Troy, ID

Let’s thank Shishona Thurston for making the effort to travel all the way to Boise in May to get certified to write grants for Troy’s community work. Troy Horizons paid for her registration and travel expenses to do this. Michele Vachon is working with Rune Frossmo, the owner of the Old High School, to find grant money for the renovation, and now Shishona will be able to help her.

Shishona has also helped organize work parties at the Old High School and a community meeting on June 12th with facilitator Jim Witham to help the entire community (different organizations and segments of the population) think about how they want to use the Old High School. Moreover, working with the Troy Historical Society, she helped put together a T-shirt for this amazing project (coming soon), so that everyone can show their pride and commitment to making this vision a reality!

Thanks Shishona!

Over the winter, the University of Idaho Food Service helped put on a weekly free community dinner in Troy that became a wonderful place for community conversations.

Troy liked the idea so much that they want to continue community dinners. So, the City asked Troy Horizons to help host one. The resulting event on May 10th was especially successful, as different organizations and business people had an opportunity to meet one another and talk about Troy’s future.

Would you like to see more community dinners in Troy? Would you like to help? Comment on this blog!

Here are some maps of Troy from 1929.  They show in pretty good detail the existing building, how they were heated, and whether they had electricity.  These maps came from the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company.  They operated from the 1800’s to 1929.  We are trying to locate the original books from Troy.  They are very large and are leather bound.  These digital maps came from the University of Idaho.

troy-sanborn-1929-index.pdf

troy-sanborn-1929-pg-2.pdf

troy-sanborn-1929-pg-3.pdf

 troy-sanborn-1929-pg-4.pdf

 troy-sanborn-1929-pg-5.pdf

 troy-jan-1929-2c-sheet-2.pdf

troy-sanborn-1929-2c-sheet-4.pdf (more…)

I received this forward from my mother-in-law.  I spent the whole day at a Washington and Idaho Horizons networking meeting in Post Falls and after reading this tonight, it got me thinking.  Please read through to the end and post your answer to the query. 

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a
well. The animal cried piteously for hours as
the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the
well needed to be covered up anyway;
it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.He invited all his neighbors to come over and
help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began
to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the
donkey realized what was happening and cried
horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he
quieted down.

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds
of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well
is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of
our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out
of the deepest wells just by not stopping,
never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.Remember the five simple rules to be happy: Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.Live simply and appreciate what you have.

Expect less.NOW ………… Enough of that crap . The donkey later came back,
and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him.
The gash from the bite got infected and
the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock. MORAL FROM TODAY’S LESSON:When you do something wrong, and try to cover
your ass, it always comes back to bite you.After you’ve read this story, think about Troy.  Would you characterize Troy as the Donkey or the Farmer?  Does Troy deal with what its situation is and figure out solutions or does it try to cover up?  Which category would you say the citizens of our community are in? Do you think that we preserve our old things or get rid of them?

Are you interested in helping organize a Troy-Moscow marathon?  If so, please call Shishona @ 835-5049.  The Latah trail between Troy and Moscow is slated to be finished early September.  The marathon would be the kick off of the trail, grand-opening if you will, and would be in late September.  This could turn into an annual event that could bring some revenue into Troy.  We are also looking at pairing this with Scandinavian Days and make it a weekend event.

Hi!
My husband Oscar at Oscar’s Computer Service is working on a regional informational website: Latah Central Anyone who would be willing to check out the website and give us suggestions, it would be much appreciated. Also, if you have a local business, you can find information on the website about how to advertise there.Holly

I show my community spirit and pride by getting involved in activities, such as Horizons and the Old HS project.  I also feel that making our new house, the old Hospital, look attractive and presentable also shows this.

How do you show your community spirit & Pride?  What outlets for showing this would you like to see here in Troy?

UI Extension, Horizons, and Two Degrees Northwest have partnered up to bring you a Cooperative Business Workshop.  It will be June 25th from 9am-4pm at the 1912 Center in Moscow and is free to attend.  Please see the attached flier for more information. coopflyer2nd.pdf

This article was printed in the May issue of Troy Talk Newsletter 

Spring is among us and we are again thinking of yards, gardens, and consuming water for everyday summer activities.  Now is the time to look into installing rain barrels to help with the cost of higher water usage and to help with conservation of our most precious resource. 

• Rain barrels conserve water and help lower costs (a rain barrel can save approximately 1,300 gallons of water during peak summer months).
• Rain barrels reduce water pollution by reducing stormwater runoff, which can contain pollutants like sediment, oil, grease, bacteria and nutrients.
• Rain barrels are inexpensive and easy to build and install

What is a rain barrel?
A rain barrel collects and stores rainwater from rooftops to use later for lawn and garden watering. Water collected in a rain barrel would normally pour off your roof directly or flow through roof gutter downspouts and become stormwater runoff. Depending on your yard, this runoff can travel onto paved surfaces and eventually into a storm drain.              

Here are some helpful websites to give you more information.  You can search for rain barrels on the internet or find them at your local garden supply and hardware stores.  A rain barrel can simply be a garbage can that sits under a downspout or heavy runoff point from your roof.  It does not have to be expensive or fancy.  Here are some websites with good information on them: 

http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/pi/rainbarrels.htm

http://www.harvesth2o.com/faq.shtml

http://www.uri.edu/ce/healthylandscapes/rainbsources.html

Brought to you by Troy Horizons Water Committee

For more information, contact Shishona @ 835-5049, shishonathurston@hotmail.com

Rune “cordially invites you to a work day on Saturday, June 7 starting at 10 am running until about 3 or 4 pm (whenever the dump closes)”.  The goal for this work day is to haul all of the unwanted items that have been ripped out of the lower level to the dump and to move the items that we are saving to another location of the building.  The first 500 lbs taken to the dump is free, after that, Rune will pay any dump charges that are incurred.  We currently need pickup trucks, horse trailers, wheelbarrows, leather gloves, safety goggles, and bodies to work.  If you can not commit to the whole time, that is ok, any little bit helps.  Whether it is for 2 hours or for 6 hours, please show up to help with this project.  If you do not have a pickup truck, then just show up and help load the trucks we will have there.  Bring your family, bring your friends, spread the word.  The more the merrier.  As I am writing this, the boiler and associated pipes are being cut out courtesy of some hard working people and a blow torch provided by Pete Abbot.  This is one of the items we need to haul away.

As this project progresses, there will be many more work days in the future.  We are working on getting a schedule together of those days. 

This is an exciting opportunity for Troy.  Please help us make this building into something for you to enjoy, that will be beneficial to the community everyday!  This project is a large undertaking and we would love your suggestions and support in whatever form you can provide.

Contact info:   

Rune Frossmo, Owner – 835-2000

Shishona Thurston, Horizons – 835-5049   shishonathurston@hotmail.com

Michele Vachon, Grant-writer and Environmental Specialist - mvachon@uidaho.edu                          

Rune Frossmo, the owner of the Old High School, is now back in town.  He is very excited about giving this building back to the community in whatever form the community wants.  The first step in this process has been dedicated to the Troy Historical Society.  They have been given the lower level of the Old HS to call their own and work is in progress to get their area completed.  In the meantime, Horizons is going to be talking to various groups/organizations/individuals to find out how you want this building used.

With this in mind, we have invited Jim Withim to talk to us and become our facilitator to collect ideas and information.  If you would like to be included and share your thoughts, please post comments on our blog.  We would like to generate discussion in Troy on this exciting project.  If you would like to be contacted and included in this conversation the blogs will be checked regularly, or you can email me Shishona Thurston @ shishonathurston@hotmail.com

This series was a great success.  We are looking at hosting another of these trainings in the future.  If you would like to be notified about future trainings, please contact Shishona:  shishonathurston@hotmail.com 

Entrepreneurial Training Series
Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Starting a business, marketing, finance and networking to support entrepreneurship in our region.Format–A series of 3 workshop sessions to be held in 3 separate locations. You may attend any or all sessions at each location. See below for session descriptions.
  
    Kamiah, ID
   Kamiah Welcome Center
   518 Main Street        April 29  Session 1   6pm-9pm (PST)
        May 1     Session 2   6pm-9pm (PST)
        May 6     Session 3   6pm-9pm (PST)

Plummer ID
   Coeur d’Alene Tribal Wellness Center
   1100 A Street

        April 9     Session 1   5pm-8pm (PST)
        April 14   Session 2   5pm-8pm (PST)
        April 23   Session 3   5pm-8pm (PST)Session 1) Business start-upSession 2)

Marketing (with specialized breakouts for arts, farm-related, and hospitality businesses)Session 3) Financial management.  (with a focus on resources to help small businesses, establishing mentoring relationships for new entrepreneurs and creating networks/mechanisms for fostering an entrepreneurial environment) 

The emphasis of this training is not to teach every detail of starting or growing a business, but rather to foster relationships that will support small business start-up and help existing businesses become more successful.  Therefore, identifying the existing resources in your communities/area is going to be important to the success of this effort!

Contacts: 
Two Degrees Northwest
    Lorie Higgins  higgins@uidaho.edu or 885-9717
    Elizabeth Carney  ecarney@uidaho.edu 

Horizons
    Meri Joswiak merijoz@uidaho.edu

According to wikipedia; “Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of those things that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, but also “intangibles” such as the opportunity to learn and to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.”  To me, poverty is not just about money.  It is the lack of education, training, communication, connectedness to your community, services (health, media, safety…), transportation, etc. 

 Where do you see poverty in Troy? 

Heidi Reierson and Julie Redford, who have been key contacts for Troy Horizons are both moving out of the area.  They will be greatly missed!  The new contact information is now:       

Shishona Thurston         604 S Main, Troy, ID 83871    (208) 835-5049   shishonathurston@hotmail.com

If you would like to get involved with Horizons or have ideas for projects we can work on, please contact me!

If you need help getting going with blogging, this beginners blog manual is a great source!  blog-manual.pdf  For additional help, look to the top left of your screen where it says “My Account”.  Hover your mouse over this and there will be a drop down menu.  Move your mouse over “Support” and click once.  This will take you to the WordPress Support website where there is lots of good information on how to blog on this website. 

Good Luck!  Remember, you can’t break anything, so don’t be afraid to try things out.  Any questions, please email me:  Shishona Thurston shishonathurston@hotmail.com 

Troy, ID - Archive - Welcome to Troy’s Community Blog!