COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION

By: Cheryl McCawley

The Crooked River Ranch Community Organization (CDO) was established as part of the Strategic Community Plan. The organization was formed as a 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation to conduct coordinated planning and implementation of community projects and to create a conduit for channeling of private and public funds to support such community projects.

The current vision and goal of the CDO is to plan, Organize, obtain funding, build and operate a community center for the ranch. Current board members have spent a great deal of time and effort in the initial preparation phase 01 this project. A preliminary plan has been established which outlines all the desirable features of a facility, which will hopefully serve a wide range of interests and age groups in our community. Several community meetings have been held to provide an opportunity for community input into the project and have been met with favorable comments from those who attended. Several CDO board members have taken part in grant writing seminars and other educational classes in order to better prepare themselves for the hard work ahead. A subcommittee has been established to begin formulating a preliminary budget for the project, which will be needed in order to begin the grant application process. The one area of concentration at the present is locating an appropriate piece of property on which to build a community center. Once the property has been identified, the CDO board members can begin to move forward to obtain funding for the project.

The CDO still has additional vacancies on its board and encourages any property owner who has expertise or an interest in grant writing, banking, construction management, facility planning and maintenance, to attend a meeting and consider membership on the board.

Check our website for current meeting times and information @ www.crrcdo.org