Community Connections Center Staying Connected to our Community and World

We have officially been open 4 months. That is hard to believe. It was just yesterday we were gutting the buildings and hauling the stuff to the dump. Since we opened March 1st we have seen a steady increase in usage. In March we had 409 computer usages, in April 510 and in May 794, mid-June was at 546. Total signed up users since the middle of June are 204 with 130 adults and 74 students. We have 15 trained volunteers that help keep the center open 7 days a week. New people are signing up every day. Since opening we have had approximately 30 people take beginning computer classes. Just today a young gal came in to type up a resume, of course there are the kids that are not getting into trouble on the streets because they hang out here, people checking e-mail, watching TV, doing homework, researching, keeping up with the world news, doing their e-bay business, home-based businesses and more. Two ladies from Canada have stopped by and needed to print a receipt in order to cross over the border. Printing income tax returns and the list goes on. What did we do before we had the Community Connections Center?

So what about that second building? Has it been used? Glad you asked. It has held a gun safety class (30 attending), an after school Kid’s club for 3 months (average 8 kids each week), weekly Narcotics Anonymous Meetings (growing from 2 to 8), Growing Healthy/Eating Healthy Workshop (35 in attendance), Food Sustainability and Healthy Eating Workshop (34 in attendance), Rural Resources Medical Insurance Counseling, SCORE Counseling (Retired Business Executive counseling new entrepreneurs), an Artisan and Craftsman organizational meeting (20 attending) and an Artists Unveiling. I would say that covers about A – Z. If you have a use for the building, just call Sandi Everson at (509) 732-8847 or (509) 690-7548.

I think a huge thanks is due again to the USDA, EcliptixNet, and Art and Nina Grobben for this beautiful facility. On the horizon we want to fence the back yard for future events. It is just $50.00 a section which includes a plaque acknowledging your donation posted on the fence. If you want to donate a section of fence contact NCPR (509) 563-4502 and leave a message or call Sandi Everson at the above numbers.

Grand Opening of the Community Connections Center a Huge Success!

Saturday, February 27th dawned a beautiful, sunny winter day. As people began setting up for the day, there were more vendors than space. It was an exciting situation to have. Tables and space were made out front of both buildings where the Schwann’s Truck, Sheriff’s Mobile Command Center, Sheriff’s Expedition and Boat, and the local EMS brought Northport’s new Ambulance and all set up. Med Star, Community Garden, Lazy-Daze Retreats, New Hope Assembly, Seventh Day Adventist, Presbyterian Church, Early Head Start, US Border Patrol, Tri-County Economic Development, SCORE Business Consultant, Rural Resources, Steven’s County Rural Libraries, Northport Medical Clinic, Old Dog Computer Tutoring, Shoshanna Pottery, American Legion, NEW Alliance Counseling Drug Prevention, WSU, Merle Door and Windows, Bushhock Distributing, Sister’s Second Hand, Northern Ales Brewery, Kuk’s Tavern, SMOSS Outdoor Survival School, Eagles Wings Jujitsu, Northport Schools Homelink Program, Custom Home Organization, VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), Northport’s Historical Society, Northport Hardware, and I may have missed a few. Stedy’s coffee, locally produced, provided coffee for all of the guests, Margaret Phillips made a beautiful cake for all to enjoy and Klaus Peters donated his locally grown and produced wine. What a fantastic cross-section of our community!

Opening ceremonies were performed by Jeff Tamietti of EcliptixNet and Mario Villanueva USDA Rural Development Director. Mario Villanueva read a letter from US Representative Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and presented it to Cindy Knapp president of NCPR. Well over 200 people turned out for the festivities. People seemed to truly enjoy themselves and stayed to visit till past our scheduled closing. Overall the buzz is it was a huge success. Thank you to all our community, businesses, organizations, churches and emergency support services for making the opening of the center such a success.

Community Center Almost Here!

It is about time for an update on the Community Center. We are scheduled for a grand opening of February 27th at 3 pm. It has been a whirlwind time of remodeling. The carpenter/contractors George Snodgrass and Dean Hotchkiss have been amazing. Our electrician has met many obstacles and persevered through, Jesse Anderson building our counters and desk, many volunteers working anywhere from a few hours to days have been invaluable. And to Art Grobben the overseer, fill-in worker, plumber and electrical assistant, and …… go-fer to Spokane and beyond it would never even be a reality without his over seeing the project and spurring everyone on.

The computers are due to arrive and be installed the end of January. Volunteers are in place to open the center at least 3 to 4 days a week. More volunteers are welcome to take more hours, other days or be on call for filling in. The Community Connections Center is open only as volunteers are available to man it. The Center will house 15 computers with wireless internet available for use free of charge. Secretarial work will be available to the community for a nominal fee, i.e. fax, copies, brochure/letterhead/flyer/business cards, creating business letters and letters of communication.

A separate building will be available for rental at a nominal fee. A laptop, screen and projector will be available for meetings, movies, games, etc. We are hoping to fence the back yard and landscape for outdoor events this next spring and summer. An outdoor courtyard will be available with wireless accessibility for those who just wish to sit with their laptops and hook up. More ideas are in store if funds become available. Stop in and see what it looks like! See you there! If you are interested in volunteering your time please call Sandi Everson 732-8847 or e-mail ncprboard@yahoo.com.

Northport Schools to Begin Virtual School

Exciting things are taking place in the small town of Northport. On Tuesday January 19th Dan Benjamin, of FutureEd, presented an opportunity to Northport Schools to create a Virtual School. The School board unanimously voted for Dr. Key, Northport Schools Superintendent and Daniel Benjamin to begin drawing up a contract to be reviewed by the Northport Schools attorney. By the February 9th School Board meeting this agreement should be signed and our community will be well on the way to opening a Virtual Academy by September of 2010.

NCPR designed, addressed and sent out about 600 flyers to local residents advising them of the meeting. Approximately 70 people attended, listening to Mr. Benjamin’s presentation and asking numerous questions. At one point our new mayor, Mike Lamb, stood up and said “OK, I want to know, how many are for this?” Overwhelmingly the crowd was supportive of the proposition.

The Virtual School has the possibility of creating 2 non-teaching jobs per 100 students. This is a much needed boost to a dwindling economy in our area. We just want to acknowledge the leadership and visioning of a few individuals. Four teachers, Leesa Ewen, Don Baribault, Terri Carlson and Heidi Leaden for hours beyond measure; researching and taking the administrative classes necessary to successfully lead this school. To Eric Middlesworth, TECH extraordinaire, for his leadership in setting up the new school and the technical basis for this project to get off the ground. To Dr. Leroy Key, our interim school superintendent, who has vision and drive to move this school forward into the technology age. I am sure there are more individuals who have donated time and to you we are also grateful. Each one of these individuals has embarked on an ambitious timeline to see this project come to completion. What an awesome opportunity for our little town!

Community Clean-up

On April 18th and 19th, NCPR and other community members came together to participate in the Northport Community Clean – up. There were a total of 47 people who showed up to help, ages ranging from 7 year old first graders to senior citizens who understand and care about the community.

All participants gathered at the old gas station to receive their assignments. People with trucks were assigned to be section leaders. From there, volunteers were divided into three groups. The ‘green group’ picked up branches, leaves, etc… the ‘garbage group’ picked up trash and other recyclables. And the ‘metal group’ gathered all metal and appliances. The section leaders then divided the 47 different houses amongst the volunteers for stopping and cleaning up.

Around noon, all helpers returned back to the old gas station to be treated to a barbeque of hot dogs and hamburgers to eat and rest while section leaders deliberated on what was still left to do. When the barbeque came to a close, the groups gathered together to continue the community clean – up.

At the end of the day, the garbage was divided into piles for the garbage truck to deliver to the dump. We ended up with 7 tons of trash and over 100 tons of metal! (Which is quite an improvement compared to the 30 tons we collected in the previous two years). All expenses were paid for by the 5078 lbs of vehicle batteries, the 835 lbs of aluminum cans, and by the cash donations.

We would like to offer a thank you to all the participants who donated their entire day for the benefit of the community, and a special thanks to the Godes family for the use of their property for the purpose of disposing several tons of green waste, Bob Baird for Operating ‘Old Faithful’, Candy Baird, Lloyd Monroe, and Art Grobben who spent the better part of a week completing all the little finishing touches, hauling, separating, loading, etc., Ron Sauvola for letting us once again stage on his property, as well as have our barbeque there, Tony’s Market for their thoughtfulness of donating donuts to jump start our day, to KUK’s Tavern and the Mustang Grill for always being so generous and supportive, to Rebecca Middlesworth, for the case of water, and to Ray Fitzgerald for the use of ‘Old Faithful’ the dump truck.

Americorps*VISTA Update

NCPR was awarded an Americorps*VISTA project for the EMS program. Ed Nichols will be attending VISTA Volunteer Training in Seattle, WA in early July. Sandra Everson will be attending VISTA Volunteer Supervisor Training in Dallas, TX July 21 - 24th. We hope to kick off the project with an information booth at the "Whole Darn Town Garage Sale" June 24th and 25th. Ed will be working with students from the school who would like to take on the EMS for their senior project. Campaign will consist of signage of our rural area for easier location by our EMS Volunteers in emergency situations, education in the Public school about Fire Safety and Fire Safety assessment of your home. More details will be posted after the training.

Community Greenhouse Grant

Norhtport recieved a $12,000.00 grant from "The Washington Health Foundation Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign" for a community greenhouse. The greenhouse was ordered on June 11th, 2009. It will be built at the Community Garden on mainstreet. We are excited about the opportunity to extend our growing season and provide greens late into the season and vegetable starts early in the year. We are linking with the School to assist with their fresh food program and mentoring a couple of students for their senior projects. We will be posting updates as they become available.

Northport Community Garden is Coming Soon!

Spring Fever is in the air! If you doubt it you should have attended the Herb Class at WSU on Thursday, March 5th. The Rendezvous Theater had about 75 eager gardeners listening to Al Kowitz share his passion and expertise for growing and cooking with herbs. Well onto the Community Garden Project.

We are in the planning stages of developing a community garden and greenhouse for Northport. Several people have been spending time brainstorming to make this a reality. Wendy Lantzy has stepped forward to take the lead on this project that was birthed out of the Horizon Grant. Last year the ground was prepared, organic matter added to the soil and some raised beds started, but no one was available to take charge of the project until now. Thanks, Wendy!

Rebecca Middlesworth started writing a grant to fund the startup costs of fencing, a drip irrigation system and green house. Community members Kamiah Goodwin, Sandra Everson, Art and Nina Grobben and Rebecca Middlesworth met to discuss some of the particulars. The location for the Community Garden has been donated by Art and Nina Grobben. The property is located on Main Street next to Buck Jennings, CPA. The location is ideal for access to marketing, proximity to school and community members to use.

Our goal is to link with the school for mentoring via the JR/SR projects and/or perhaps an elective class. The goal of the greenhouse is to give students an opportunity to raise starts for sale in the spring and perhaps to provide fresh greens all winter to local community members and businesses. Space may be made available at a small fee (to cover the costs of heating and water) to interested community members who wish to grow their own fresh greens or garden starts.

If you are interested in participating in gardening, mentoring, weeding, building a fence or setting up an irrigation system, etc. please contact Wendy Lantzy at
732-4249 or Nina Grobben at 732-0443.

Americorps*VISTA Volunteer to Assist Northport in Three Possible Projects

At the February NCPR meeting, Ruby Page from Americorps*VISTA spoke. She shared about the Americorps*VISTA program and suggested we submit a project idea. Cindy Knapp, Gary and Kathy Jones, Sandra Everson, Art and Nina Grobben, Marti Rosenstiel and Melissa Kahee met at the Grobbens to begin brainstorming projects that we could submit. Three projects came immediately to mind; a recycling station, community garden and an address identification project with the volunteer fire dept.

Marti Rosenstiel and Melissa Kahee have begun investigating the possibility of a recycling center for profit to provide jobs for students and disabled/handicapped workers. It is just in its infancy stage but the following are the ideas submitted for a three-year project:
· Begin a Recycle Center
· Educate the community and school
· Develop a volunteer base
· Develop mentoring program with the school (JR/SR Projects)
· Create Job opportunities for students/disabled/seniors
· Create a Recycle Web Site for local classified ads
· Build a Recyclable Building Supply Center
· Clearing house for tearing down structures

The Community Garden is forging ahead, but some of our ideas for an Americorps*VISTA in this project are as follows:
· Identify End Users of the garden produce
· Develop Volunteer base
· Identify and apply for grants to fence, build greenhouse, etc.
· Develop mentoring program with the school (JR/SR Projects)
· Identify possible partners beyond the school
· Develop ongoing educational program for the school
· Seed Saving Program
· Develop and identify plants hardy to our area
· Plant starts from the greenhouse to sell to the community
· Educate and develop bio-intensive gardening methods
· Survey community on knowledge/needs/volunteers/etc.

The Volunteer Fire Dept. project idea was for the development of a sign identification program. Our firefighters have a difficult time locating fires and emergencies due to the lack of proper signage on driveways in the outlying areas. A similar program was started in Newport and with grants and selling of signs it has been sustainable. At this time we have no one within the Fire Dept willing to take the lead on this project. We were looking to partner with the Northport Volunteer Fire Dept. and Fire District 11 (Onion Creek) to work on this project simultaneously. At this point it looks like Fire District 11 might submit an Americorps*VISTA project of their own. We will gladly assist them in anyway we can.

Northport Community Preservation and Restoration

The Horizons Steering Committee is undergoing a transformation. This dedicated group of volunteers are in the process of becoming a recognized non-profit called Northport Community Preservation and Restoration.

Our mission will be to empower the community with leadership skills to enhance the quality of life and sustain a healthy community. The group will build relationships with existing groups to education, create infrastructure, and improve the economy. As we look for grants one focus will be to fund projects to combat poverty.

USDA/Ecliptixnet Highspeed Internet Grant

Remember the informational meeting last fall about getting a grant for high speed internet access??? The town has been selected!!! This grant will provide our town with a small community center and 1o computers for use, especially by those who do not have access otherwise. The grant also provides high speed internet to Northport and opens up opportunity for homebased businesses, online classes for furthering education, and the possibility of expanding a call center job location for our town and decreasing existing commute times.