Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
OMA, Wis. — Iron County residents had an opportunity to provide input on the early stages of the county's Asset Based Community Development Plan Wednesday evening during the Iron County Citizen's Forum program held at the Oma Town Hall.
The event was led by Iron County Zoning Administrator Tom Bergman and Jason Laumann, with North West Regional Planning.
Laumann began the evening by explaining what community development was and where the county was in the process.
According to Laumann, the Asset Based Community Development Plan is designed to replace the county's current comprehensive plan, which was adopted in 2006. Unlike a comprehensive plan, which Laumann said traditionally focuses on a community's needs, the asset-based approach deals with what the community has available.
"It's looking at the glass as half full, versus looking at the glass as half empty," he said.
The approach is partly designed to ensure the targets developed in the plan are more reachable and there is more buy-in from community members to work towards the vision laid out in the plan.
Laumann said the work began on the new plan in August 2015 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016.
He explained the group has gathered a list of assets in Iron County, including everything from the skills of residents, community organizations and cultural bodies to the natural and constructed resources in the area that impact the county.
The group came up with a range of items, including everything from Copper Peak and the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage to the area's snowfall and local libraries.
Wednesday's meeting was one of the final parts of this process, opening the process to the public to ensure that there aren't any community priorities being ignored by the group developing the plan.
"There will be additional public informational sessions, this is the first one. This is the preliminary information gathering session," Laumann said. "There's nothing to react to tonight, in terms of actually looking at a plan. So, again, we're just reacting to the baseline information that's been created as the background report.”
The next step in the process, Laumann said, was to work on developing vision statements that would help guide the county's desired priorities moving forward.
Once the priorities are determined, a clear and concise plan of action should be developed, Laumann said. The plan will be community driven, he explained, to help ensure there is the community buy-in necessary to see the projects to completion.
Following Laumann's explanation, the event was opened up to audience comment.
Laumann asked the audience for bullet points describing what their vision of Iron County in 20 years was.
A range of answers were provided, touching on everything from the need to development industry and jobs that can support area residents to the need to protect the natural resources and beautify the community.
Laumann ended the evening by saying the next public session — all of the planning group's meetings are open to the public as well — will be when the vision statements are complete, which he estimated would tentatively be in late summer.
Those with additional feedback, or who would like more information on the process, can contact the Iron County Planning and Zoning Department at 715-561-5414.