After two years of work and thousands of volunteer hours the Galesburg on Track: Heart and Soul team presented their action plan last night.
Galesburg Fire Chief and Heart and Soul leadership member Tom Simkins said central to what their group came up is a “brand” for Galesburg.
The brand they came up? Trains, Planes and Ferris Wheels, “This is just one shot [of] an idea. This whole thing you have in front of you tonight with brand. But I do want to speak a lot to the brand because this is the rallying point for the city,” Simpkins said. “This is thing we’ve seen – in our opinions – that has been lacking. It’s the thing that brings everybody together. It’s our rallying point. Something to coalesce behind and work towards.”
Heart and Soul members laid out for each of the eight value statements, that are based on what residents said they valued most about the city, plans on how to fully realize each statement in steps from six months all the way to a decade.
For example, related to the value statement “services and amenities”, they envision a “vibrant community hub” will be realized.
Simkins spoke on the value statement town image, which he said includes residents image of the town as well as outsiders, “What we heard from our people in Galesburg is that they love Galesburg. And they really do want to be proud of. So image is huge. Not only from the perspective of our own citizens but from visitors and other people. So if we don’t talk well of our city, who’s going to?”
By July 2018, a community hub task force would be formed, in a year the task force will find a space and research funding, with the hub running by 2023 if only in early stages.
This is just a rough overview of the detailed steps laid out with some ambitious goals like a bike path that runs through the city and a Ferris Wheel park.
Simkins says that they avoided the term “community center” since the phrase has become polarized through debates around such a center in recent years.
Project Coordinator Deb Moreno says the Heart and Soul leadership will now transition into a stewardship team and try to assemble groups of volunteers that will likely work independently.
