Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
In an effort to build on the results of the assessment of Sweet Home’s business district by two experts in downtown renewal on Jan. 29, city and Sweet Home Economic Development Group officials are planning two meetings for those interested in deciding what to do next.
The first meeting will be Tuesday evening, March 4. A second is planned for March 20.
Pam Silbernagel of the Oregon Cascade West Council of Governments and Vicki Dugger, executive director of the Oregon Downtown Association, spent a day in Sweet Home on Jan. 29, talking with local residents and business people, circulating through the downtown area and then reporting back to some 40 residents, city officials and business owners gathered at the Police Services Conference Room in the evening.
Dugger and Silbernagel described the downtown appearance as “worn, blighted, cheap and tacky,” with an “unhealthy” business district. They said they thought Sweet Home lacks momentum, leadership, vision, focus and the capacity to do what is needed downtown. But they did say that they think the city has a lot of potential and that its problems are not unsolvable.
Community Development Director Carol Lewis said that she, City Manager Craig Martin and SHEDG President Ron Moore have decided to “move ahead with downtown business owners and interested people.”
“We came out of the downtown assessment with fairly negative, though realistic, input,” Lewis said.
The first meeting will be held from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, March 4, at the Community Center. Food will be provided and limited activities will be available for children over 3 whose parents have no other options. Also, since it’s Teen Night at the Boys and Girls Club, that option will be available to older children.
Plus, Lewis said, organizers want teens to have an opportunity to express their opinions on what they think the city needs.
The city is hiring a facilitator who has experience in planning to lead the meeting, Lewis said. John Morgan will help participants discuss issues and create some goals for revitalizing the business district.
“He’s done a lot of downtown stuff and he’s a planner,” Lewis said of Morgan, who grew up in Lebanon and operates The MorganCPS Group of Salem, which specializes in various types of planning and who also works with the Luke Center, which does training for government agencies.
“Mostly, he’s a really great people person,” she said. “I think it’s going to be an exciting thing. I think John works so well with people, people will come out feeling differently.
“Coming out of the last meeting, we decided we need somebody realistic to help us grow. I think we have the right facilitator for that.”
Morgan is visiting the city this week to “get his feet on the ground,” she said.
Morgan’s services are expected to cost about $1,300, plus three or four hours at $65 an hour, Lewis said.
The goal of the meeting, she said, will be to give people “a chance to say what they need to say” and then to focus on determining “what people value about their downtown, what we used to value and what we want to value.”
She suggests that people think “about things they really like and don’t like about downtown,” such as walkability, small shops, Sweet Home’s “utilitarian” look.
“What do people really like and value? Those are the core things that we need to build around,” Lewis said. “Let’s look at those things, let’s talk about those things. That whole meeting will be geared toward doing nothing but that.”
After discussing core values, the focus will switch to what the downtown vision should be, Lewis said.
“We hope to get to that stage,” she said.
Lewis said that members of the city’s Youth Advisory Committee have been invited to participate in the meeting and that young people’s views are being solicited, as well as adults’.
She said city officials are eager to see citizens take the lead.
“What we’d like to come out of (the meetings) is a really passionate group that would work on the downtown, a core group to move the process forward,” she said
“However big it is or small it is, we want to get a group together to move that vision forward. At that point SHEDG and the city plan to be participants, not leaders, in that process.”
She said once residents and business owners decided what needs to be done, city staffers will be able to implement those ideas into planning.
Depending on how far things go in the first meeting, the second will pick up the process and move on, she said.
“We’re going into it with a really positive attitude,” she said. “There will be some negatives, but that’s where we have to identify core values.
“There’s something down there that’s in (residents’) hearts. We need to find out what that is so we don’t screw it up and lose the feel that makes Sweet Home a sweet home to everybody.”