Sara Stadem | Editor
As a community grows, plans start to form and organizations are created in order to help the community succeed through those growth spurts which is what the Hartford community is being proactive on, according to Mayor Jeremy Menning.
Dog Park Update
According to Mayor Menning, the plans are in the works for a dog park in the Hartford community. The location has been chosen which is along the bike trail by Turtle Creek Park and the Frisbee golf area.
After the location, the next steps were the grant applications for the dog park. Those grant applications have been submitted and once notification is received on the applications, plans can move forward. However, Mayor Menning explained the city might not hear back on the applications until late summer, early fall.
Park and Recreation Board
Recently the city council approved the formation of a quality of life board called the Park and Recreation Board, explained Mayor Menning. “What this board will be focused on is anything pertaining to quality of life in our community such as parks, sports complex and even things like arts and exposure to history. Anything along those lines,” Mayor Menning said.
The board will meet on a monthly basis to discuss what they believe needs to be improved in the community. The board will then bring the recommendations to the city council to see that the improvements around the community are being made aware of, explained Mayor Menning.
“This board’s job is to continue to make sure that Hartford grows and improves in areas that we might not always see or think of, such as bike trails, parks, sports complex, arts, sculptures and more,” Mayor Menning said. He continued, “We want to make sure areas don’t get missed in our community.”
The city council approved the formation of the board at their last meeting. The next step is to make nominations for those to sit on the board. They are looking for at least five vote-in community members to sit on the board. The sixth member will be a city staff member and the seventh with be a city council member.
Community-wide Master Plan
The city council has moved forward with ISG Engineering to help put together a community development plan called the Community-wide Master Plan, explained Mayor Menning.
They kicked off last week with their first meeting, according to Mayor Menning, and will be at Jamboree Days to get feedback from the community.
Mayor Menning explained the focus of this development plan is three primary areas:
-Focusing on housing; where does it go and what housing does the community need in the next five to 10 years.
-Quality of life
-Commercial and industrial development
“This plan will take months and months to put together and will take a whole lot of community involvement,” Mayor Menning said.
He further explained this plan will help figure out financial plans for the next several years along with laying out the community for development.
Mayor Menning explained the group will be putting together meetings and bringing in community members to assist. Some meetings will be focus-type groups and some will be more community involvement groups.
“The reality is we will grow like crazy over the course of the next several years. So, the better job we can do for planning for it and having things worked out in the front of it, the better off we will be,” Mayor Menning said. He continued, “The better laid out community we will have and the better community we will have that people will be looking for.”
For more immediate information or to get engaged with this group, you can visit their booth at Jamboree Days. Otherwise, you can contact City Hall to find out how to be more involved because it’s going to be about a six to seven month process from start to finish Mayor Menning explained.