Cheney Mayor Allan Gainer discovered the city is headed in a positive direction when he attended a community-based planning seminar in Seattle May 18 - 19.
During the seminar, he learned that in terms of obtaining community involvement for rewriting the comprehensive plan, the city is doing the right thing.
“We're on the right track,” Gainer said.
He added that Cheney needs to create provisions in the comp plan for dealing with problems, like laid off citizens. With help from the state, he said those people could be retrained in lieu of anticipated or current labor needs. An example would be the possible need created by the light industrial and research park currently being built on West First Street.
Gainer said he would like to see services offered to displaced workers that live in and want to stay in Cheney. The ideal presented during the seminar is modeled after the “No Worker Left Behind” program that is currently in place in Michigan.
Under the program, the city meets with businesses to learn what type of worker they need. People out of work can be eligible for “retooling” to meet the needs of businesses unable to find qualified employees.
Gainer said he wants the retraining ideal added as part of the comp plan to meet the demands of future businesses, especially those going into the new Cheney business park. He said inevitably those new businesses will be looking for certain types of skills.
The retraining would be sponsored by the state.
A lot of fixing problems in a city is just looking at local businesses. Gainer said the seminar provided information on the types of businesses and what they do for a city. It's not only recognizing the business itself, but also the business's contribution to the city.
For example, there are micro businesses that maybe earn enough to simply survive, and small businesses may only earn enough to provide a living, but the owner won't get rich. Those differ from innovators, who create a new idea. While the innovator may move on to other endeavors, their ideas remain and someone embraces that idea and takes it further. A venture has a “cookie-cutter” approach manufacturing large amounts of products with a large staff.
“To function you need all these in your community,” Gainer said.
The seminar pointed out how micro and small businesses would work best in downtown because the rent is cheaper due to the low volume of foot traffic. Gainer said he wants to change the amount of foot traffic in downtown, while encouraging new businesses at the light industrial park.
He added that all business types identified in the seminar have pluses and minuses for what they can do for a community.
Another issue Gainer has new insight on is housing in Cheney.
“We have all the ear marks of a bedroom community,” he said, referring to the number of rentals compared to the number of single-family residences in Cheney.
Another idea he took from the seminar is gaining input from critics. He said he wants to see Cheney become a self-sustaining community, but there are those opposed to the idea. He said some “nay-sayers” in the city are telling him “leave it alone, it's fine the way it is.”
Community-based communication encourages critics of new ideas to bring up their concerns and work it out rather than fighting the city. Through their opposing point of view, they can offer a different perspective. Gainer said the city needs to embrace teamwork and use partnerships.
Gainer said he plans to meet with City Administrator Arlene Fisher, and community development director Brian Jennings to exchange ideas to move toward adding the new ideas to make the best comp plan.
“I want to take time and do it right,” Gainer said.
David Teller can be reached at [email protected]
Reader Comments(0)