Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
The second step of the effort to revitalize Sweet Home’s commercial district takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at the Community Center.
This meeting follows the “What’s Up With Downtown” meeting on March 4, at which some 125 people turned out at the Community Center to share their thoughts on Sweet Home’s pluses and minuses, and ideas for how things could be improved in the downtown area.
Participants jotted down their thoughts and ideas in various categories on large sheets of paper that were then transcribed by city staff.
Facilitator John Morgan, of the MorganCPS Group of Keizer, led that meeting and will head this one as well, city Community Development Director Carol Lewis said. She said Morgan has been categorizing and organizing the responses from the March 4 meeting, looking for common threads of ideas of what people see as opportunities, obstacles, etc.
“He will be looking at similar ideas and how they lead us forward,” Lewis said. “He’s coming up with a plan so we will actually use it and not just put it in another document and put it on a shelf.”
Lewis said city staff have continued to hear from people interested in the subject after the March 4 meeting.
“People have been e-mailing us with little notes with more ideas,” she said.
The goal now is to do something, Lewis said.
“Now that we’ve got it all, what do we do with it?”
Morgan said participants this time need to bring answers to the questions: What can Sweet Home do to encourage private investment and to get people to actually buy things? He said proposed solutions need to answer both those questions in a credible way.
“We’re looking for bang for our buck,” he said, “things that will truly impact the marketplace.”
Lewis said the turnout at the March 4 meeting was significantly larger than city staff expected and they are delighted about that.
“It shows a lot of interest and concern in the community,” she said. “We want to turn that interest and concern into a working plan. If we don’t see something accomplished, it wasn’t a good planning process.”
Morgan called the response “stunning.”
“I was thrilled, I really was, to have that many people show up,” he said. “I work in a lot of communities and for a meeting like that, to have 20 or 30 show up is a good night.”
He said the commitment and passion he saw at the meeting is a good indicator for Sweet Home.
“There’s a resource right there that needs to be tapped,” he said.
Residents will need to think about how they are going to keep the momentum going, Morgan said. He said it may require more meetings to come up with a workable action plan and he said leaders will have to be found who can make that plan work –preferably people who get paid to do so.
“Volunteers, as wonderful as they are, aren’t able to sustain complex programs,” he said.
Sweet Home Economic Development Group President Ron Moore, whose organization helped set up the March 4 meeting, said he hopes the next meeting will provide some focus for the community.
“It was nice to see that big of a turnout,” he said of the last meeting. “It was interesting to see what people’s feelings are.”
Those planning to attend the March 20 session should RSVP to 367-8969 by Wednesday, March 19.