First Huntingburg listening session successful; second in series tonight

About 20 citizens attended, along with several City Council members and Huntingburg Mayor Denny Spinner, the first of three listening sessions the city is holding to receive input from its citizens.

Mayor Spinner kicked off the session by explaining that the information gathered would be used to help re-assess the City’s comprehensive plan to make sure that the correct priorities were being addressed by the administration.

Brothers-Bridge set the ground rules and then opened up the session to suggestions of things that the city should be working on.

Items brought up by citizens included the continued topic of dilapidated and unkempt properties in the city; the need to provide better communications from the city departments to residents; the need to enforce ordinances that are on the books; and one citizen brought up the number of u-turns that take place on 4th Street.

After around 50 items were written down on large pieces of paper, those paper were attached to the wall and attendees were given adhesive dots to put on what they thought were the most important items.

The items with the most dots were discussed. Those items will be given to the Mayor for he and the council to work on as priorities.

In attendance at the meeting was former Mayor Connie Nass. I think these are great. I did the same when I was mayor and it was very successful in pointing out some things where we would have made a mistake, she said.

Mayor Denny Spinner was upbeat about the first session. “I was encouraged by the number of ideas that were put out there,” he said. “It’s important for myself and the council to see.”

Spinner says that they are taking the results from these sessions seriously. “We intend this to be action steps,” he explained. “We take these ideas; look at the priorities the citizens are identifying; and put them into action as part of our comprehensive plan.”

The next session is Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. at the Southwest School Administration building. The final session is Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Huntingburg Events Center.