|
2005 Workshop Reports -
Public Services Discussion Forum
Revision of Last Year’s Challenges:
- Prioritizing to make decisions about
reducing, eliminating, adding, or increasing services
- Short-term: Surveyed the community to
prioritize services and formulate decisions concerning service
changes in order to accomplish short-term solutions
- Adding, eliminating, or reducing services
is only a temporary band-aid solution, and not a long-term
solution.
- Long-term: Prioritization of government
services should flow from the community’s commitment to address
the underlying difficulty in providing government services to
Yellow Springs residents: primarily addressing the job deficit
- How will decisions about public services be
made?
- Review survey results to identify options
for short-term solutions
- The decisions must be made sooner rather
than later, and the survey (though by no means comprehensive)
provides a framework for this short-term decision-making. The
Village can then move forward to ensuring long-term results.
- The long-term focus should be on creating
jobs
- Bringing in new industries to Yellow Springs
or creating them (quoted from last
year’s challenge)
- The group revised this challenge to
highlight the role of government services in promoting sound
economic development in the Village of Yellow Springs. (See
below)
Priority Challenge: (voting
was not used, decided on priority as a group)
- Focus on Governmental Services that will
foster economic development within our community which supports our
community values
Background Information Regarding Priority
Challenge:
Given that the survey effort, undertaken in
the time since we identified the above challenges, revealed that most
residents want to see their services maintained at or near their
current level, and given that the survey can (and should) help inform
short-term solutions, we determined, as a group, to focus our efforts
today on accomplishing long-term goals. As a group we decided our time
today would best be spent focusing not on service cuts, but on
bringing about real progress.
Action Steps for Priority Challenge:
- Clarify the "communications gap"
between the community and the government over what active role the
Village takes in the realm of economic development and then bridge
the gap
- Key method: Review (and publish) how
economic development within Village Administration/Government is
currently handled.
- Publicize the Village Administration’s
current approach to economic development to facilitate a
community dialogue
- Resulting community discussion should
inform the process of revising/restructuring government’s
role in economic development
- Improve overall governmental Public
Relations and communication efforts to clarify
misunderstandings/assumptions and generate community support for
governmental initiatives
- For example, information concerning the
progress of the broadband plan is not regularly updated and
available to the public
- The question of whether the community
is in accordance with the Village 10-year plan should be
regularly visited
- Explain this is where we are and this
is what we want to accomplish this year
- Continuously publish "progress
updates" to the community on issues pertaining to
economic development
- Approach could be to publish a
regular economic development section
- Generate a community initiative to enhance
the Village’s capacity to undertake targeted, smart development
initiatives in line with Village values
- Expand and improve economic development
role of the Village government
- Explore funding options (i.e., grants)
- Explore position options (i.e., hire a
consultant vs. a full-time Village position)
- Coordinate and develop a team or committee
to include the Township in a Comprehensive Regional Plan. This
could help facilitate smart growth
- Ensure that Government and Village
Administration assumes responsibility for continuation of Smart
Growth initiatives
- Review Chamber’s role in development
- Involve the Chamber more fully in Village
development and strengthen partnership between village
administration and chamber
- Chamber needs to look at two kinds of
businesses: those that create few jobs (i.e. retail) and those
that create many, and then hone in on those businesses with the
potential to create jobs
- Administration should utilize the survey
results, coupled with Village discussion, to review tax and revenue
options
- Facilitate redevelopment of vacant
buildings/structures (commercial)
- Determine why the buildings are vacant
and what can be done with them? What is deterring redevelopment
or utilization of these structures (i.e. utility costs,
infrastructure problems, dilapidation)?
- Government should investigate and report
on cost and feasibility of improving vacant structures to
accommodate compatible uses, and then actively recruit
appropriate businesses to those vacant structures
- Recognize that street appearance effects
economic development opportunities
- Survey results reveal dissatisfaction with
street maintenance services
- Improve street maintenance, and ensure an
ongoing commitment to quality streets
- Explore the use of exactions to improve
sidewalks and streets: (i.e. Many communities exact a cost on the
property owner for the construction of sidewalks)
Back to Top
Back to Workshop
Reports
|
|
