Community forum addresses integration

Daily Press

MONTROSE — Local community leaders and residents hashed out methods for uniting local cultures through a forum at the United Methodist Church on Saturday.

The Community One integration project takes community input to assimilate plans for projects to be financed by the Colorado Trust. Montrose and Delta counties share one of nine regions receiving support. The area will receive $75,000 per year for four years to be put toward bringing people together.

"The success of it really depends a lot on volunteer support, and part of that's generated through the planning process, by events like this where people come, they give their ideas," Gurudev Khalsa said. "And of course they want to make it happen, so they end up being a source of volunteers as well."

Khalsa assisted the roughly 50 residents through constructing a mind-mapping chart. A diverse audience of English and Spanish speakers expressed which issues they believe have an effect on unity within the community. Paper covering nearly an entire wall was filled with suggestions branching from several issues.

Attendees then placed stickers on what they consider priorities. The top priority of health care access, though not especially integration-based, garnered the majority of votes. Legal support followed.

Communication across languages, specifically the creation of a bilingual radio station, ranked third.

Saturday's forum was unique in that it was accessible to folks unable to understand English. Several attendees wore headphones receiving signals from translators, who immediately converted the discourse to Spanish.

Several town leaders attended the forum, including council members Noelle Hagan and Carlos Guara. Richard Gingery, health manager at Montrose County Health and Human Services was present as well.

But what made this meeting special was the presence of such individuals as Ang Danu Sherpa, who moved to Montrose from Nepal in September. He said the community has been quite welcoming, that his wife discovered the area when touring and was allured by opportunities in education.

After Sherpa's wife became a nurse through the program at Mesa State College, he decided to do the same and enrolled this spring, he said.

"It's very good — very peaceful town. It's growing, though," he said. "The landscape here in Montrose looks very similar to Katmandu, the capital of Nepal."

Sherpa said public transportation could not only provide a convenience for commuters, but would give them an opportunity to interact and meet more people. It would also benefit the environment.

Community One's next Montrose meeting is scheduled for June 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the church. A forum similar to Saturday's will occur in Delta on June 23, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Contact Robert Allen via e-mail at roberta@montrosepress.com