Idaho communities face an equally serious, but less tangible, crises when economic changes lead to loss of employment, income, and tax base.
Small communities are much more vulnerable when a large employer leaves.
Before a rational response can be developed, the community must individually and collectively go through the emotional process of grieving the loss. Only then is the town ready for new information and ideas. As our resource-dependent communities diversify and adapt, additional economic crises can be expected somewhere in the state. Council members in February agreed that Idaho would benefit from a more coordinated economic crisis response capability . Response ideas range from an inter-agency jump team to listen and help assess the impact, to a list of agency contacts, to a community hotline for rumor control, to providing a facilitator for community meetings, to providing a paid local contact for several months.