Community residents are invited to a League of Women Voters’ Town Hall Meeting (THM) next week. The program will include round table discussions regarding the goals and action plans being worked on by the EnVISIONing Marion County (EMC) community planning project.
More than 75 community volunteers, organized in 5 Work Groups, have worked on developing their plans since early last fall.
The town hall meeting takes place at Tri-Rivers Career Center Auditorium on Thursday, April 26, 2012, at 6:30pm.
When attendees arrive, they will be handed a program flyer and invited to sit at one of the round tables. Discussion facilitators stationed at the round tables will greet tablemates, instruct them to sign their table’s THM registration sheet and a name tag, and help them settle in with introductions and refreshments.
Marion City Schools Superintendent and EMC chairman Dr. James Barney will introduce the panelists who represent the Work Groups for the project: Pam Stone, Education; Kerr Murray, Economic Development; Pam Hall, Government Effectiveness and Efficiency; Sean DeWitt, Environmental (natural and built); and Social Services, Mitch Libster.
As a 6th member of the panel, Community Planning professional, Bill Grunkemeyer, will offer his insights and reactions to the Work Groups’ goal-writing efforts. Grunkemeyer, a recently retired OSU-Ag Extension Services educator and consultant, has been involved with the Marion community for over 25 years working on various planning projects. As a retiree, Grunkemeyer has volunteered his assistance with mostly the Economic Development and the Government Effectiveness and Efficiency Work Groups.
Myra Moss, also a Community Planning Professional from OSU Extension Services, has shared her extensive background in social work and in economic development with the Environmental and the Social Services Work Groups, and will also attend the THM to assist with the roundtable discussions.
Establishment of the EMC Work Groups was an outgrowth of a League of Women Voters- hosted series of 4 introductory round table-type community planning meetings last summer that were attended by more than 100 community residents. At the end of the meeting series, the EMC Work Groups established themselves, with Barney as general chairman.
These groups have been meeting bi-weekly to form goals and action steps that build on Marion’s strengths. The goals, broken up into short, medium, and long-term, use a vision of what Marion should be 50 years from now.
To accomplish this task, the Work Groups made extensive use of the many suggestions offered in the round table discussions last summer, and from “fact-finding” presentations that were elicited from several leaders or representatives of various sectors of the community.
Those attending the town hall meeting April 26 will have an opportunity to react to and make suggestions for the goals and action plans. Once the Work Groups incorporate the attendees’ input, the final set of goals and action plans will be presented to the city and county governments to begin collaboratively implementing the EnVISIONing Marion County Sustainable Plan.
The goals/action plans presented on April 26 are not meant to be the end of this process; rather, they are intended to be part of a “living document” that will be added to and adjusted periodically in upcoming years by a community steering committee. Community residents' input and interest in having a vibrant community plan is a key to EMC's success. Organizers hope the EMC plan will provide guidance for an on-going well thought out sustainable plan that will enhance Marion’s prosperity and community life-style.
League of Women Voters hopes that community residents will turn out for the April 26 town hall meeting at Tri-Rivers to add support and “grassroots” guidance to a plan that hopes to guide Marion to a sustainable, prosperous future.
For more information, you can contact Jo Ann R-Zimmerman, LWVM President, at 740-389-5795 or [email protected].
You can also learn more about EnVISIONing Marion County on Facebook by clicking here.
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