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N.C. Mountain Resources Commission to hold work session on Vitality Index at Friday meeting
Story Date: 8/23/2012
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Source: NCDENR, 8/22/12
The meeting is open to the public and will be from 1-3 p.m. at the Mitchell County Courthouse at 11 North Mitchell Ave. in Bakersville. The commission’s technical advisory council will meet at the same place at 10 a.m.
The Mountain Resources Commission was created by the General Assembly in 2009 to provide recommendations regarding resources in the state’s 27 western counties. Members are appointed by the governor and the state legislature and are not paid state money for their service to the commission. The commission serves in an advisory capacity and has no regulatory authority.
Friday’s agenda includes a report on outreach and education, a legislative update and a discussion about the commission’s new website, http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/ncmrc/home. But the largest portion of the meeting is devoted to a work session on the Western North Carolina Vitality Index, a report the commission developed and released in June.
The index puts in one place information about the region’s current natural, social, built and economic environments. The index uses current data to describe the region’s transportation networks, employment and income levels, dependence on agriculture, biological diversity, air quality and a host of other topics.
The index is a free resource with a map viewer and can be found online at http://www.wncvitalityindex.org/.
The commission and its partners developed the index to help local officials and others with a resource they could use to preserve western North Carolina’s culture, improve the region’s economic activity and promote healthy growth.
The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources provides the commission with administrative support.
For an agenda of Friday’s meeting, please see the following page on the commission’s website, http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/ncmrc/meetings. For more information, contact Judy Francis, who serves as staff to the commission, at 828-296-4523 or judy.francis@ncdenr.gov. You may also contact Jamie Kritzer, public information officer with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, at 919-707-8602 or Jamie.Kritzer@ncdenr.gov.
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