‘SWOT’ team plans for city’s future
A ‘SWOT’ ANALYSIS, presented by City Manager Jim Bennett during a joint meeting of City Council and members of the Strategic Planning Committee at City Hall Monday, gives a brief summary of some of the data gathered from a survey the city conducted earlier this year.
SWOT stands for: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Bennett went over the top components of each category, as the group discussed plans for the city’s future.
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — City officials are looking for ways to improve the community in coming years and are now using survey data gathered this spring to begin the process of determining what steps to take next. Prior to Monday night’s City Council meeting, councilors met with members of the Strategic Planning Committee, with City Manager Jim Bennett providing a PowerPoint presentation of what’s been done in recent months and what needs to be done to make the city a more appealing place to live and work.
Joining Bennett to discuss the plan were: Council Chair and member of the Strategic Planning Committee, Emily Smith; Councilors Mel Hovey, Don Gardner, Randy Smith, Peter Hallowell and Bruce Sargent; and members of the Strategic Planning Committee — Lucy Richard, SAD 1 Board; Connie Sandstrom, ACAP; Brent Anderson, Planning Board; and Calvin Hall, citizen representative who also served as the SPC chair.
“The city of Presque Isle, under the direction of the City Council, is engaged in a strategic planning process focusing on identifying Presque Isle’s priorities for the next three to five years. A committee was formed in December 2010 and met for the first time on Jan. 12,” explained Bennett.
According to Bennett, the committee began the strategic planning process by first doing a survey and holding a community meeting to assess where the city stands.
“The City Management Team met on several occasions to lay a baseline of significant issues. As a result of this information-gathering process, the Strategic Planning Committee was able to formulate the components we will use as a guideline,” said Bennett.
Bennett shared a condensed version of the draft SWOT analysis — SWOT stands for: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. He said city officials have been meeting with various groups in recent weeks, sharing the data obtained through a survey the city did in the spring.
“The 11-question Strategic Planning Survey was available to the public through the city’s website from April 1 through May 20. We received a total of 131 responses, 42 of which are from our efforts to target local youth. We found that responses were consistent with the information (presented tonight),” Bennett said.
Presentations using the data are being made to a number of organizations throughout the community, including Rotary, Kiwanis, Aroostook Agency on Aging, the Elks and VFW, beginning in July and continuing through August.
“A lot of people are amazed at this information. It’s made them think. That’s part of the strategy,” said Bennett, adding, “most business sectors have some type of strategic plan — where they’re gonna go and how they’ll get there.”
Bennett said the city is “doing this as a community to determine where we want to go and try to figure out how to get to that location.”
Once the plan is designed, the next step would be City Council’s approval.
“After the plan’s developed, hopefully the Council will adopt it,” he said. “We’re at a point now of testing major goals.”
Bennett shared with the group some of the key factors derived from this spring’s survey that are the basis of SWOT. While the city has some control over its strengths and weaknesses, he said “opportunities and threats are more external.”
“We have little control over those,” Bennett said.
Under strengths, Bennett included the fact Presque Isle is the “hub” of business, serving as the “economic center of Aroostook.” He also noted the educational systems and the area’s natural beauty as benefits.
Weaknesses, according to the city manager, include continued out-migration and a mid-1900 infrastructure that revolves around “auto-culture” (use of vehicles). Bennett said more needed to be done to expand the use of downtown to encourage all modes of transportation, including snowmobiling, ATVs, bicycles and walking.
Bennett said as far as opportunities go, the city has much to offer, including such amenities as the riverfront — something many other communities in the state don’t have — and the city’s trend toward healthy living.
As for threats, he said traffic downtown is an issue and encouraged continued efforts to re-route truck traffic. Bennett said more also needed to be done to attract business leaders, who might not consider relocating or expanding here.
“Relocating here is not a natural consideration,” said Bennett, noting more needs to be done to market the area as a destination — a place to live and work.
Councilor Gardner recalled a vibrant downtown in years past and suggested it might be worth looking back to those days to see if any element of what worked then could be revamped and applied today.
“We could combine past good ideas,” said Gardner. “I can remember pancake carnivals; kids ate for free. It brought parents downtown. (The city was) constantly full of people. My father used to park for hours watching all his friends go by,” Gardner said.
Councilor Hovey said the top priority should be to “attract higher-paying jobs.”
“People are leaving because there are no jobs. If you have a lot of good jobs you can do a lot of things. Your tax base goes up,” said Hovey, noting that in his lifetime he’s seen a number of jobs leave the area.
“In my lifetime, jobs have left the county, professional jobs have left the county. MMG is here because over 50 percent of its board members are from the county. If it weren’t for that, they’d leave,” he said.
Bennett agreed that creating jobs is a priority.
“The economic vitality of a community is critical. All the trends we have right now going on, if we don’t do anything, it doesn’t look good in the next 10-20 years for the community,” said Bennett. “We have to think what’s important to people.”
Hall said he agreed with Hovey but that complacency has been an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed.
“We need to have businesses. This is one of the first steps in the strategy to tip them (business leaders) off that we’re here. It’s more about having everything ready when we get that first call. But I don’t think we have everything in place to get to where Mel wants to be,” said Hall.
Bennett said part of the focus should be on attracting those in the position to make the powerful decisions in the business world.
“The key to where a business locates and expands is where the CEO wants to live. If the quality of life is lacking, you know that CEO is not going to pick your location. That’s part of the issue,” said Bennett.
In the weeks and months to come, Bennett is hoping more details of the Strategic Plan can be ironed out, putting Presque Isle on the track to a better future.
“The things you used to take for granted, you’re now seeing how it relates to other things and how it has an impact on other events. The plan not only lays out what you plan to do but more importantly why. This becomes a really powerful tool to back up why you’re doing what you’re doing — why you’re investing money,” said Bennett.
“The dollar sign is at the other end of the plan, then comes the time to determine ‘can we fund it,’” said Hall. “If you never make plans, you won’t go anywhere. If you make the plan first, the dollars will come later.”
For more information about the Strategic Plan, call 760-2785.
