What do you hope Huntsville will be in the future? What services would you like to see provided—or continue to be provided—for its residents?
To better understand what’s most important to local residents, the Town of Huntsville is embarking on a review of its current strategic plan.
The plan was created in 2017 through extensive public consultation, which resulted in the creation of the Town’s mission, vision and values, along with the six strategic priority areas contained within the Plan. Based on public feedback, as well as input from Town Council and staff, the goals and objectives within each of the strategic priority areas will be amended as necessary, notes the Town’s CAO, Denise Corry.
“Our intention is not to do a full overhaul of the current Plan,” says Corry. “We did extensive consultation during the previous term of council which provided us with a document that we feel is a good starting point for the review during this term of council. It’s not uncommon for a strategic plan to be put in place during a term of council and then subsequent terms will revisit the Plan and amend it as necessary based on the feedback collected.”
Even though the strategic plan is intended to be a long-term document, it also recognizes specific goals and objectives that council may wish to accomplish during their current term. “For example, this council has made it very clear that they want to see the development of a Community Services Master Plan, so that will be an item specifically identified under one of the strategic priority pillars,” says Corry.
The Town of Huntsville recently launched a community engagement portal, myhuntsville.ca, to gather feedback from residents on a variety of issues and provide information about projects important to the community. There you’ll find a survey where you can add your input about the strategic plan.
“The strategic plan is a document that we use as our roadmap. It’s the document we use to establish our priorities and determine what needs to get accomplished in a certain period of time,” says Corry.
It’s important for residents to comment because it really shapes the community for today and tomorrow. We need to hear from the community about what services they need, and where our focus should be. It really is your Huntsville and we want to hear from you. Our taxpayers fund a substantial portion of the services we deliver, so it’s really important that you chime in.
The Town is hoping to have all comments gathered by the end of April 2019. There will also be a public information session this spring—watch for details on huntsville.ca.
Staff will then compile the feedback and make recommendations for council to consider. Once amendments to the strategic plan have been approved by council, staff will create a timeline and a financial plan for projects that have been identified as areas of interest.
Council elected not to retain a consultant for the review, so it will be overseen by Corry with input from the Town’s senior management and leadership teams.
Provide your input about Huntsville’s strategic plan on the survey at myhuntsville.ca/strategicplan. (You will need to register online for a My Huntsville account before you can complete the survey, if you haven’t already.)
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