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Cleaning up Shawnee, making our community more attractive and code compliant, is the focus of a combined campaign on the part of the Chamber of Commerce and the city of Shawnee.
It’s a collaborative effort to systematically begin an effort aimed at making a difference in the appearance of the community.
This campaign doesn’t take away from all of the hard work and effort of Tom Terry and his chamber and city beautification committees. It’s intended to enhance all that he and his groups have achieved over the past several years, and will continue to accomplish in the future by targeting some of the worst blighted areas.
It should provide an improved image and instill pride in the local citizenry.
The chamber’s Small Business Council and Community Development and Planning Director Justin Erickson have been working closely together to develop the campaign which was presented to city commissioners at last Monday night’s meeting. Erickson has been able to hire a part-time code compliance officer to work at least through the early fall months, targeting some of the worst, trashy areas in the city in hopes that local citizens and businesses will respond.
The campaign is an outgrowth of a presentation about 10 months ago by Linda Price, a Norman city official, who outlined what the state’s third largest city has been able to achieve successfully in cleaning up and making it much more attractive.
Norman’s efforts led to the city’s being named last year by Money Magazine as the sixth best place to live in America.
The chamber’s Past Chairmen’s Council began this effort last year by bringing Price to Shawnee to learn what Norman did and how it developed its plan. To carry through further, this was one of the topics of the chamber’s planning retreat last October and has been one of the priorities of the chamber’s program of work this year.
In order to really put some teeth into the campaign though, the chamber realized this has to be a collaborative effort with the city. The other night, the mayor and all of the commissioners provided the consensus the chamber and Erickson’s staff were looking for in order to proceed. Hopefully, this campaign, though in its infancy, will begin to make a real difference in the looks of our community, cleaning it up and improving our image.
One of the components of this effort reaches out to other non-profit organizations and groups who are interested in volunteering and looking for projects. Letters are being sent to these entities seeking their assistance in order to help the chamber and the city.
As was discussed with city commissioners, this is not a campaign lasting only a few weeks or several months. It may take several years.
There is no time better than now, though, to launch this full-fledged, collaborative effort so that both citizens and visitors alike can begin noticing a difference in the appearance of our community.
Cleaning up Shawnee, making our community more attractive and code compliant, is the focus of a combined campaign on the part of the Chamber of Commerce and the city of Shawnee.
It’s a collaborative effort to systematically begin an effort aimed at making a difference in the appearance of the community.
This campaign doesn’t take away from all of the hard work and effort of Tom Terry and his chamber and city beautification committees. It’s intended to enhance all that he and his groups have achieved over the past several years, and will continue to accomplish in the future by targeting some of the worst blighted areas.
It should provide an improved image and instill pride in the local citizenry.
The chamber’s Small Business Council and Community Development and Planning Director Justin Erickson have been working closely together to develop the campaign which was presented to city commissioners at last Monday night’s meeting. Erickson has been able to hire a part-time code compliance officer to work at least through the early fall months, targeting some of the worst, trashy areas in the city in hopes that local citizens and businesses will respond.
The campaign is an outgrowth of a presentation about 10 months ago by Linda Price, a Norman city official, who outlined what the state’s third largest city has been able to achieve successfully in cleaning up and making it much more attractive.
Norman’s efforts led to the city’s being named last year by Money Magazine as the sixth best place to live in America.
The chamber’s Past Chairmen’s Council began this effort last year by bringing Price to Shawnee to learn what Norman did and how it developed its plan. To carry through further, this was one of the topics of the chamber’s planning retreat last October and has been one of the priorities of the chamber’s program of work this year.
In order to really put some teeth into the campaign though, the chamber realized this has to be a collaborative effort with the city. The other night, the mayor and all of the commissioners provided the consensus the chamber and Erickson’s staff were looking for in order to proceed. Hopefully, this campaign, though in its infancy, will begin to make a real difference in the looks of our community, cleaning it up and improving our image.
One of the components of this effort reaches out to other non-profit organizations and groups who are interested in volunteering and looking for projects. Letters are being sent to these entities seeking their assistance in order to help the chamber and the city.
As was discussed with city commissioners, this is not a campaign lasting only a few weeks or several months. It may take several years.
There is no time better than now, though, to launch this full-fledged, collaborative effort so that both citizens and visitors alike can begin noticing a difference in the appearance of our community.
