Election UpDate: "What would you like to accomplish as Mayor?"

n 8/14/2018 9:56 AM, melanie derochie wrote:

Dawn,
What are you looking to do if you were elected mayor what changes should be made which should be kept the saying thank you ,
Melanie

Sent from my iPhone 

Reply from me:


Hi Melanie. Thanks for your message. Here is a list of some of my ideas:


1.Seek input from the public about what they would like to see as 1 year, 5 year, and 10 year goals, acquisitions, developments and community building moves and ideas.

2. Establish a regular Mayor/Public interaction once monthly, online, for "open chat". I think we would get a lot done, amazingly quickly - and get to know each other! These days, this is wonderfully possible in a unique way, and makes even remote members of the community "accessible".

3. Work on attracting industry and job-creation in the county, and help existing ones prosper, expand and provide more jobs locally!

4. Identify immediate areas of concern locally where we can work in tandem with provincial and federal funding to make both 1. and 3. really happen, as well as bolstering the immediate agricultural concerns and areas of funding challenge for local farmers, on a short term, medium, and long term basis. This approach really promotes "generations planning", which is very important for the longevity of agriculture in the province, and in the country.

5. Create regular "community happenings" where we can solicit local community talent to hold "skills building workshops" in informal settings, which enhance, bolster, and make more possible the  informal "know hows" which help make rural life more independent, interesting, and possible again. There is a huge amount of experience and talent (from making pickles properly to properly seeding a realistic vegetable garden you can maintain, even while working fulltime, to learning how to knit your own Christmas presents again, to how to build a vegetable storage container from scrap wood...just a few simple ideas! It's amazing what we can learn, and how we can help, each other.)

We need to bring back the "folk tradition" - including revolving house concerts with minimum donations ($5 - 10) and a 20-40 seat limit, alcohol free, and overnight accomodation for musicians in house), which made things like The Chautauqua Movement a welcome part of harvest time, live entertainment a reality for rural people, and the opportunity to see live folk musicians play, learn new skills,  and earn a living as artists a reality. It is no good to complain about "the terrible state of poisoned minds"....we have to encourage and promote healthy, family-friendly arts activities in dance, music, and art which enhance and celebrate rural life. (** Skills workshops need to be accessible, period: carpentry, masonry, basic how-to's, as well as the foundations and oral presentation opportunities to discuss developments in science and technology, in order to ensure that ethics keep pace with capability. Are we using our technological advancements in ways that benefit society? What can we do to encourage and promote what Einstein said were the "moral responsibilities of progressive thought" to ensure good advancements are not twisted for damaging purposes as the primary reason for their existence? Chautauqua was also a forum for discussion of ideas - and an important one. Attending speaking engagements is not simply an important forum for those whose lives include university esoterics. Inventions and patents and dancing classes came from Chautauqua, too. **)

6. I would like to establish a rural art cooperative for county residents, manned by volunteer staff as part of a mandatory 4 hour a month stint on the sales floor for every contributing artist.

7. I would like to establish a wholly rural "Empty Space" Theatre or which would also serve as space for 5 and 6. This could ideally be an existing space. It could also provide for extra income for crafters and artists on commission to make money with square foot space booths of items which are tagged and marked. These artists might just be "stay at home", but they want a market and opportunity to make a little extra income, with their own creations, by making them available for sale in a central cooperative. St. Jacob's huge outdoor/indoor building is a testament to busy hands and "nowhere else in the world" items, and we could do it, too!  I was actually involved in several activities like this, and was one of the committee members who started the Sarnia Lambton Artists Cooperative, which has a permanent spot in the downtown Bay Side Center, and has been in existence, albeit in a smaller format, these days, since the late '80's.

8. I would like to see a drive in theatre and a repertory cinema house situated in the county. Both are inexpensive ways to "get out once in a while for something special", for relatively inexpensive amounts of money, without disrupting the "green ideal", as well as providing old-fashioned, family-possible opportunities for arts interests and development in the rural community, and just a "fun night out", apart from the usual community fairs and agricultural displays - rather a "complement" to them.

9. This might sound really funny......but I would like to look into the possibility of the local arena being outfitted for roller skating - with recorded music as accompaniment. If there is interest, we might be able to attract modest investment for a permanent, small facility to bring back a really fun tradition that is great exercise, and a great "seasonal strength builder" for off-season figure skating champions and hockey player stars of tomorrow - all year long, and without the expense of ice management, after the initial floor outlay.! Way fun....

Well, you picked my brain for some thoughts....these are just a few rolling around in there. Smile. Keep in touch.....and please share with your friends!

God Bless.

Dawn M. Nevills

N.B. ** this section was added for the purpose of expanding on what, exactly I meant by the The Chautauqua concept of the social and intellectual exchange of ideas and possibility.