We are excited to share that one of our projects is nearing fulfillment. Under our previous goal of “building communication within the Tri-Cities” we undertook the project of a community calendar. The community calendar now appears on target to go live later this year! After a bit of a COVID-related drop-off in attendance and membership over the last 6 months or so, the Life Council is working its way back towards a fully-seated council as well as a re-energized and ambitious approach to fulfilling its MyTri2030 mandates! In addition to selecting a new council chair to relieve the gracious interim chair, the Life Council has been actively recruiting new members to replace those who resigned or lost touch. In addition to bolstering its active membership, the Life Council has also re-evaluated its goals and adjusted course to continue to serve its MyTri2030 Top 10 mandates to the best of its ability. We have spent considerable time meeting and evaluating what Top 10 Mandates are actionable, most needed, and serve spirit of the Top 10 best and have adapted and refined our priorities to the following three:
- “Coordinated and Collaborative Planning”
- “Provide Real-Life Experiences”, and
- “Advance the Cultural Vitality of the Region”
We chose coordinated and collaborative planning as our top priority because we identified the multiplicity of problems potentially solved by the creation of a metro area or fully empowered regional PFD, as well as the opportunities that area created and/or enhanced when city vs city competition is removed. We feel coordinated and collaborative planning via one of these mechanisms could potentially touch almost every Top 10 category for the Life Council. It is our view that a financial vehicle that unites the three separate cities will lead to better real-life experiences, better communication within the Tri-Cities, more coordinated and collaborative planning, improve regional connectedness, advance the culture and vitality of the region, and assist in providing a better water facility for the public; hence, this one topic stands to address several of the Top 10 Mandates.
The two remaining priorities, “Provide Real-Life Experiences” and “Advance the Cultural Vitality of the Region”, are being addressed through the efforts of our subcommittees. We are presently working on a festival and events guide that would assist vendors, both local and non-local, in planning and executing larger events and festivals in our region. This has been underway for several months now and efforts continue. We hope to increase the number of people assisting with this and potentially find more sponsors. We are also beginning looking into a partnership with the Prosperity Council to help aid in the creation of at least one food, drink, and potentially local retail goods festival that would highlight and support our local restaurants, breweries, wineries, artist, etc. We have meetings scheduled to further pursue this area of interest. Both projects mentioned support “real-life experiences” AND advance the cultural vitality of our region.”
We are looking forward to the nearing completion of our first project, continued efforts on our second, and the initiation of efforts into our next two major projects! We look forward to our next update when, hopefully, we are able to announce another milestone down and considerable progress on the issue of a metro area or regional PFD.
