NIC, start at the top

Backed by a majority of citizens serving on an ad-hoc committee, North Idaho College is prepared to ask its board of trustees to hire a consultant who could help chart a course for a proposed event center.

Take a deep breath and look again at that long, awkward, nebulous sentence. It's an accurate reflection of the long, awkward, nebulous process that has brought us to this point in debating the merits and means of building a $15 million to $20 million event center in Coeur d'Alene. Problem is, we're debating the merits and means of the wrong thing.

While an event center is a captivating topic, it isn't North Idaho College's highest capital priority. College leaders have clearly identified their most pressing capital project - one that actually fits into the college's mission - as expanding professional and technical training programs and facilities. Where an event center might be high on some people's wish list, a place to train residents for good jobs is an absolute need. So why is the lion's share of administrative energy being expended on an event center that very well might never get off the ground?

Straddling two major project proposals, among the biggest in NIC's history, has likely bogged down both. Keep in mind that the decisions ultimately lie in the laps of college trustees, devoted public servants who nonetheless have real lives and actual jobs outside their volunteer work on the college board. They're simply not all able to invest themselves as fully as they'd like to in the business of two huge capital projects simultaneously.

Nor do they need to. By first figuring out where the professional/technical expansion should go and how it should be funded, lower priority projects like a possible event center would come into clearer focus. That's the power of taking care of priorities. Get the essential food item into the shopping basket first, then see if there's room and money for dessert.