Group to examine long-term plan for city

HUNTINGTON -- A diverse group of area residents is heading to Morgantown this week as one of the initial steps toward creating a long-term plan for Huntington.

The purpose of Thursday's road trip is to learn how Morgantown developed its long-term plan -- called Vision 2020 -- and how it is governed, said Anne Durham, president of Mountainside Media.

"We're in the research phase of our plan right now," she said. "All we know at this point is that whatever our structure is, it will be separate from government. Government agencies are stakeholders, but we want a free-standing committee to carry out the plan."

Durham will be joined on the trip by Mayor David Felinton; Huntington Economic Development Director Bill Toney; Ostie Mathisen, vice president of First State Bank; Tom Scarr, an attorney with Jenkins Fenstermaker; Chuck Lawrence, pastor of Christ Temple Church; Tom Pressman, vice president of Strictly Business Computer Systems; and Gary Bunn, a Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District commissioner.

Huntington received a $50,000 grant in January from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to develop a long-range community plan. The foundation has issued more than $300 million in grants to communities in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania since its inception in 1944. Grants are issued to advance specific initiatives in education, health and human services, community development and economic development.

The grant has been matched with a financial contribution from First State Bank and in-kind contributions from Marshall University's Center for Business and Economic Research and Mountainside Media.

The grant is being used to create a citizen-based steering committee that will oversee implementation of the plan and to develop a Web site that will serve as a citizen engagement tool, said Brandi Jones, administration and finance director for the city of Huntington. Jones wrote the grant application.

The third component of the planning phase is a two-day community stakeholder workshop May 5 and 6 coordinated by Vaughn Grisham, director of the McLean Institute for Community Development at the University of Mississippi.

Grisham will come back to Huntington in October to evaluate the progress the city has made on its long-range plan, Jones said. The plan should be completed by the end of this year, she said.

"This process has to be community-driven," Jones said. "It can't be solely driven by the business community, Marshall University or the city. We all have a vision for Huntington, but if it's not the same vision shared by residents, it's not going to succeed."

Community unification was the key for the success of Morgantown's long-range plan, City Manager Dan Boroff said. Long-range planning began in Morgantown in the early 1990s when the city's Chamber of Commerce launched a campaign to solicit community development ideas.

"An incredible amount of information was collected in a very short time," Boroff said. "There were probably a dozen committees with specific assignments such as public health, economic development and recreation."

Boroff attributes long-range planning in the early 1990s to the redevelopment of Morgantown's riverfront area. The committees reconvened in 1999 to establish a community plan through 2020.

"The collective goal is to enhance and improve the quality of life," he said. "It's a comprehensive strategy across the entire face of the community."

In addition to Morgantown, Felinton said community leaders are planning a trip to Paducah, Ky., in late April to learn more about a program that the city and local artists created in 2000 to revitalize rundown neighborhoods. By offering no-money-down, low-interest loans, the town of 26,000 has been able to attract more than 70 artists who buy dilapidated houses and renovate them.

"Rundown structures are a major problem in Huntington, but Paducah, which is only half the size of us, has shown they are also an opportunity," Felinton said.

To read more about the artist relocation program in Paducah, go to www.paducaharts.com.