Upriver, ID

Have you checked the UpRiver website lately for upcoming events? The calendar lists things happening throughout the month with dates, times, and places. If you live here or are visiting someone who lives here, you are invited to check out these activities for this week:

Monday, August 4–Businessperson’s Breakfast You’re invited to a no-host breakfast for an informal visit to get to know one another. Swap lies jobs and fairy tales. 7am at Drifter’s Cafe in Emida. For more information contact Fred or Rosemary Niemier, 245-1459 or Rudy Heicksen 245-5615.

Tuesday, August 5–Fernwood Rural Fire Protection District meeting on the second Tuesday of each month (usually) at the firehouse at 7:00 p.m. The meetings are open to the public. If you have any questions, please call Jay Trueman at the Fernwood Merc, or Carolyn Dudley at 245-6500

The calendar has details for other events coming up this month including a benefit for Joey and Sheri Gray on the 15th, the Friends of the Library meeting on the 18th, the UCU Board meeting on the 25th, Community Pride meeting on the 27th, and regular weekly meetings of the church, youth groups, bingo, flea market, etc.

Keep up with everything by visiting the calendar regularly.

UpRiver Community United “graduated” on June 30 from the Horizons sponsorship and now stands on its own. On Thursday, July 31st the board met at Emida and the treasurer’s report actually showed money in the account which has come from different activities such as the Saturday Flea Market in Fernwood and donations.

Yes, the Entrepreneurial Development Team reported that the Flea Market, in its infancy stage, has been showing good success. Now they are looking into the possibility of offering classes of various kinds in the community. Watch for their survey and respond as quickly as possible.

A simple project to collect and reproduce some historical photos has turned into something much bigger. So much inerest has been generated in this project that the board approved a new UpRiver Historical Society under the auspices of Upriver Community United. This new team is putting together a beautiful collection of photographs and other memorabilia including artifacts of the area. They plan to make and sell calendars to raise money to support their efforts. There will be public showings of the photo reproductions that have been made so far. Watch for more information on these developments in the future. They will also be having their own meeting, with dates to be announced, to discuss business and choose some leadership for the group. There is still time for you to get involved in this project!

Great things are happening and everyone is excited about the possibilities! You need to be a part of it all! It seems like there are no end of activities to stir the interests of young and old. One thing leads to another and before you know it new ideas are generated and new projects are taking off.

The next board meeting will be held August 25th at the Fernwood CAF building at 6:30 PM. Anyone who lives in the UpRiver communities of Emida, Santa, and Fernwood are welcome to participate in discussions and voting. The meetings are open to all.

The Entrepreneurial Development Team is trying to get a grant to offer classes in the UpRiver area. At the last meeting on July 29, the team discussed many possibilities. We decided to do a survey to pinpoint the areas of greatest interest to the people of the community.

The survey we created lists classes in household and family care, business, computers (from beginning to advanced), job skills, and junior classes for the younger set. There are about 45 different classes listed, with plenty of space to add others. There is also space to offer your services if you are willing to share your expertise

This survey will be printed out, attached to the UpRiver newsletter, and available in all of the local communities wherever we can find a place to put it. Be sure to fill out a survey and get it returned to us as soon as possible. We will be collecting them and compiling the results so that the grant application can be turned in by September 1.

Our next meeting is on August 12, at 7:00 PM at the Hideout. We will be discussing this important topic then and you are very welcome to attend!

Lorelei, Joanne, Richard and Rebbecca were present for our July meeting on the 28th at the Hideout.

Micheal Porcelli with Idaho Traffic Engineering will be scheduling a site visit for a Historical sign out of Mashburn. Joanne will stay in contact with the engineer. Some early history was dicussed that might be of interest for the sign.

There will be a Rendevous at Plummer, Worley, Tensed and Desmet on August 8th, 9th, and 10th that we discussed attending and observing how they involved all of the communities in their festival.

There was discussion on a Fernwood Festival for 2009. We talked about having a Parade, Horseshoe tournament, Poker run, Pioneer crafts, logging events, a breakfast, kids games, softball tournament and a dance with a band in the evening. Funding was also contemplated. A tentative date was set for the last weekend in July. We invite anyone who has ideas, or input to attend our next meeting August 27, 6:30, at the Hideout.

The University of Idaho students came to the UpRiver Community to develop conceptual designs for both community centers: Fernwood (CAF) and Emida. The final drawings and proposed plans were presented on campus and at the Horizons Summit event. All the display materials were given to the communities.

The Community Identified Illegal Drugs As A Major Concern And Contributor To Poverty. A Meth Awareness Night Was Held In Fernwood as a joint sponshorship with St Maries Horizons on July 17, 2008. Ice Cream Was Served, And 45 People Attended, Mostly Youth. The event was attended by 45 people who were mostly youth.

The Fernwood Church stepped up to save the Fernwood Senior meal site from closing by taking over management and fiscal responsibilities from the previous provider out of St. Maries. There is also a meals on wheels available in UpRiver. The church also acquired a school bus which they are willing to make available for public transportation, particularly for special events related to the UpRiver Community and organizations.

The Medley Cedar Mill in Santa has donated fencing to repair the fence around the Fernwood community building (CAF). Many thanks for this generous donation to help update our community building.

A Brochure Was Developed, Published, And Mailed To All Upriver Residents At The End Of June 2008 To Summarize Activities And Provide Contact Information For People To Get Involved.
You may access this brochure at: Brochure

Please visit our website: Upriver United provides a unique opportunity for our communities, with diverse viewpoints, to work together to build a thriving community.

Calendar
Check out the calendar to find out what’s new for the upcoming month! Or add special events, meetings or even your yard sale! If it’s happening, we want to know!

Business Directory
Support our local businesses or add your to the list. What a great way to let people know you’re out there. Together we make the difference.

Our Communities
Be enlightened by some local history and events of Fernwood, Santa, and Emida. This is also the place to find things to do and browse the resources our communities offer.

News
Featuring articles of local news, our monthly newsletter or browse our archives to see what we’ve been up to.

Horizons
Here is where it all started! Building a strong friendship between communities. Find out where we’re headed… and how we plan on getting there.

Links
Would you like to be linked? If you’re local, send us your information and we’ll get you on the page.

Our Group met at the Hide out on May 19 with a goal in mind of reassembling the committee.Lorelei volunteered to be note taker for the meetings. Joel had resigned as co-chair and Richard had stepped in, but said that he needed someone else to releive him, as he is already involved in and co-chairing numerous other committees. Lorelei said that she would take over. Community Pride is responsible for History Awareness, Signage, Community Day, and Clean up Day. There was discussion about a Community Day and it was suggested that we try to join up with the two other Upriver Communities and make it a weekend event with the various organizations hosting different activities. It was reported that Bud will be putting fences up around the dumpsters. Nancy asked for someone to take over the sign project as she does not have a phone nor internet access. It was reported that there is still money for restoring and copying historical photos that will be framed and displayed in various places. Our next meeting will take place June 23rd, 6:30 @ Hideout. We are looking for more people to join our committee, pass the word on to anyone you know who is interested in being involved in these important activities.

The difference between our community and “the one down the road” was pointed out to me when I was trying to get us signed up with the University Extension’s Community Review process. Shelby Kern said that they were pretty excited about working with us because we will be the first community they have dealt with that does not have a mayor and other community government.

This difference has, in some ways, been a burden. Usually one expects things to happen in a community because it just happens. This is usually the result of having people in elected or paid positions to look after the needs of the community. These items might include water, sewer, road maintenance, library, playgrounds, community buildings, health, etc. Without such people in place, community members need to be more pro-active if these are things they want, or depend on other providers such as the county, or travel further to access the frills of society, or . . . .

UpRiver community members are a hardy group of people who are very independent, and have provided most of these amenities in the pioneering spirit through volunteerism, etc. This is a strength. One that I would surmise that they wish to retain. Autonomy is a prize to be cherished and the UpRiver people appear to hold on to the desire to forge ahead and be the captains of their own destiny.

Working on the community vision will be done at the grass-roots level without the need to deal with red tape and incumbent governmentalists who feel that they should be in total control of decisions and policy making. We are looking for more people to come out into the open to contribute to the community discussions so that all will have a voice. We also hope that those who join in will be open-minded and consider all viewpoints with equity so that the community will continue to display its characteristic personality when the vision comes to fruition.

Members of our community turned out in full force on the gorgeous Saturday morning of April 26th, to clean up the Streets of Fernwood, Santa, Emida and surrounding highways. A day that also happened to be my daughters fifth birthday, so after shipping her off to town with her dad to get her ears pierced, I went out cruising the highways, snapping pictures of all the happy people, sporting neon orange vests and some of them equipped with long handled garbage pinchers or stabbers. It was a wonderful sight to see our community coming together so well for such a great cause. Joel and Cindy Newsom , from the Upriver Community branch of Horizons, did a fantastic job organizing our community cleanup day. In fact, everyone did such a wonderful job, that by the time my group got started at 11:00 a.m. we were hard pressed to find any garbage to pick up, which I must say was a little disappointing. Groups and people that signed up for miles included:
Employees of Emerald Creek Garnet Mill
Fernwood Church and Boy Scouts
Community Library
Upriver Civic Pride
Scott’s Welding and Fabrication
Halverson’s
Sharon Imes
Upriver Saddle Club
Lorelei Dockery, Jen Dockery, Jewl Kremposki, and Audra Anderson
Monteith and Peterson Family
Newsom Family
Drifters Café
Upriver PTO
Mary Wade
Darla Barden, Bridgett O’ Dwyer, and The Hagen Family

Each group was given ten bags, that works out to about 150 bags of garbage picked up from our scenic highways!
THANK YOU EVERYONE! For a job well done.

Six of us met at the Drifters Cafe in Emida on Thursday, April tenth, to learn the fine arts of blogging. Our Horizons instructor, Meri, was kind enough to come all the way from Moscow to teach us the ins and outs of blogging. We are now ready to blog, Yeah! Get ready to read!

The city of Stites received an Idaho Community Block Grant in November 2007 to upgrade or repair the city water reservoir. In researching this answer I found all kinds of reasons one can get an Idaho Community Block Grant and some other grants also. That is exciting! Now for a grant searching and writing class . . . I’m always “a day late and a dollar short”. . .We will just have to take a lesson from this tiny community and look for what we want done and then find the money!

Richard Pullman, Rosemary Niemier, Fred Niemier, Bill Crocker, and Judi Heicksen met at the Hideout Café in Fernwood Monday evening, March 17th, at 7:00 PM as scheduled. It was a comfortable meeting of sharing the news from many other committees and a discussion of what more the Communications Committee can be doing. The real purpose is to make sure all of the committees and the community members keep updated on what each other is doing and what the community members expect as well as what they need to know.

We are pleased with the fact that the newsletter seems to be well received and is disappearing from the various placements around Emida, Santa, and Fernwood. We also got some feedback on some of the activities, though it wasn’t all positive. Some are excited that cell towers are not only being planned and actively pursued, but that they are looking more and more like a reality, while we have heard from at least one community member that is concerned about what is perceived as possible health risks surrounding the installation of the cell towers. The Communications Committee appreciates any dialogue, as this is what communication is all about.

The blog site is also starting to take off again and visitors to the site may post comments that can stimulate more discussion about the various activities of the committees who are devoted to strengthening the community member’s stand in the area, before others come in with other visions, but more influence or money. Make your interests and wishes known. Better yet, get involved with one of the committees. Everyone is welcome to have a voice and the sooner you offer your opinion the more weight it may be able to carry. And committee members express a desire to incorporate more people in the process as this equates to more workers, more hands, and lighter burdens for all.

Check the newsletter and the calendar, for more specific information such as time and locations of meetings, workshops, and other events. We look forward to seeing YOU come out to any or all of these!—The next Communications meeting is on Monday, April 21, at the Hideout in Fernwood at 7:00 PM. See you there!

On March 10, a small gathering of business owners had breakfast at the Drifters Café, in Emida. Rudy Heicksen, Fred Niemeier, Rosemary Niemeier, Richard Pullman, and Nancy Deusenbery, the owner of the café, sat together and discussed the ins and outs of doing business in the UpRiver community. The whole idea is to have a time and place to get together and share ideas, needs and resources for business success.

Rudy and Fred are both loggers with equipment of various sorts and different leads on logging jobs that require an assortment of skills and tools. It seems like too often the jobs anymore are not simple and straightforward. Sometimes it might make all the difference in landing a job if two or more proprietors can share their expertise and resources. This takes networking. Knowing who is good at what, who has what tools and equipment, and who is willing to form a limited working arrangement to accomplish something neither could do alone.

We know there are other business people who can benefit from the opportunity to network and talk about what is needed in the UpRiver area to enhance their businesses. No host breakfast meetings are scheduled for the first Monday of each month at the Drifters Café in Emida at 8:00 AM. Come join us at the table and meet others who have similar interests and challenges. If “two heads are better than one”, think what kind of genius can rise from a whole group of heads!

By the way, I hear the food is excellent, the service is great, and the portions are generous!