Tryon Town Council wants to hear from residents at least one more time about the town’s plan to address strategic issues over the next five years.
The town will hold a meeting regarding Tryon’s strategic plan tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Tryon Fire Department and council could approve the plan depending on the input.
Tryon began creating a strategic plan last August to prioritize the town’s tasks. The board also said it wanted to proactively focus on service improvements and specific projects that would put the town in a positive position in the future.
Public input was sought from the beginning, with the town inviting residents, organizations, businesses and town committees to provide their thoughts and suggestions concerning strategic issues. A six question survey was given out and was offered online.
Tryon received approximately 65 responses that included what people think are the most important issues and challenges facing the town over the next four to five years; residents suggestions of how to address those issues; which services should be increased, enhanced or decreased or eliminated; which services should be added and how to fund the ideas.
The majority of the responses indicated that residents, businesses, organizations and committees want to see an increased emphasis on downtown business development, more effective solid waste/recycling, more efficient financial operations, increased long-range planning, better cooperation with other local governments, more emphasis on public transportation, tourism and economic development, reductions in services and employees, improved communications with the public, increased efforts on affordable housing, reductions in tax and utility rates, more emphasis on environmental protection and community policing and increased efforts to lower the crime rate.
The plan prioritizes the towns goals and indicates which year the action will begin and whether funding is needed.
The strategies include ways to expand public transportation, share or consolidate services with neighboring governments, increase recycling, work with other areas to capitalize on joint purchasing, create a financial aid program to assist residents with water/sewer bills, form a county-wide recreation organization, consolidate police oversight and administration, form a regional water/sewer authority, develop a new utility rate structure that clearly reflects system costs, sponsor a referendum to create a special township tax district to support the towns central business district infrastructure and commercial events.
The draft strategic plan can be viewed at www.tryon-nc.com.