February 2, 2005

 

 

The Ellettsville, Indiana, Town Council met in a work  session on Tuesday, February 2, 2005, at the new Fire Department Training and Conference Room.  Lisa Creech organized the community meeting to activate the Ellettsville Beautification Plan and hear ideas from local residents.

 

In Attendance:  Town Council members William Evans, Vice-President; Lisa Creech and Phillip Rogers were present.  Also present were Sandra Hash, Clerk-Treasurer; Frank Nierzwicki, Director of Planning and Zoning; local residents; Stuart and Zoë York, Rachel McCarty, Jeana Kapczynski and Bob and Darlyne Sowders.

 

Lisa Creech opened the meeting saying there are lots of ideas she would like to see put into action to assist Main Street.   She would like to form a core committee to be a sub group of Main Street to help with funding, grants and encourage business donations.

 

The floor was open for discussion.  Some of the ideas were: trying to get the town to think in terms of long term planning, assisting without duplicating duties of other groups, maps and signage of the area to encourage Hilly Hundred participants and local residents to utilize Ellettsville businesses.

 

Lisa shared the idea of an outlet mall downtown to draw people to the area.

 

Frank Nierzwicki asked each person in attendance to state two ideas for improving Ellettsville using the guideline SWOT which stands for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities     and Threats.  The suggestions were as follows:

 

  1. Clean up
  2. Anchor commerce
  3. Trail
  4. Incentives from the town
  5. Walkway, trail and sidewalks
  6. Signage
  7. Support from the Town
  8. Informational sign on the corner of  Sale Street & Main Street
  9. Ornamental signs, store fronts improvements and benches
  10. Combining all the small plans to create an overall plan
  11. Promotion in a central place
  12. Reduce the speed limit on the one way pair
  13. Parks in flood plain
  14. Maintain what we have
  15. Memorial Park – bandstand
  16. Fall Festival (2006)  3rd weekend in September

 

The park survey indicated interest in the following areas:

  1. Trail  and sidewalks
  2. Swimming Pools

 

Lisa plans to check on way finder signs and contacting the Fall Festival group.  She thanked everyone for their ideas and for attending the meeting.