Arnie Kreek of the Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments led the initial Strategic Plan Meeting for Sheridan with over ten community leaders and guided them through a brainstorming session about the town’s strengths and weaknesses Monday. His main point was that when communities plan, they would be in a better position to deal with changes rather than simply reacting to random events. He said that when towns do a strategic plan, they would be able to filter out unnecessary work that did not fit into the plan.
The first exercise he led the participants in was to develop a mission statement, which he said give an ongoing guide to the city without the limitations of a time frame. "In other words, how do we define our community?" asked Economic Developer Charity Austin, present at the meeting. Tim Brogan said that it was a matter of what the town can be, and Dave Thomas said that a good mission statement would also teach youth lessons, such as about citizenship, for instance.
The group agreed to meet for each of the next four weeks to discuss each of the areas of focus. Participants agreed to focus on physical appearance, parks and recreation, public services, and community development. The first two meetings were set for August 25th and September 8th at Sheridan City Hall at 6:00 p.m.; all Strategic Plan meetings are open to the public. Participants encouraged people who were not present to attend one of the upcoming meetings. Each of the participants will work on a possible mission statement for the town. After each of the four meetings are over, Kreek will meet again with the participants to work on the mission statement for the community and discuss the results of the brainstorming sessions.
Thomas said that it was important for towns to give the youth some structure; he has led hunter educations classes in the area and is starting an Archery in Schools program for the Worth County School this year. Candy Martin pointed to the Roxy Theater as an example of something that can be accomplished when communities work together. "Just because we don’t have thing doesn’t mean we can’t have them," added Austin.
Among some of the cultural aspects of the community, Jeff Blaine said that the town had a cowboy culture, pointing to the success of the annual Mud Run. Austin said that there was interest in restarting the Little Dinner Theater. Brogan said that he was worried that the history of the town was being lost, and Thomas added that most people didn’t even know about the significance of the Grist Mill in the park.
Turning to public services, Butch Thomas, who serves on the Emergency Services Board, said that the target date for starting the Enhanced 911 service for the county was April. Kreek said that another issue to consider was the Hazardous Mitigation Plan that the Regional Council was developing for the area. In local terms, for instance, how does the City of Sheridan react to reduce the threat of disaster, such as a tornado, another ice storm, or a chemical truck turning over? Or, how does the city react to special needs people who are on oxygen in the event of an extended outage?
The next topic was community development; Thomas noted that when he was young, there was a store, a gas station, and a restaurant in Denver; now, "you can’t even buy a can of pop there." In other exercise, Kreek had participants lay out strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the community. Kreek will then categorize them and they will be brought up at the upcoming meetings. Some aspects are already being addressed; for instance, Thomas and Austin are part of the Sheridan Park Restoration Fund, which is seeking to purchase a Noah’s Ark for the park.
Blaine said that it was important for the mayor and council to back the plans; "or this will all be for nought." Mayor Bud Allee said that it was a matter of figuring out where the money was going to come from. Austin said that previous plans have been effective for the community; for instance, 85% of the goals set forth in the 1999 Strategic Plan for Grant City were accomplished, including the Dollar Store and the Gunstock Factory.
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