PRESS RELEASE

1,000 People Gather for Hamilton County’s First-Ever Countywide Town Meeting

HAMILTON COUNTY – Today, Hamilton County residents and supporters partake in an innovative public involvement event to set the course for the future – the Community COMPASS Countywide Town Meeting. The meeting is the centerpiece of the COMPASS process that will create a unified vision, and a plan to reach that vision, devised by residents and stakeholders of the county. Community COMPASS is the first comprehensive plan for Hamilton County in over 38 years.

At today’s meeting 1,000 Hamilton County residents, workers and stakeholders will meet in small groups to discuss four core issues that underlie many of the challenges the county faces. One core issue is assuring economic prosperity by focusing on creating a globally competitive economy, creating good-paying jobs, and creating a linkage between higher education and workforce needs. The second core issue is building collaborative decision-making using effective and efficient government, building a strong sense of community, and creating a countywide development framework. Embracing diversity and equity is the third core issue, which focuses on creating diverse communities, offering affordable housing, and providing quality educational opportunities to everyone. The fourth core issue to be discussed is balancing development with the environment by looking at issues of controlling growth, preserving natural resources and balancing new investment with reinvestment. Participants will use wireless keypads and other cutting-edge technology to vote on issues and add their ideas to a larger pool of information to share simultaneously with other attendees.

“The Countywide Town Meeting is the largest single event in the Community COMPASS process,” said Ron Miller, executive director of the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission. “COMPASS began six months ago and will culminate in the completion of a new comprehensive plan for Hamilton County.”

The first public involvement activities for Community COMPASS started in October when the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission and the Hamilton County Planning Partnership hosted twelve Community Forums throughout the county. Over 600 county residents, including teens, seniors, business persons, workers and community leaders, participated in the forums and an online idea gathering session generating over 2,800 ideas.

“Residents of Hamilton County were given the chance to voice their concerns and ideas for the county’s future at the Community Forums in October,” said Miller. “Today is the next step towards putting those ideas in to action.”

After the ideas were generated, the Community COMPASS Steering Team, made up of representatives from the private, public and civic sectors of the county, held a Goal-writing Workshop to sift through the 2,800-plus ideas given by residents. Ideas were put into 12 categories which were used to create goals. The four core issues of today’s meeting represent the challenges that must be overcome to accomplish those goals.

“Everything that has led up to the Countywide Town Meeting will be tested today,” said Jim Wuenker, co-chair of the Community COMPASS Steering Team. “Residents are showing how much they care about their community by helping set priorities for the future and they are enthusiastic to be part of the COMPASS process.”

The next step of the COMPASS process will be to form COMPASS Action Teams (CATs) who will be responsible for addressing the goals from the Community Forums, the Goal-writing Workshop, and the Countywide Town Meeting. Participants of the Community Forums, the Countywide Town Meeting, and other interested persons will be invited to join the COMPASS Action Teams.

“Hamilton County residents will take ownership in their future because of Community COMPASS,” said Jackie McCray, co-chair of the Community COMPASS Steering Team. “Here, at the Countywide Town Meeting, we have the chance to set the course for our county and make Hamilton County a better place for our children and grandchildren.”