Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood — The city of Ironwood has accomplished many goals set in the comprehensive plan that was adopted 18 months ago, according to community development director Michael Brown.
“We’ve done a lot,” Brown told city commissioners last month.
He said 98 percent of the projects that were implemented were funded by outside funding sources. It breaks down to grants of $3.2 million to the city, matched by the city’s contributions of $65,243.
The plan, adopted in July of 2014, was the recipient of the 2015 Daniel Burnham award for comprehensive plans from the Michigan Association of Planning.
It is a working plan that was meant to be carried out over several years. So far, of 19 priorities tackled in the plan, seven have been completed and 12 are still in progress.
Examples of completed goals are a parks user survey and summit, developing gardening programs, supporting housing rehabilitation, the downtown Arts Park, trail and parks developments, updating city ordinances and enhancing the downtown business environment.
“The plan is a marketing tool... The plan is also provided to prospective businesses, residents, visitors and tourists to illustrate the city’s commitment to creating a great place to live, work and play,” Brown wrote in a report to the city commission.
It stresses volunteerism and how civic groups can assist in implementing the plan.
“It takes a lot of people,” Mayor Annette Burchell said of carrying out goals identified in the plan.
Commissioner Jim Mildren said he was particularly impressed by the “Bridge the Gap” fund-raising effort for the Gateway Trail project that generated local funding for a portion of the construction that wasn’t covered by grants.
Brown noted Michigan law requires the comprehensive plan be updated every five years, but he said the planning commission may determine that more frequent updates might be needed.
