Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Cokeville Economic Development Steering Committee

The Cokeville Economic Development Steering Committee was formed a few years back by the town council to look at some issues that were on the horizon and may need to be addressed sooner than later. Those issues included land acquisition for residential growth, growth planning, zoning issues for the Planning and Zoning group to be aware of, and general advice based on group consensus for the Town Council to be aware of. It was a set of helping hands for the council, focusing on economic development, which the council had previously not had the manpower to ever address.

The CEDSC called themselves the "Steering Committee", meaning in a positive way to help "steer" the town in a positive direction, one which would help avoid negative future consequences due to poor or lack of planning.

In 2007 at least one of the council members took to calling the committee the "Stirring Committee", thinking it clever to negate all the good works the group did (on a volunteer basis) and instead focus on the fact that the committee asked the town council to take a direct look at real issues facing them down the road. This process of course required thought and perhaps discussion (gasp!) on behalf of the town council.

The group regularly meets on the first Tuesday of every month. Attendance is open to anyone interested. It reports on a regular basis to the council and still strives to be positive, helpful, and working in the direction that improves the town's viability for future generations by making recommendations to the Town Council. On its own, the Cokeville Economic Development Steering Committee has no power or authority. They have some budget money from the council for land acquisition, which would need to be council approved.

To date, the Town Council and CEDSC worked on one major project together, along with the P&Z. That project was setting up zoning for the highway district. The new zoning was approved on 3rd reading in 2007, although it hasn't been added to the town website on the ordinances and planning pages. The groups agreed that the zoning was necessary and important and agreed to not make variances for a business that wanted to come in that was definitely not a fit for the carefully planned, limited "Corridor of Impression" of the town of Cokeville.

The Town Council and CEDSC are currently working on a 2nd project, that of obtaining a town administrator. Consensus is being built. Currently, the town is in the budgeting process and a 3rd police officer as well as a 3rd public works person are being batted around. It would be most beneficial to the town to hire a town administrator to run the town on a day to day basis. This would relieve town clerk NaDene Dana of duties not normally the job of a town clerk. Additionally, the administrator would be there full-time, and the front office could be kept open.
The mayor and council have no regular office hours, and it is not a council's job to run the town's day to day operations. A town administrator could actively work on grants to revitalize Cokeville, from quality of life issues, to downtown improvement. The administrator could also help with master plans, update maps, and make information much more accessible to the general public than is currently happening. There job would be to say, "let me help you find the answer" not "why do you want to know".

No comments:

Labels

4th of July 5K adrenaline rush Affordable Housing Afton Albaugh American Legion Auxiliary Anderson animal adoption Arbor Day Archibald Bailey BANK ISSUE Bateman bear river fire district Beck Biggest Loser Birch Bird Blevins Bloomberg Business Week Blue Sky Boughton Brewer Bridger Valley Pioneer Bruce Buddy Holly and the Crickets Call Casper Star Tribune Cemetery Centennial CES Chadwick Chamber of Commerce cheerleaders CHS circus Co-Ed Baseball Coach Pitch Co-Ed Baseball coates Cokeville Cokeville Art Camp Cokeville Arts Council Cokeville Bombing Cokeville Centennial Cokeville Development Corporation Cokeville Economic Development Cokeville Economic Development Steering Committee Cokeville Elementary School Cokeville High School Cokeville Historical Society Cokeville Meadows NWR Cokeville Miracle Cokeville Miracle Foundation cokeville pictures Cokeville Police Cokeville Register Cokeville Syndrome Cokeville Town Hall Cokeville Tree Board Concert Connelly Conner Cook COPYRIGHT NOTICE Cory Cox Cut-Throat Slam Program Dana Date Night Davis Dayton Decker Department of Workforce Services Deseret News Dimond door to door sales Duran EcoDev economic development summit election results election year Eleutian EMT Esterholdt Evanston executive sessions Expedition Yellowstone familywize Ferguson Feuz Fiona fire department Fiscus Fisher Flying J foootball football fotosport Free Freeman Fundraiser Gae Gailey games geocaching global warming Grandy Greybull Grindstone Creek Haka Halloween Halls Happy Jacks Harmon Harris high school music Hobble Creek Hoffman Holden Holmes homecoming Homemade Oreo Cookies houses for sale Hunter's Safety Hunting Hymas IRS Jackman Jackson Lake jobs Johnson jr. high music junior high track Kallstrom kemmerer Kemmerer Gazette Kennington King Kinney Kirk krause Lady Panthers Lake Alice Land for Sale Lander Lazcanotegui LCLI LDS library LIEAP Lincoln County Lincoln County Commissioners Lincoln County Fair Lincoln County Landfill Lincoln County Leadership Institute Lincoln County Public Health Nurse Lisota Little Chicago Review Log Smith Art Luthi McKinnon Meet the Candidate Night meeting violation? Memorial Day Miller Minerva Teichert Invitational Art Show and Sale Miss Cokeville Moody Moore Nate National Weather Service New to Cokeville? Newman Nowlin Obama otball P.E. Panthers park Penner Pep Club Perry Petersen Phillips Pine Creek Ranch Pine Creek Ski Resort Pioneer Day Celebration Planning and Zoning Poem Poetry Out Loud Pope prescription drug discount card Primary Elections PRIVACY POLICY Prows PTO public service Public Services Pugmire Randolph Ut Raymond Mountain read-a-thon recycling Reed Rentfro Richardson Richins Rigby Riverton roberts Robinson Rocky Peak Rodeo Club Rogers Sainz Saxton Saywer School School Board Senator John Barrasso Senior Center Sexton Records Shay Sign Project slide show SMOKE-FREE ordinance Snow Sparks Spring Boutique Star Valley Independent State Champions Staven Stepanek Sunshine Generation swim school Taylor Teichert Temple Riders Ten Virgins Thomas Thompson Thornock To Save the Children Tonga Toomer Town Council Town Council Meeting Town Council Meeting. open meetings town website track team Uinta Bank United Way Veteran's Day Program volleyball volunteer vote VSO WAC Wade walker Walton Warner WCWI Western Governors University WGFD Where the Red Fern Grows wilde Willy and the Hand Jive Wilson Winney Witness to Miracles WIxom Woodward Workforce Investment Act wrestling Wyoming Open Meetings Wyoming State Historical Society wyoming state library Wyoming State Museum WyoPoets