Volunteering

Ronald Liechty’s Birthday

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Ron Liechty
Ronald Liechty

I was fortunate to be invited to attend Ron Liechty’s 80th Birthday Party at the Conservation Club on Saturday.  It was a surprise party put on by his family and it was nice to see the community come out to celebrate with him.

I’ve known Ron for over a decade and I am pleased to call him a friend.  My initial introduction was through Easterday Construction’s work on Garden Court projects.  Up until this year Ron has been the President of Garden Court.  This is a case of a client becoming a friend… A goal I have with all of our clients.

If I hadn’t met Ron through work, I’m sure I would have known him through other associations.  It seems like he has been an ubiquitous fixture in Plymouth and Marshall County over the last several decades, serving on various boards and in many cases taking on the leadership and spearheading projects.  He is an example of someone giving back to the community.  This is an example I try to follow and try to encourage others to pursue.

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Culver Vision Workshop

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Culver’s Vision needs a strong prescription!

Last night was the Vision Workshop for the Culver Comprehensive Plan.  I’ve been calling this effort 20/20 vision for Culver for a while now.  Unfortunately with the poor turn out last night, our vision may require a stronger prescription!  Less than 30 people turned out for last night’s meeting.  That’s pretty dismal.  There were three Plan Commission members there, but only one Redevelopment Commission member and no Town Council members.  The overall poor attendance is probably due to poor advertising, but it’s unfortunate that our community leaders aren’t getting involved.  I’m not in tune with all of the local groups, but I was disappointed that only one Chamber board member was there who was also the only Second Century Committee board member.  That was particularly disappointing considering the leadership role SCC took in the previous Comprehensive Plan.  I couldn’t identify any of the Lions Club Board, Kiwanis Board, Boys & Girls Club Board, etc.  Maybe that apathy in and of itself says a lot about Culver’s future…

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Culver Comprehensive Plan – Vision Workshop

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Vision Workshop

Join us at the Community Vision Workshop where residents, business owners, elected and appointed officials, members of the consultant team and other stakeholders will work together to create a vision for the Town of Culver. Attendees will participate in an interactive workshop format to map out their concerns, the things they like best about the community, and the changes they would like to see made in both the near and long-term. The vision workshop will be a fun and engaging way to provide your thoughts about the future of Culver. 

Why is the Vision Workshop important?
The purpose of the workshop will be to establish an overall “vision” for the future of the Town of Culver that can provide focus and direction for subsequent planning activities, serve as the “cornerstone” of the consensus building process, and identify a path for growth. Based on the Vision Workshop and previous steps in the planning process, preliminary planning goals and objectives will be prepared.

 

SAVE THE DATE: 
June 24th, 2013
6:30 pm
Culver Community High School Cafeteria
701 School St.

 All community members are encouraged to attend.

For any questions or comments related to the Town of Culver Comprehensive Plan, please contact David Schoeff, Town Manager at (574)842-3140 or townmanager@townofculver.org.

A Community of Second Homes

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Winters quoteAs previously discussed here I attended the Comprehensive Plan Breakout Session for businesses on Tuesday, April 23, 2013.  Mr. Ralph Winters was also at that meeting and made a statement I thought was somewhat profound.  I jotted it down so that I could get it right.  “We are not so much a resort community as a community of second homes.”    That idea resonated with me…  While we do have lots of “rentals”, we do not have any hotel space to speak of.  The Cove has mostly gone private, to the point that I don’t remember the last time I saw a conference there.  This suggests a different kind of resort community.

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Comprehensive Plan Update

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The work on the new comprehensive plan has begun and I attended three meetings in this week.  On Monday evening there was a Steering Committee meeting with Houseal Lavigne where we were given information regarding doing small group outreach.  This was for the Steering Committee to make presentations to groups that are unable to attend the regular community meetings or groups that have special interest.  I honestly do not know how effective this will be since everyone on the Steering Committee is already active in the community as well as their individual businesses but it was an interesting exercise.   I told the Town Manager, Dave Schoeff, that I would be willing to help with one of these, if approached, but I do see that I would go out looking for groups to give presentations.

image borrowed from www.coastalhawaii.com
The Dream of “Affordable Housing”

In conjunction with and immediately following that meeting was the first community meeting.  While participation was less than stellar (only about 25 people were in attendance) there were some consistent themes  that came out of the meeting.  It did not take long for affordable housing to bubble to the top.  Unfortunately affordable housing is a hard one for people to get their arms around and everyone’s definition seems to be somewhat different.  Probably the second most discussed issue which was  touched on several times  was “identity” of Culver, i.e. are we or do we want to be a resort community.  (More on that later.) 

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