He says the first meeting on the plan is next month.
Frederick, Md (KM) It’s an opportunity for Frederick residents to determine their city’s future. During his public information briefing on Monday, Mayor Michael O’Connor said citizens have an opportunity to help draft a strategic plan. T
The plan will identity and rank the important issues and priorities of the city. The document will be used to help guide the city of Frederick when it drafts its budget and puts together future plans. “We need to know what is most important to you and what could be even better,” says a entry on the city’s website.
The first in a series of meetings called Community Engagement Series–Visions and Goals will take place on January 7th at Monocacy Middle School beginning at 7:00 PM. Other meetings will be held at Butterfly Ridge Elementary Schools on Tuesday, January 8th at 7:00 PM; AOPA on Buckheimer Road on Saturday, January 12th at 9:00 AM; the Bernard Brown Community Center, 629 North Market Street in Frederick at 7:00 PM; and the Burck Street Community Center at 413 Burck Street on Tuesday, January 22nd at 7:00 PM. The snow dates are January 28th and 29th, with locations to be determined as needed.
These meetings will decide strategic plan’s visions and objectives.
The scheduled, as posted on the city’s website, calls for or the plan to drafted between March and May, 2019, with final draft and adoption in the summer.
During his public information briefing, Mayor O’Connor said the whole process depends on public participation. “To make this meaningful vision, we want everyone to be involved. And we will, through the course of this process with surveys and other mechanisms, provide an opportunity to really weigh in on this process,” he said.
For more information, contact Marc DeOcampo, the Executive Assistant for Administration, at 301-600-1184.
On another topic, Mayor O’Connor reminded residents that bulk trash pickup will resume next year. But it won’t be the same as it was years ago. “This program will require our residents to take some of the responsibility by picking up the phone and scheduling a date that’s convenient for them based on their normal trash collection date,” he said. “And the city will provide pickup services to their curbside.”
On the issue of roads, the Mayor said groundbreaking took place in the fall on the segment of Christophers Crossing across the Sanner Farm from Opposumtown Pike to Pool Jones Road. That project is expected to be completed in 2020. “A completion date for the center section of Monocacy Boulevard from Gas House Pike to Church Street is getting closer. We are still on target in expecting that occur this spring. That’s good news. The project has stayed so far on the time line that we had set,” he says.
The Mayor also reminded citizens that yard waste collection, leaves and grass clippings, will be take place on the same day as their normal household trash collection. “The word that we were getting was that the previous practice of allowing our residents to rake leaves into the street was simply not good for the stormwater system and wasn’t good for the environment and it wasn’t good for our permit,” he said. “So all of those things together provided an opportunity to look ‘is there another way to provide the service?’ So we went to the weekly yard waste collection.”
By Kevin McManus