HUNTINGTON -- More than 60 area citizens came together for two hours Tuesday night at the Marshall University Memorial Student Center to talk about Huntington's future without dwelling on the negatives.
Instead, they discussed projects that can be attained over the next few months. Their ideas were wide-ranging and, to a large extent, focused on engaging the area's young people.
The community forum was the last segment of a two-day whirlwind visit to Huntington by Vaughn Grisham, a sociology professor and director of the McLean Institute for Community Development at the University of Mississippi.
Grisham's stop is the latest installment of an effort to create a long-term plan for Huntington. The city earlier this year received a $50,000 Benedum Foundation grant that 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.
In addition to paying for Grisham's visit, the funds also have been used by city officials and business leaders to travel to Morgantown and Paducah, Ky., to learn about their community visioning process.
The next step is creating a private, nonprofit organization called the Create Huntington Foundation that will capture intellectual and creative capital in Huntington and turn it into economic development, said Ostie Mathisen, vice president of First State Bank.
But the spotlight of Tuesday's meeting was on what Grisham calls one of Huntington's most valuable assets: Its people.
"It breaks my heart when I go to all of these communities across the country and I see them working so hard without all of the resources that Huntington has," Grisham said. "When you bring citizens together, you make good decisions."
Grisham asked the audience to break into groups and discuss small projects that could be achieved by the fall. Grisham is scheduled to return to Huntington in October for another series of community forums.
One group proposed a community-based theater or concert series at one of the city-owned parking lots on 4th Avenue every Tuesday night. Huntington needs a consistent schedule of events to bring people not only to Pullman Square, but to other parts of the downtown, said Byron Clercx, chairman of Marshall's Department of Art and Design.
Another group proposed a series of billboards across town that would work on improving Huntington's image and using an empty storefront in the downtown to promote Marshall students' projects and the arts.
Perhaps the most thought-provoking idea of the evening came from the audience's youngest member, Huntington High School sophomore Hilary Roush. She suggested a high school version of City Council in which high school students from across the city run for office in their actual council districts.
The student council could make recommendations to the real City Council and sit with their adult counterparts at council meetings every once in a while.
Roush said her idea derives from the belief among many young people in Huntington that their opinions aren't important to the city's decision makers. If Huntington wants its young people to stay in town after they graduate from school, it better start doing a better job of instilling pride and community service in its people at an earlier age, she said.
"There are a ton of service clubs at Huntington High willing to help, but none of them know how," she said.
While the projects may be small, they will train residents how to work together toward a common goal, Grisham said. And once success is realized, residents will set their next goal a little higher, he said.
Simone Kompanek of Huntington said the forum taught her that it only takes one person to initiate change. She cited Richard Cobb, a city resident who grew so tired of looking at litter in front of his house two years ago that he started picking it up. Cobb's group now has more than 1,200 members.
"Part of what we're battling in this town is an image problem. We think one person can't make a difference, but they can," Kompanek said. "Ultimately, we need a group of people who know how to tackle our problems in a creative way."
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