Strategic planning underway for Lawrence County
By TONY FYFFE
BSN Editor
LOUISA — A group of local officials and community members were scheduled to meet today (Wednesday) to draft a strategic plan for Louisa and Lawrence County.
The plan was the subject of Zoom meetings held last Wednesday, March 24, and on Monday, with results of a survey conducted as part of the information-gathering process released by consultant Alison Davis.
Davis, a professor with the University of Kentucky Department of Agriculture Economics and executive director of the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, said during the March 24 session that 139 people responded to the survey, but the number of respondents grew to 640 by Monday’s meeting. Of those, about 500 are “useable,” she said.
“The lion’s share of folks who have responded are between 25 and 64 years old,” Davis said Monday.
Davis was disappointed at the March 24 session that no teenagers had responded to the survey, but reported that 12 had completed the questionnaire since last week’s meeting.
“If we really want to make this as robust as possible, I’d love to get this into the hands of some high school students to get their feedback,” Davis said. “Their responses tend to be vastly different than some of the folks who tend to be at the other end of the spectrum, and so it would be great to hear a little bit about what they have to say.”
She said Monday that she would “continue to push” the survey to high school students.
Survey questions covered downtown, recreation and tourism, economic development, housing issues, and health and food.
Among the survey findings:
• Downtown: Supporting new businesses and strengthening support for existing businesses “seem to be very important” to survey respondents, Davis said.
• Recreation and Tourism: Respondents said improving first impressions for visitors to the city and the county were extremely important, Davis said.
• Economic Development: The “landslide response” in this category was attracting industry to Lawrence County, Davis said.
“I have certain reservations about that, because that sort of relies on someone else to do the work, which is highly risky,” Davis said. “But, certainly, that is where we see kind of the biggest bang is if we have industry move to the area.”
Expanding workforce training efforts and addressing the needs and opportunities for existing businesses were also high on the list, she said.
• Housing Issues: The most important issue to respondents in this category was improving residential energy efficiency and lowering utility bills. Reducing the number of individuals experiencing homelessness was also an important issue, Davis said.
• Health and Food: The local farmers market was popular with respondents in this category, Davis said.
“There is a lot of interest in enhancing the local farmers market,” Davis said, “and I think this was something that you guys specifically wanted to include and said that there was room for opportunity.”
Other important issues were increasing opportunities for physical activity and improving efforts to support mental health.
The least important to respondents was substance abuse prevention, Davis said, adding that there was “just a lot of animosity” toward Addiction Recovery Care, which is headquartered in Louisa, with people “saying that we’re attracting people who have substance use issues.”
In a section of the survey called “cool things,” where respondents were asked what they have seen somewhere else that they would like to see in Lawrence County, a park, a bowling alley and a movie theater were popular responses, Davis said.
Local residents also have a “real passion” for activities, she said.
“More” and “bring” were common words used by respondents when asked what their top priority would be for the community if they were in a leadership position, Davis said.
“I thought it was interesting that most folks were just sort of yearning for more of things — more jobs, recreational opportunities, more housing,” she said. “So, it’s like there are things available, but not enough.”
A steering committee was scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. today to start “crafting a plan,” which will be finalized by the end of April, according to Davis.