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VisionWorks' Breakthrough Solutions
Community and Regional Success Stories
Study Action Teams Are Active in Siloam Springs – May 2002
The Siloam Springs VISION 2010 Steering Committee is moving
forward, starting with a visioning process that surveyed over 1,000
citizens in 60 organizations. This led to an Adopt-a-Block Program,
recruitment of major restaurants, planning for a multi-use community
center, and redevelopment of City Lake Park.
“The most effective training we did was when we did the visioning in
each organization in our community; that was key,” states Bruce
Jenkins, facilitator of the Siloam Springs Vision 2010 process.
“Strategic planning must come from a good percentage of the
population, and it must be one-on-one.” Bruce knows what he is
talking about, as the visioning process has been taken to 60
organizations in the Siloam Springs community, reaching over 1,000
citizens. This is a solid 10 percent of the population.
At a kickoff event on February 7, Mayor Moose Van Poucke gave a
welcome and expressed his support for the Siloam Springs Vision 2010
effort. Senator John Brown stated that he was impressed with this
effort and its potential to impact the future of the community. Mark
Peterson provided an overview of VISION 2010 and an orientation to
the study action teams, and Bruce Jenkins presented the highlights
of the visioning process.
Study action teams were formed and are already making progress:
- The Beautification Study Action Team, with its mission to make
Siloam Springs a beautiful place to live and visit year-round, is
developing an Adopt-a-Block Program and Adopt-a-Spot Program (the
latter is to clean up and plant unsightly areas). They are also
working with the city parks department to develop a trail system
that connects the parks in the community, and they have recruited
the local skateboard club to clean up some bad spots in the
community.
- The Hotel and Restaurant Study Action Team is seeking to recruit
major restaurants to town. They are investigating how a local
organization or agency could be supported to do this recruitment on
a full-time basis.
- The Downtown Study Action Team is working with the city to hire a
consulting firm to do a wants-and-needs survey to determine what is
most needed to ensure the viability of downtown Siloam Springs.
- The Multi-Use Community Center Study Action Team is looking at
funding options to develop a multi-use community center.
Other developments include:
- A group is looking at how a hamburger tax (taxes on restaurants
and hotels) could be used to support several of these initiatives.
- The city approved the purchase of 80 acres of land for a proposed
multi-use sports complex. City Parks Director Jo Carroll used the
work of Vision 2010 to support this initiative.
- Vision 2010 is working with the city to develop City Lake Park,
and eventually a wetland and nature center.
- The local Wal-Mart SuperCenter is now donating all of its torn
bags of mulch, soil, compost, decorative gravel, as well as bulbs
and plants that are usable but damaged, to Vision 2010, which then
shares these materials with the city parks department and the
beautification team.
We congratulate the community and city leaders in Siloam Springs,
the Siloam Springs VISION 2010 Steering Committee, the Siloam
Springs Chamber of Commerce, and Bruce Jenkins for their terrific
work in moving their community forward. For more information, you
may contact Bruce at (501) 736-1601,
rojo@tcainternet.com.
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