I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts on 5 goals you think it is important for the City to set. Your reflections did help me as I joined in the City Council Retreat. I enjoyed the retreat and the time we spent together was productive both for us as a Council and for the city. The time we invested in improving our ability to work as a team will pay dividends for the Council and the City. I experienced the truth of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.
We did discuss and draft a vision statement. The vision statement we came up with reads: “To be an economic and cultural center for west central Nebraska, providing excellent opportunities for its residents and visitors.” When finished this statement will enable us to review our mission statement and guide our work as a Council. I would be interested in your thoughts about this vision statement.
We also developed a list of 17 possible goals for the City. We then prioritized those 17 goal statements and asked the Administration to develop possible action steps that could be taken to achieve those goals. The five goals we came up with were:
- Reducing property tax.
- Revitalization of the downtown
- Shrinking city government
- Development of retail in the city
- Finding ways to work better with various partner agencies in the community including but not limited to the North Platte Chamber/ Development Corporation, Original Town and the Lincoln County Community Development Corporation
It will be important for us to use the vision statement and the goals to keep the Council and the administration focused. The consensus we developed around these goals will provide us with the guidance we need to conduct the city’s business. We also discussed ways to evaluate our progress on fulfilling the goals we finally approve. It will be important for us to measure and evaluate our progress toward accomplish the goals we set.
I also appreciated our discussions of ways to improve our work sessions. One participant suggested we hold our work sessions at various city facilities. We would met at the Library, at the Public Service Building, at the Water Treatment Plant and at the Fire Stations. Meeting at these locations will provide the Council with the opportunity to tour these facilities and better understand their role and contribution to the life of North Platte.
I appreciated the opportunity to take this time and reflect on the Council and to draft some goals that will guide us into the future. We commit: “To be an economic and cultural center for west central Nebraska, providing excellent opportunities for its residents and visitors.”
2 responses to “Council Retreat A Success”
Well done. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into making our city a better place to live. One small suggestion on the goal of revitalizing the downtown—get rid of the two hour parking restriction. If the freedom gets abused, you can always reinstate it.
Super Don! I am really encouraged that the council sees the vision of tourism and its economic impact on our fair city. Wheither it was done conciously or subconciously by adding the term “visitors” in the visiton statement “To be an economic and cultural center for west central Nebraska, providing excellent opportunities for its residents and visitors” leads me to beleive the CVB’s efforts to educate are working. Thank you for all your time and energy spent on the council!