Warren plans for its future

WARREN – The city has kicked off its plan to put together a comprehensive revitalization strategy to improve the community during the next 20 years.

“Tonight, we look at the face of the future,” Mayor Michael J. O’Brien told about 200 residents during a public meeting Monday at the Lincoln K-8 School on Atlantic Street.

This will be the first citywide comprehensive plan in 47 years, the mayor pointed out.

The plan that will take about a year to complete “will touch every fabric of our community,” O’Brien said. “It will not be put on the shelf. It’s not an academic exercise.”

The plan will be the blueprint to revitalize the downtown and neighborhoods and needs public input to determine the city’s strengths and weaknesses, the mayor added.

Charlene K. Kerr Piper, a principal owner of Poggemeyer Design Group which has been hired by the city to assemble the strategy, said the city has many assets it can draw upon as the basis for attracting growth.

A key issue will be the loss of population, from a high of 63,000 in 1970 to 46,000 in 2005.

Read more in Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com