Interactive plan up for discussion at fairgrounds

Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Halloween in Greencastle saw many homeowners create ghoulish scenes on their lawns. The home of Jamie and Amy France was decorated with a graveyard, with many spectors greeting trick-or-treaters after dark. Area children collected candy on the courthouse square, participated in activities at Putnam County Public Library and at events around the county.

Putnam County is having a second interactive public workshop to begin planning for county-wide future growth and development.

The workshop will take place at the Putnam County Fairground's Community building at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

The purpose of the workshop will be to develop a common picture of the county's future and start developing the major goals and objectives that will serve as the base for the county's new comprehensive plan.

All interested individuals are invited to attend and participate in shaping this county-wide plan.

Part of the plan will be to provide strategic long-term vision and basic goals, objectives, policies and recommendations to help guide the county's future growth and development, this workshop will be the first opportunity for citizens to get involved in the planning process and help shape the plan's outcome.

Participants will review the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the county that participants from the first workshop identified that were discussed at last month's workshop. Some of the items discussed were the county's small town and rural atmosphere, the current road systems, the transition of farmland to development and the improvement of the rural communications network.

During the workshop, facilitated by Shane Burkhardt, AICP, the Planning Director with American Consulting Inc., the participates will be divided into small groups to build off of the work of the first public workshop and develop the vision of where the county will be 20 years out.

Once a consensus on the vision is achieved, the workshop will focus on those strategies, programs and policies that will be necessary to achieve that vision.

The results of these workshops will be directly used by the Putnam County Planning Commission and the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee as the building block for the new plan.

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