Norfolk Daily News

Wednesday – March 5, 2008

Fund Raising, infrastructure planning, public outreach and coalition building are the orders of the day for the NorthFork Development board.

At its meeting earlier this week, the non-profit board – which is spearheading the efforts to develop a river walk in Norfolk along the North Fork of the Elkhorn River — formalized committee assignments, planned for coalition building with public and private agencies, heard positive news on fund-raising efforts and planned for interviews of design and engineering finalists, one of which will be hired to prepare a detailed plan document for the corridor.

Four firms will be interviewed March 19 and 20. Mike Brogan, a Norfolk attorney and board member, said each of the finalists firms has shown tremendous enthusiasm for the corridor development plan. Brogan said he is confident any one of them will bring impressive ideas and workable plans to the table.

A public “meet and greet” session is being planned this spring at which the initial plans and concepts being proposed by the board will be presented for public review and input.

Norfolk auto dealer Darrell Novacek, who serves on the board’s fund raising committte discussed the project’s $150,000 funding goal to finance the corridor study. Based on his initial discussions with potential contributors, Novacek said he is confident that there are enough people who will ensure that the project has the financial resources it needs.

The project currently has cash and firm commitments, totaling more than $40,000 toward the goal.

The NorthFork Development board has scheduled its meetings, which are open to the public, for the first Tuesday of each month at noon at Country Cafe’