Residents have opportunity to plan town's future
Published on July 1st, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - Visioning is the word and it has become the privilege and, according to Director of Community Development Steve Sadwick, the duty of residents is to begin to look to the future of the town.
At last Wednesday's meeting, attended by approximately 25 members of various town boards and intrigued residents, Sadwick stressed the importance of input from Stoneham townspeople.
"I think the Town of Stoneham has really decided to take control of what will happen to it in the future," he stated. "I believe this town is ripe for a visioning project."
The main purpose for the meeting was to begin seeking applicants for a steering committee made up of several residents and, possibly, business owners who would then seek out information from their neighbors and colleagues.
"This would be a means to engage the public in dialogue," he explained.
Visioning, Sadwick explained, is a "process that's locally driven to identify what the community wants to be in the future." This could include the organization of town government, rebuilding projects or plans to attract new businesses to the town.
"It involves a lot of researching and taking a look at other communities," he said when speaking of the steering committee.
The steering committee would not, however, make decisions that determine the future of the town, Sadwick explained. That would be the duty of the townspeople.
Stoneham could benefit in a number of ways from this undertaking. Figures in town government would have a better feel for the pulse of the community, knowing which projects are of the most importance and being able to identify changes in technology and other trends more quickly.
"If we start looking at what's happening around us, we'll be better prepared to take on those changes when they happen," Sadwick said. "We have to know (when changes are) happening and we have to be prepared to take them on."
He said that visioning projects have and are still occurring around the country. One of the first and most successful projects took place in Atlanta, Georgia where the city had to prepare to handle the millions of people and revenue which would result from the 1996 Summer Olympics. Sporting facilities, Olympic Park and several new buildings were erected in the matter of a few years and, for the most part, the games were a huge success for the country and for Atlanta in particular. Similar undertakings, although not as large, have taken place in Jacksonville, Florida and Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sadwick said.
In Stoneham, the undertaking may be less dramatic. The town is not expected to land the Olympics or an expansion franchise no matter how much thought and diligence is put into the project, but other benefits can be gained in the coming years.
The main ingredients to success in this visioning projects, Sadwick said, is the input of the public and the steadfast backing of the Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting.
"Follow through's a very important step in this," he said. "There are going to be some obstacles. There could be a number of barriers down the road, but once the process gets going, modifications can be made.
Visioning is not a quick fix for the town's problems, however. Items which people feel need to be addressed immediately will, likely, not be included in the visioning project. Visioning is meant to target where the community needs to be in the next 10 to 20 years.
Nutting, also at the meeting, told the gathering, "This is to look at the big picture and ask where do we want to go from here. It's global, it's a long-term goal session committee who will try to get 500 even, maybe, 5,000 people involved."
Sadwick began a grass roots campaign to seek applications for steering committee members by asking each person in attendance at the meeting to provide two candidates. He would also like to hear from you, the residents.
If you are interested in taking an active role in planning for the town's future and would like to be on the steering committee, contact Sadwick at 279-2697.
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