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Wilkerson
BUCKHANNON -- If you haven't filled out a survey yet for the Buckhannon Planning Commission, there are a couple more weeks to give your input on a vision for the future.
A town hall meeting for the Buckhannon 2025 plan held Monday night invited the public to share their ideas in breakout sessions representing recreation, government services, education, health care, community, economic development and infrastructure.
Curtis Wilkerson, chair of the Buckhannon Planning Commission, said the Buckhannon 2015 plan can be found on the city's website at www.buckhannonwv.org but the newly reconstituted planning commission wants to do more than just tweak the last comprehensive planning document.
"What we are looking to do is not only just update the 2015 plan but incorporate new ideas," Wilkerson said.
The planning commission has set an ambitious agenda to have a draft plan to council in June and a final plan to be approved in July.
"The planning commission has no authority at all," he said. "We are appointed by city council to put forth a plan."
Although only required to meet quarterly, the planning commission is hosting working sessions the second Monday of each month at city hall at 7 p.m. which are also open to the public.
"There's an effort that is being made by the commission to be as open and bring as much information as possible," Wilkerson said.
Members of the planning commission are heading up each of the different content areas listed above and will be holding their own sub-committee meetings as well.
Once the surveys are in by the end of the month, the planning commission will begin analyzing that data.
"In March and April, we will have working sub committees," Wilkerson said.
CJ Rylands, a city councilman and member of the planning commission, said that it was important to focus on solutions.
"What is in the best interest of the community, long-term?" he asked. "That could be things that you see in other communities, have heard about and witnessed in places you visited, traveled or lived. Bring them back to share with us.
Dr. Susan Aloi, vice chair of the planning commission, said that there had been 603 online responses to the survey received so far. The survey can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RPYCTL8.
There are also print copies at various places around town including Upshur County Courthouse, Buckhannon City Hall, WIC, DHRR, the Chamber and Visitors Center, Upshur County Senior Center and local libraries.
"We want to make sure we get as much of a response rate as possible," Wilkerson said. "The fact that we are over 600 is fantastic already."
Along with input from the surveys and public meetings, the planning commission will also incorporate ideas from the city council's previous brainstorming session and a city department SWOT analysis.
Following the breakout sessions which listed about an hour, Wilkerson concluded the meeting by inviting everyone to the future monthly planning sessions and thanking everyone for their input.
"There was lots of great discussion that I eavesdropped on," he said. "All of it was jovial and positive. There are a lot of really great things happening in Buckhannon. A lot of you guys have kids, grandkids or generations you want to see have the opportunity to be here if they so choose."