Help NIC make best decisions
The weeks ahead will be as important as any in North Idaho College's capital history.
Between the college's board of trustees and the much broader community it serves, three major initiatives will be addressed.
On the front burner is a location for the college's professional and technical education campus. Options include the existing campus nestled between Lake Coeur d'Alene and the Spokane River; out on the Rathdrum Prairie next to KTEC, a professional-technical campus for high school students; and a Post Falls location on or near Riverbend Business Park. All three have pluses. All three have minuses.
Right behind that on the stovetop, the college must determine what role it will have, if any, in building and/or managing an event center that's being promoted by Riverstone developer John Stone. Estimates for that facility hover in the $15 million to $25 million range, and a variety of funding sources are being explored.
That's not all. Some of you may have forgotten that just months ago, the capital project atop NIC's wish list was a multi-use building shared by all the local higher ed providers. But the trustees haven't forgotten, and they must weigh the importance of embarking on that building project in place of or in addition to the others.
Finally, although the funding mechanism would be unique - it would be paid by NIC student fees - trustees have also been asked to support a new recreation facility on campus.
What we know for certain is that trustees Ken Howard, Christie Wood, Judy Meyer, Ron Nilson and Todd Banducci are not bored. Everything else is a matter of rampant speculation.
Our purpose today is to ask for your help in converting that speculation to thoughtful consideration. Because NIC is your community college, paid for not just by students and the state, but by your local property tax dollars, what you think is vital to the decision-making process. More to the point, why you think what you think is important.
Speak up in a letter to the editor or, if you prefer, email your thoughts to: feedback@nic.edu
If you prefer, you can write a letter the old-fashioned way. Send it c/o Mark Browning, North Idaho College, 1000 W. Garden Ave., Coeur d'Alene, ID. 83814.
This newspaper's editorial board strongly encourages the trustees to gather and weigh all the necessary information, including why residents support specific options, before rendering any decisions of their own. That's the only way the entire community will be faithfully served.