Winnemucca News

Winnemucca News

Planned economic diversification or ghost town ... selecting the future - 02-24-2010

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WINNEMUCCA — What will Humboldt County look like in 30 years?  Will the economy be a thriving and diversified? Will there be balance between protecting natural resources and a thriving economy? Or will tumbleweeds be blowing past the land designated for growth and industry?

These  were some of the questions under discussion during a two-day conference on Scenario Planning, which gives communities the tools to articulate then plan to meet long-term strategic goals. The program was developed by the consulting firm Innovative Leadership.  

The conference was sponsored by the Humboldt Development Authority , which gathered community leaders and interested parties for a peek at future possibilities.

Representing Innovative Leadership were David Beurle, managing director of IL – Australia, and Juliet Fox, executive director IL – USA. Both have extensive experience in working with communities to create and meet long-term objectives.

Beurle and Fox have worked in communities in Australia, USA, Canada, and Europe.  Both noted throughout their travels they have seen many rural communities with the same issues.  Only they’re different.

Fox noted in her home community environmental discussions often focus on the sand mines, which is a very different discussion than they’re holding in the Pacific Northwest.

Innovative Leadership doesn’t bring answers; instead, it helps community leaders identify the community’s vision for the future and provides tools for creating a plan to get them there.

“No one is coming to save you,” Beurle said throughout the conference.

While generally receptive, participants in the conference identified key concerns that could hinder success.

For example, if the community’s long-term objectives are going to be met, then the community as a whole must identify and articulate what those objectives are.  This will require sustainable leadership and  a significant percentage of the populace at the table. That’s no small challenge -- especially considering many work in the gaming or  mining industry – whose hours of operation are not 9-5, Mon – Fri.

Participants identified public participation as the single greatest challenge and discussed varying solutions for getting the attention of the populace and turning them out for planning sessions. 

There are others problems to address, though, and that included a conservative populace who may be slow to accept change, suspicious of programs that might be too radical, perhaps reluctant to spend the money for the tools to put the program into place, and reminiscent of the way things used to be.

In a global economy residents must understand there's no turning back.  Beurle noted, “The world we’re leaving is very different from the world we’re going into.”

Even with those challenges met, organizers would have to find a way to get local elected leaders on board. If implementing the long-term strategic goals is going to be successful, decisions made by elected leaders would need to recognize and base decisions on the plan ultimately produced.  The challenge of two-year election cycles would also have to be  considered; after all, if implemented the plan would outlive the politicians.

It was, perhaps,  telling that only two elected officials attended the conference: Mayor Di An Putnam and County Commissioner Mike Bell.  However, to be fair many local elected officials own small businesses or are from the ranching communities and may not have been able to get away for the conference.

Still, the lack of elected leadership was noted by attendees.

Participants acknowledged the challenges of the project, but many expressed this single idea:  We have no choice.  For decades locals have wrung their hands about the future of mining and gaming – and thus the future of the community. While mining continues to thrive, tourism has dropped and gaming has suffered.

Participants expressed the idea that Innovative Leadership’s program for planning for the future might be the jump-start the community needs for long-term economic planning.

However, Beurle and Fox stressed the program isn’t just economic, but also takes into account various factors at play in a community’s long-term planning:  social services, the environment, education, agriculture, and general quality of life.  

“It’s a messy process,” Fox assured attendees. “It can uncover vulnerabilities no one wants to talk about.” She would know having helped implement the program in her own Wisconsin community.

As was noted, decisions you don’t make are as potent as the ones you do make. To that end, the chairman of the HDA, Pat Gray, lead locals in a discussion about the possibility of pursuing the project.

Gray and Bill Sims, also of the HDA, appeared ready to move forward, though each acknowledged the challenges with Gray noting, “It’s just going to be hard work.”

They were met with some skepticism from those who remembered similar projects in the past that did not necessarily deliver. Sims countered there were good things that came from those projects – including the HDA – even if specific goals weren’t necessarily met in their entirety..

Bob Edwards, a member of the Regional Planning Commission, noted the lack of a cohesive plan holding the various regulatory boards together. He commented, “The decision I have made (on the RPC) were based on zoning and land-use.”  If there had been a plan in place for the future, he added, he would have considered it.

This need for a county-wide plan was  backed up by Annie Drake, of Nevadans Against Garbage, also noted the disjointed efforts between the local government boards since she started attending public meetings some months ago.  While there are good intentions, she added, what’s missing is a shared mission or goal that each individual board is working towards. She commented, “Perhaps something like this can help with understanding.”

Public participation remained a sticky issue. Sue Hawkins, of Newmont, pointed out the difference between what is done locally and the  method used by Innovative Leadership to promote greater public participation:  locally they have open meetings anyone can attend, and IL goes out to the public to recruit – with more positive results.

Ultimately it was determined HDA, under the leadership of Gray, will initiate the process.

Written by Dee Holzel - Silver Pinyon Journal - 2/24/10

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