary School on the 29^th. Minutes from those two meetings can be found on “Lockwooding.blogspot.com.”

The April 29^th meeting was held to inform the community about a project being jointly planned by several groups—Storey County, Hillside Elementary, the GID, Community Chest, Inc., and Lockwood citizens, including RDCC.  The project involves a fitness and walking trail and proposed park area that would include a community garden, dog park, and picnic area.  Deny Dotson and Sue Pursel presented the current plans, but more input will be solicited from residents as the plan goes forward.  The fitness equipment, purchased by Hillside Elementary through a monetary award they received, has arrived and will be installed along the back of the existing Louise Peri Park between the school and community center. 

The topic of conversation for our May 13^th meeting centered around “communication” or the lack of adequate communication in our region.  The group spent the better part of our one hour meeting talking about strategies that we could implement to connect our communities and residents so that we can begin to meet the needs and interests of residents of all ages, and most importantly, feel confident that all residents know what’s going on and have every opportunity to provide their input on community wide projects and events if they choose to do so.

The group generated the following ideas for getting the word out about RDCC meetings, so look for information on our meetings and events at these locations and through these means: Lockwooding.blogspot.com, of course.

Storey County’s website.

Flyers in CGID bills.

Postings and flyers at the Sheriff’s office, Lockwood store, school peechees, the Clothing Exchange and the Community Center.

The group generated a list of questions for their upcoming Door-To-Door survey that they will finalize at the next meeting on June 10, 2010 from 3:30-5:00 p.m. at the Community Center. Join US!

Minutes:

Present at the meeting:

Merilee Miler

Jessica Paz Cedillos (Community Chest, Inc.)

Darren McKay (Community Chest, Inc.)

Faith St. Clair

Bret Tyler

Mary Ann Cuffe

Dennis Bowen

Gunther Prosser

Sue Pursel (HSE Lead Teacher)

Pam Howland

Tim Kelly

Facilitator:  Deborah Loesch-Griffin (Community Chest, Inc.)

Strategies generated for Community Connections priority:

Post events on school signs

Post a sign between payment boxes regarding any events or meetings

Conduct a door-to-door survey of all residents to gather information re: the park project, their interests, volunteering, etc. (see list attached)

Offer Door prizes at events or meetings.

Host an inaugural meeting in the fall (Halloween or Harvest theme) to present what we learned from Door-to-Door survey and to get people to celebrate and invited to get involved.

Incorporate fundraising into any event so that we can pursue priority areas.

Immediate Tasks:

Post minutes to lockwooding.blogspot.com (Tim)

Post flyer (page 1 of these minutes) at various locations:

Sheriffs, store, payment boxes, clothing exchange (Mary Ann)

Send out through peechees (Sue)

CGID bills and Senior Center (Merilee)

Rainbow Bend newsletter and HOA website (Pam)

Write a blurb for the CGID- Pam

Print out flyers for distribution (Bret and Mary Ann)

The flyer for public distribution should include the meeting date, time, location, purpose and a note to check-out the full minutes on the blog and county website.

PURPOSE FOR NEXT MEETING:

To finalize the survey questions and organize the door-to-door survey event for July 2010 in order to solicit community input around a number of priority projects and plans.