Warren citizens sought for panel
‘Right-sizing’ the city and eliminating blight are two primary goals.
WARREN — The city should have an idea now of what it needs to do to secure its future, thanks to the $180,000 strategic plan that a consultant completed last year.
Now it needs 15 citizens willing to roll up their sleeves, pore over the pages of the plan and give Warren City Council some recommendations on how to act upon the plan’s conclusions.
The work is expected to take about two years.
As Councilman John Brown said at a news conference Friday: “The only qualification is to want to see Warren prosper and right-size.”
Five people selected to a nominating committee called the news conference to make Warren citizens aware of the Strategic Planning Citizens Advisory Council and that it is accepting nominations from people wishing to serve on the volunteer committee.
The nominating committee, whose chairman is Councilman Bob Dean, asks interested parties to submit a letter of interest to the Warren clerk of council by Feb. 8.
The address is Attn: Strategic Plan Nominating Committee, Warren City Council, 141 South St. S.E., Warren, OH 44483.
Dean also says interested parties can e-mail him for more information at bdean9@embarqmail.com.
Brown says he hopes people from all parts of the city will participate in the committee and “all of the people who are still in love with Warren like I am, and all the Monday morning quarterbacks who say we’re not doing things right.”
The plan, completed with lots of citizen input by the Bowling Green, Ohio, company Poggemeyer Group, compiles lots of data on such issues as population and housing stock in the city, indicating that the city is on pace to have 4,000 vacant homes by 2018.
When the city begins to spend its allotment of federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program money, there will be a lot more vacant properties in the city, and the community needs to decide what to do with that vacant land, the plan says.
Councilman Al Novak said “right- sizing” the city means trying to “maintain what we have” in terms of students in the city school district and housing stock and eliminating blight.
He said tearing down a drug house across the street from the city’s new $60 million high school is an example of how the city can get better.
Dean said any person can be a part of the committee, from a busy person with a little time to give or a retired person like he is with more time.
runyan@vindy.com