By: Stan Boney, shared via WKBN, view original story
STRUTHERS, Ohio (WKBN) – It has been decided that the city of Struthers needs a comprehensive plan, a blueprint to the future out five to 10 years.
Based on the responses of 93 people in an online survey, the name of the plan will be “Discover Struthers.”
Monday at city hall, a meeting was held to decide where it goes from here. Eight of the 10 people on Mayor Cat Cercone-Miller’s executive committee on a comprehensive plan for Struthers attended the meeting to learn what they hope to accomplish.
“So we want to try to get to as many people so we can collect as much data as we can,” Cercone-Miller said.
The city hired a Struthers-based company, KO Consulting, to develop the plan.
“The adoption of the plan, once it’s created, will effectively set the direction for the city administration and the city staff and the other elected and appointed officials to make decisions that respond to the long-term needs of the city,” said Samantha Yannucci, with KO Consulting.
All aspects of Struthers will be studied from the downtown area to the Youngstown-Poland Road business district. The neighborhoods will be looked at, along with how to better utilize the Mahoning River and Yellow Creek Park.
“Creating a landscape, an environment that’s conducive for small business development and creating an ecosystem to support those businesses,” Yannucci said.
A major reason a comprehensive plan is needed is to become eligible for government grants.
“There was something with the county that we had to show them our plan that we don’t have yet in order to be eligible,” Cercone-Miller said.
The next step will be the formation of five subcommittees to get input from — senior citizens, the youth, communities of color, parents and caregivers, and Struthers businesses.
Nothing specific was discussed on Monday, that will come, but the mayor has an idea of what she’d like to see.
“If I could sum it up to one word I would say I want to see people. I want to see more people in our city, whether it be businesses, whether it’d be residents, whether it’d be at the parks, walking. So I just want to see more people,” Cercone-Miller said.
The scope of the plan will take Struthers out five to 10 years. The plan itself is expected to take one year to complete.
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