Taking a slightly different route to get to a possible plan of action, people attending Bright Ideas workshops Thursday wrote down things about Fayette County that they want to change. Then, the group winnowed down that long list to a top three that need most attention.
The list-making came after Jeff Plasterer, co-moderator, shared a long list of statistics regarding living conditions here and in the east central Indiana region.
Frank Oakman, the other co-moderator, said, “It’s about silver linings, looking at the negative that’s happening and how can we make it better.”
The group’s top three list came down to the lack of a good community feeling, not having enough amenities to keep and attract new residents, and unsightly properties. Other items on the list included having the worst health outcomes in the state, lack of public transportation, lack of support for small businesses, continuing drug problems, lack of social mores, lack of affordable housing and the lack of infrastructure needed to build new housing and a lack of broadband in many places.
The conference, organized by Linda Fitzgerald and Shirley Wise, is the first of a series of meetings meant to come up with projects that will help Connersville and all of Fayette County become a welcoming 21st century community. About 50 people attended the workshop, about half in an afternoon session and half in the evening. Among them were city officials including both candidates for mayor, representatives of various county boards, business owners and pastors.
Part of the reason for the meetings, Fitzgerald said, is developing an approach for community development in an area designated as an Opportunity Zone. Public input is needed on how that area can be developed.
The Opportunity Zone includes an irregular-shaped area from 11th Street north to the Connersville Municipal Airport. It is a state designation made under a federal program. The area includes the former Kmart property. People who invest money in community development projects in an Opportunity Zone can receive a break on paying income taxes on capital gains.
Oakman, the pastor at First United Methodist Church, illustrated the need for change with stories. One concerned his move into the community about two years ago. When he went into convenience stores and told people he was thinking about moving here, they would ask where he was coming from. He replied Muncie and they would ask why he would want to move here.
“Two years ago, there seemed to be negative low hanging,” he said. That’s diminished some, he said, but local people need to take seriously the work of making the community better.
Both Plasterer, the executive director of the Eastern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, and Oakman urged participants to reach out and try to work with others in the community.
“Collaboration is hard work,” Plasterer said. “You have to listen to everyone’s ideas and bring those disparate ideas together.”
He said his regional group does not intend to tell communities what they need to do. Rather, each community should be working on its own plan.
“You’re the experts, you live it every day,” he said. His job at the Bright Ideas meeting was to bring perspectives from the outside about life in Fayette County.
Plasterer showed data about the general population decline of the last four decades, the decline in local wages, a declining birth rate which is leading to an aging population, and the decline in the numbers and skills of the local workforce.
His data, developed by Purdue University, also showed the Fayette County crime rate, which has stayed low – between 2 percent to 3.5 percent from 2007-2017 except during the years surrounding the Great Recession of 2008, when it was much higher.
Oakman said he has become active in the community and has noticed competition between groups. Some is the good-natured rivalry between different clubs, but there is also an element of bad competition in which groups and individuals won’t support someone else’s project because they are from a different group.
“It’s hard for a community to grow and be a bright light for others when there is competition between groups,” Oakman said.
Fitzgerald said her new organization, Ordinary Folks Fayette County Indiana, will be organizing three more sessions.
At the next meeting, she will provide two Fayette County maps, one of the north half and one of the south half. People attending will be asked to visualize what a welcoming 21st century community would look like in their half of the map, and then come together to create a long-term vision for the county.
At the following meeting, in November, the vision will be put into words.
In January, it should be ready for presentation to the public.
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