 Michael Gowin served as the moderator for the meeting and led the
group through a list of wants and needs that had been compiled in
November at the first meeting.The talks began with how to go
about creating a single source of information for everyone in the
community. The topic of building a one-stop-shop website where
anyone could find out anything they wanted to know about Lincoln
continued to come back into the discussion throughout the evening.
Gowin moved the discussion forward, asking if anyone had
addressed the topic of job shadowing that appeared on one of the
lists. No one commented.
Gowin moved on to the list that included downtown revitalization.
It was brought up that there are revitalization projects in the
works.
Gowin built on that, saying that there are many things happening
that folks don't know about. He said it wasn't just about what was
going on in projects, but also what is going on in area civic
organizations, as well as churches and other social bodies.
Patrick Doolin commented that it might be a good first step for
someone to "inventory" the local organizations, find out what they
do and offer information about them. Andi Hake of the chamber of
commerce said the job might be easier than one would expect because
the Healthy Communities Partnership is already working on a similar
directory.
Jeanette Harris is a newcomer to the Lincoln community. She
talked about her former community in McLean County and how the
United Way was working on a central directory of all social services
in the county. She thought it would be great for the Logan County
community to have something like this as well. She said she would be
happy to help work on something like this for Logan County.
After her comments, it was noted that the Logan County United Way
is working on a 211 phone project and recently had a meeting to
inform the public on this project.
Gowin moved on to the page that mentioned cultivating the arts.
He asked if anyone had talked about this or done anything with it.
Kathy Vinyard said there is already a visual arts group in
Lincoln. The Logan County Arts group meets at the Lincoln Art
Institute. Vinyard said they have monthly art shows, and they want
to do more in the community to promote the arts.
It was also mentioned that there is a creative writing group in
Lincoln.
Another item on the need list was for a dog park in Lincoln.
David Lanterman said that he, Brittney McLaughlin and Angela
Stoltzenburg have been discussing this. He said, however, what it
came down to was not just a discussion about a dog park, but rather
all the green spaces in Lincoln. He said the three had discussed how
the green spaces are being used and how they could be used better.
He mentioned the APEX at City Center, the community garden spaces
and more. He said he thought there needed to be an inventory of all
the green spaces in the city and determine how they can be better
used.
Lanterman said that in addition to the three who are currently
working on this, perhaps the city and the park district needed to be
in these discussions as well.
In regard to the APEX, he noted that while it has been started,
it needs to be moving forward.
[to top of second column] |
At the first meeting, it was mentioned that there needed to
be a curbside recycling program in Lincoln. At the meeting
Wednesday evening, Mitzi Rohlfs of the Joint Solid Waste Agency
was on hand to review this proposal. That agency is the
recycling program serving Lincoln and other locations in Logan
County.
Rohlfs offered a little bit of background on why the city does
not have curbside recycling at the moment. Prior to 2010, there was
a curbside program with Area Disposal picking up recycling materials
free of charge as part of their trash collection service in the
city.
However, in 2010 the company determined that they could no longer
offer the service for free and implemented a $5 monthly charge on
recycling pickup. Rohlfs said more than 50 percent of the households
dropped the service then, but they didn't stop recycling. The Joint
Solid Waste Agency offers recycling in a variety of venues. There
are large dumpsters on the city lot on North Kickapoo for paper and
plastic. The agency partners with the Logan County Habitat for
Humanity for electronics recycling, and glass for recycling is
collected at the Logan County Fairgrounds from spring to fall, with
the service stopping during the winter months.
Lanterman said he was the one who brought up the household
recycling at the first meeting. He said that recycling at home was
something that could be a family activity, and it would be
educational for kids to get them started in the habit of recycling.
Rohlfs said she would support the change completely. Lincoln
Mayor Keith Snyder said that one way to possibly bring this back
would be to offer a waste hauler exclusive rights in the city and in
offering that exclusivity require that recycling be a part of the
program.
Lanterman said that another part of the problem is that homes are
not required to subscribe to a waste service. He added that if they
were required, and if the fee for recycling was included in the
monthly rate, more households would participate in curbside
recycling.
It was also brought up that there was a need for electronics
recycling and glass recycling. Rohlfs explained that those programs
are already in place. The second Saturday of every month there is an
electronics recycling collection at the Habitat for Humanity
warehouse, and glass for recycling is collected at the fairgrounds
in season. She said she provides public notices to all three local
media outlets the week prior to the Saturday events.
___
In Part 3 of this report, Gowin leads the group through bringing
up new ideas that were not on the original list from the first
meeting.
[By NILA SMITH]
Past related article
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