2003 Annual Report Executive Summary
Five Star Rural Enterprise Community
The Five Star Enterprise Community is a partnership of 5 census tracts located in Eastern Washington State, Tri-County Economic Development District and USDA Rural Development. This rural region is sparsely populated and suffers from chronic high unemployment, extremely low per capita incomes and high poverty rates. By partnering with USDA Rural Development, the Enterprise Community Initiative has been a catalyst to help develop projects and new programs in this region that address issues such as economic development, housing, work force training, telecommunications, capacity building, and health care to name a few.
The Five Star is comprised of Tri-County Economic Development District (Lead Agency), three Native American Tribes; The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, The Spokane Reservation, and The Kalispell Reservation along with the communities of Newport, WA and northern Ferry County. This initiative has brought all these communities together to work on regional issues where traditionally they have not.
Although the region suffers from similar interests and demographics, each of the five communities has different objectives. See detailed Annual Benchmark Report.
As we enter our fifth year as an Enterprise Community, collectively we have identified over 160 benchmarks, developed strong partnerships with USDA-RD, the USFS, The Washington State Office of Trade and Economic Development, BIA, EDA and a host of other organizations.
By utilizing this initiative, the Five Star has been able to leverage outside funds into their communities by a ratio of 66:1. To date, the Five Star has maximized approximately $460,714 of EC funds leveraging $30,714,862 of outside dollars with the largest contributors being the Department of Health and Human Services, The Department of Housing and Urban Development, USDA Rural Development, State Government and Tribal Government, each contributing over two-to-six million dollars each. In fact, Tribal Government has contributed the most significant amount at $6.7 million.
In order to accomplish all 160 current identified benchmarks and meet the objectives of the Strategic Plan, approximately $719,948 of EC funds have been requested, leveraging $68,813,088 of outside funds for a ratio of 96:1 over the remaining five years.
The Five Star Executive Board has settled out some of the contentious members and is now performing in a more professional manner. Many projects are being completed as we move along.
USDA has done a reorganization of their personnel and we are now working with Ian Turner and Paul Johnson.