Snohomish progress report available on Web
Published 9:25 pm Sunday, July 22, 2007
SNOHOMISH – People in Snohomish worked with city officials last year to create a blueprint for their city over the next 20 years.
They now have a chance to check how the city has been following the plan, titled “Imagine Snohomish: Promoting Vitality and Preserving Character.”
The city has put the progress report of the plan on its Web site, city manager Larry Bauman said.
“I want to be able to use it as a communication tool both with the City Council and the general public,” Bauman said Thursday.
The plan, available at the city’s Web site, is the biggest and most comprehensive blueprint the city has ever created. The city spent $87,000 creating the plan. City officials held meetings with people who live in and around the city of about 8,700 people.
Goals in the plan include improving the city’s economy and employment base, preserving the city’s historic character and making the city more pedestrian friendly. The city also wants to build a new city campus to meet growing service demand.
“As far as I’m concerned, we just need to attract jobs, period,” City Councilman Larry Countryman said.
The plan outlines specific steps that the city wants to take to achieve those goals over the next five, 10 and 20 years.
“We are making headway. Obviously, there’s a lot to do,” Bauman said.
For instance, the city this year hired a new economic development manager and started improving city parks. The city has set aside about $500,000 in this year’s budget for street overlays, Bauman said. That’s up from $250,000 in 2006.
The city also locked in $4.9 million from the state for its new sewer treatment system this year, Bauman said.
The city will keep track of progress and make adjustments in the plan, Bauman said. It will review the plan every five years with a citizen advisory group.
City officials and leaders come and go, Countryman said. But the strategic plan will make the city’s planning consistent.
“It’s meant to be a document we will look at and use as a guide toward the future,” Countryman said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
Read the city’s plan
To read “Imagine Snohomish: Promoting Vitality and Preserving Character,” a blueprint for the city of Snohomish, go to www.ci.snohomish.wa.us. For more information, call the city at 360-568-3115.
