Published: June 15, 2008 11:16 pm         

Town needs more action and less talk

Since the city of Enid strategic planning session really didn’t produce much progress on strategic planning, I’ve decided to give it a shot myself.

I know I’m not an elected official, but I am ready to see more action and less talk.

The city manager and city administration made some real progress last year when they began addressing the revenue picture and seeing what the revenue needs are for the future.

During the process that took place about this time a year ago, they came up with some vision about what could possibly make Enid move forward in the future. They identified some good goals, and after much discussion with the city commission formulated some of those goals into a bond package.

The city did the right thing by identifying the core needs first — roads and bridges, and then the water treatment facility. The bond issue(s) addressed those needs, and two of the three were approved by voters.

The big roads package was not approved, but I think in time can be revisited in pieces and eventually passed.

But that still leaves a lot of projects on the table that were identified about a year ago and haven’t really been addressed since. Other than roads, we keep coming back to some key issues — lack of affordable housing, a need for redevelopment downtown and the issue of making the city ADA compliant.

People need to understand it is a long process to address these issues. We’ve been talking about them for at least two years now; however, what we don’t really have is an update on progress. This is the first step the city could take in laying out the vision and the goals again — make a concerted effort to update the public on the progress. We know various entities have been working on a number of projects, but what we need is to come together and really communicate with the public about what everyone is doing.

Second, it appears to me we need a developer of some kind to help steer these visionary projects. The three projects that have been identified are linked. It seems to me we could start looking at finding a developer with expertise in redevelopment, housing and ADA compliance. In getting that developer, we’d need to find a funding source to get some development plans done, determine an agreement and begin the process, which likely will take about a year.

Instead of trying to find private funding for pretty flower boxes as entry ways to downtown, it would behoove us to find a private funding source to find this developer. There also may be some grant monies that could be taken advantage of to assist in this, but my guess is our best bet at getting an action plan together is to find private funding to hire that developer.

The developer, working with several constiuencies, would then begin the process of developing a conceptual master plan. The developer would also be a big financial partner in the project. That plan can’t be done in secret and then revealed — it has to include the public, business and civic leaders. This would take at least nine months to a year.

During this time we will have city elections. There will be opportunities for individuals and leaders (and current commissioners) in this community to step up and run for office and buy into a vision of improvement, without an ego-driven agenda. We make sure the proper city staff is in place to carry out this vision.

We get the projects determined and look at all the possibilities. My dream would be for the project to encompass redevelopment of historical properties (Mark Price Arena), development of a more comprehensive downtown conference center, retail space and residential space, all the while making sure the projects are ADA compliant.

Once we have a conceptual plan that has been directed, talked about and understood by the majority of voters, then we start working on the other funding sources to make the dream become a reality. That is a hard part to do, but with the right kind of leadership and buy-in, it is a lot easier to accomplish.

I’m not talking about anything that hasn’t already been discussed. I know city administrators have made some preliminary plans just like I have described. But we’re not getting anywhere on them. We’re not moving forward in a productive way.

Manhattan, Kan., has been undergoing the process I’ve just described. Manhattan has a population roughly the same size as Enid. It does have a major university, Kansas State University, and I think those students are included in their population numbers, so in reality, Manhattan is smaller than Enid.

But they have a redevelopment project under way, and it started five years ago. I don’t know if they’ll get it all done, but people can see it and they can get monthly progress reports on it on the city’s Web site.

I direct you to their Web site at www.ci.manhattan.ks.us to look at their project.

Can Enid get something like this going? I think we have to, and not later, but sooner. But, it has to be collaborative, not confrontational.



Allen is managing editor of the Enid News & Eagle. She can be reached at 548-8163 or by e-mail at editor@enidnews.com.