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!

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.

On Saturday, June 14, we will have a BBQ for the people who come help out at the Old HS.  Spread the word!  RSVP to Shishona @ 835-5049.  For working, wear icky clothes, bring leather gloves, possible eye protection, and water.  Some jobs stir up dust and dirt in their area, so bring face masks if you have some.  We have some face masks, but depending on how many people are there, we might not have enough.

 Meet at the Old HS at 10 am.  Work for 2 hours.  BBQ 12-1.  Work for 4 hours. Possible movie in the gym via projector.  If movie is showed, bring cushions, chairs, and blankets.  Further information on this will be posted.

Wow.  What excitement!  This project is such a great benefit to the community.  Several people attended the workday and we got a lot done.  Most of the old boiler has been cut away and a lot of old wiring was taken out.  The girls showers had already been demolished and we hauled out all of the rubbish from this.  It is hard to imagine having to use those showers.  We were given a tour of the building and perspective plans.  What a gem to have!

Future workdays are scheduled for every Saturday this summer (excluding playground workday - July 11 and Troy Days - July 19)  A BBQ is planned for next Saturday, June 14.  Come help out and enjoy some food!

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

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!

A goal the Community Connectedness team is pursuing is to secure funding for creating sidewalks which would help connect community members. Currently the City is working on a project which would connect the school to downtown Troy along Big Meadow Road. In addition to supporting this project, the Community Connectedness team will also work on securing funding to create sidewalks in the area of Troy around Mary Street so that kids can walk to and from school more safely. If you know of any grant resources that might be available or would like to take part in this project please contact Heidi at 835-4088 or post a comment.

Earlier this fall, Horizons partnered with a group of Interior Design students from the University of Idaho to explore various design options for the new community center we want to develop. The students came up with 2 different designs and presented them at a showcase last November. If you’d be interested in viewing the designs, please check them out at by visiting our display at the Troy Library. We’d love to hear your input and get your ideas of how a community center would best serve you. You can provide feedback by clicking on this message, then typing your comment in the box that appears, and clicking submit.

An important goal of the Community Connectedness team is to develop a Coordinating Council which would establish better lines of communication between the different groups that are working to make improvements in Troy. This would increase community connectedness and allow groups to work together toward common goals. In order to accomplish this, we need to recruit members from each group who can serve as representatives on the committee. We’d like to invite members of all groups working in Troy to take part. If you are interested in becoming involved, please contact Heidi at 835-4088 or post a comment.

During the time that we’ve been working in the community, we’ve made a lot of progress in gaining the support of the local government. Mayor Whitney has been very supportive of the work we are doing, attending all our major events and even taking part in the Visioning Rally which was held last October. In addition, we’ve been able to work with Mayor Whitney and City Clerk Bob McCullough to increase the circulation of the Troy Talk and create the new city website. Our Water Committee has also been working closely with City Council Member, Mike Dimmick to investigate solutions for the water shortage. As we work toward our other action item goals we will be continuing to strengthen these relationships as well as form new ones.

Action Plans!

Each of the Troy Horizons Action Teams has created a plan of action to guide future work goals for their team. These plans lay out short term goals, long term goals, potential resources, and anticipated impact for the work the team plans to accomplish. You can view these goals by clicking on the appropriate team name in the Pages menu to the right of this post.