Muncie residents were able to make final suggestions for changes they would like to see in Muncie at the last Muncie Action Plan public meeting.
The Muncie Action Plan steering committee held an open house on Tuesday at Minnetrista. The co-chairs of the committee, Ginny Nilles and George Branam, gave two short presentations to explain the next steps in the committee's process.
The purpose of this meeting was for Muncie residents to identify which steps are most important to them and to make sure they understand the information that the steering committee came up with.
Mayor Sharon McShurley, present at the presentation, said she was happy with the results that have accumulated over the past few months.
"I'm so very excited about this plan," McShurley said.
After this open house, the steering committee will meet with elected officials and present the final plan with the information gathered from this meeting. In July, the committee will present the plan to the City Council and ask to finalize the plan. If the plan is finalized, they will start taking steps to implement the plan in September.
At the meeting, the room at Minnetrista was set up with chairs in the middle of the room and presentation boards surrounding the outer walls. The five presentation boards featured different themes and showed the "action steps" and went into detail what would be done with each step. Attendees were given five red dot stickers to put on the presentation boards by the steps that they thought were most important.
There were 47 action steps under the five themes, and attendees picked from these 47 different steps to show what was most important to them.
The five themes the committee presented were: Linking Learning, Health and Prosperity; Fostering Collaboration; Strengthening Pride and Image; Creating Attractive and Desirable Places; and Managing Community Resources.
For Muncie resident Lindsey Helms, improving Muncie's parks and recreation is one of the most important steps. This falls under Creating Attractive and Desirable Places. Helms also said she thinks it is important for Muncie to become more bicycle friendly too. Creating a bike-friendly community program is under the theme Managing Community Resources.
Lucinda Friend, a Ball State University art history professor, said she thinks that creating better sustainability practices, such as renovating old buildings and creating a bike-friendly community, is one of the most important steps that Muncie needs to take.
Ball State geography professor Jerzy Jemiolo said he feels the whole process that MAP has gone through has worked very well, but he thinks that one particular aspect is missing from the action steps. Jemiolo feels very strongly that Muncie and Ball State need to make more of a connection to each other.
"Ball State and Muncie are separate entities," he said. "It's like there is this invisible barrier between the communities."
He said he thinks both Ball State and Muncie can benefit greatly from each other if the two would interact more.
Steering committee members believe they still have a long process ahead of them over the next few months.
"The work hasn't really begun yet," Jaimie Green, a committee member, said. "We want to go farther, not faster with this Plan."
Branam said the information presented at the open house "is the culmination of the past nine months."
Branam said he also believes there is still a lot of work to do until the plan will be implemented.
"We're in a marathon, not a sprint. We have a lot to do," he said.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
