Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton
Gary Lester walks through the process of identifying strengths and weaknesses both now and in the future as part of the development of the City of Warren’s comprehensive plan.
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Development of a plan aimed at shaping the future of the City of Warren is underway.
The kickoff to that process — a stakeholder summit — was held Wednesday night at the Conewango Club.
The event was not open to the public and was invite only. A meeting open to the public will follow in the coming weeks.
“Your voice and your input matters to us,” Vince DeJoy, the city’s director of zoning, codes and economic development, said. “We need to promote our natural assets that we have here in Warren.”
“What you say tonight will matter,” Mayor Maurice Cashman said to the attendees.
Kane Mayor Brandy Schimp was first to speak and highlighted the importance of turning “they” into “we.”
“The ones who say ‘they’ don’t often see their ideas executed,” she said. “Using ‘they,’ it’s just not helpful.”
She also spoke about the importance of investing in the community’s youth to help them establish roots to the area. “After all, they are our greatest asset,” she said.
The focus of Wednesday’s session was to start to identify the community’s strengths and weaknesses, both now and looking ahead.
Mackin Engineering has been hired to walk the city through the year-long process. They’re also working with the county for a similar county-level plan.
Brandi Rosselli with Mackin stressed that this plan is “not going to collect dust. In order to do that, we need your input. We need your help.”
“This plan is strategic,” Denny Puko, one of the consultants, explained. “The purpose tonight is to start to focus in, start to determine what the higher priority issues (are).”
He said declining population is “not an uncommon phenomenon” in rural Pennsylvania. Walking through other statistics, he noted that the city is an “employment hub” in that more people work in the city and live elsewhere than any other category. He also said that the city has a “fairly strong” group of business sectors.
“The city has limited resources,” he added. “We want to focus and align our efforts and our investment on the most important items.”
Attendees broke into groups to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. By and large, these are issues that have been raised previously in other meetings.
Strengths included city public services, recreation opportunities in the forest and waterways, safety and livability and the city’s historic nature. Weaknesses raised included population decline, lack of internet, the education system and proximity to transportation.
Opportunities identified included local business filling gaps in the supply chain, broadband expansion, the shift to remote work, low cost of living, expansion of recreation and collaboration to help small businesses grow.
Items like population migration, the structure of the county school district, population and a potential loss of industry were identified as threats.
Roselli said there is a survey out that is open to the general public
A website for the project can be found at warrencitycomprehensiveplan.mystrikingly.com and the survey can be found at surveymonkey.com/r/warrencompplan
“We want to get as much public input as possible,” she said.
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