Where the City of Greenwood currently stands and priorities for the near and long-term future have been laid out for residents to look at.
The city’s 2024 Corporate Strategic Plan was the topic of discussion at the second town hall meeting on Jan. 29 at the McArthur Centre. Dean Trumbley, the city’s CAO led the presentation, which described the reasons for a plan, the process of creating a plan, what it means for Greenwood's services and assets and the steps that need to be taken to protect and improve services and assets.
In short, a strategic plan is a process to define an organization’s direction, guide, decision-making and better support collaboration between council and staff towards completing goals, explained Trumbley.
“This plan confirms the City of Greenwood’s vision and objectives in moving towards the ideal future,” he said. “This plan is meant to be a living document that evolves over time as projects are completed and the needs of the municipality shift. The most important part of objectives is they need to be measured because, at the end of the day, the real boss of Greenwood is the taxpayer because you are the ones that give us money to provide a service in return, but we also have a duty to present accountability and transparency of how that money was spent.”
That plan outlines six strategic priorities the city will be focusing on in the near future: fire protection, including training, recruitment and equipment; water systems, including mapping and staged replacements; sewage treatment, including increasing capacity; building infrastructure, which will involve centralizing public works and FireSmart initiatives; communication avenues that increase, diversify and update methods and governance, which includes updates, the Official Community Plan and asset management.
Looking at some of the details, Trumbley said on fire protection, it’s no secret the city’s fire department is in need of upgrades to improve recruitment and protection. Specifically, the city will need to procure another fire truck to replace the oldest one which dates back to the 1980s. However, even a used and still serviceable truck will cost around $250,000. As well, more training is needed to get existing firefighters up to speed, as well as improvements to the fire hall.
Coming this fall will be the construction of the city’s new water reservoir, as well as replacing lift station No. 1.
In building infrastructure, one key element is the curling rink, currently closed. Trumbley said he would like to see it revamped not just for winter use, but upgraded as a year-round venue.
For communication, Trumbley admitted the city hasn’t been keeping up with informing the public over the past couple of years, so it is implementing several strategies involving print, face-to-face, telephone and online.
“We are doing a multi-generational approach,” he said. “Boomers and Gen-X, we like to talk face-to-face and read and write on paper. Millennials and Gen-Z are more online, so we are going to make it easy for everyone to access information.”
In governance, the city is moving to an e-subscribe system so people can access council meeting minutes as soon as they are approved two weeks after a council meeting. They are also updating bylaws, completing the Official Community Plan and renovating the office to address Freedom of Information and Protection Act issues.
He pointed out that as of the 2021 Census, there are 702 people residing in Greenwood, with 375 private homes. Out of that population base, the city collected $872,000 in tax revenue, which has to be invested in maintaining city assets and programs.
Tax revenue isn’t nearly enough for the city to afford to pay for servicing and maintaining city assets and programs, according to Trumbley. He pointed out that in that case, they rely on nonprofit groups.
“In a small city like ours, nonprofit groups are 100 per cent essential,” he said. “We can’t run things like the library, recreation or economic development because we don’t have a big enough tax base.”
To achieve the goals, they have an action plan with six priority areas: progress tracking, strategy action alignment, actions aligned to departments, organizational capacity, plan foundation, and resource prioritization. A timeline for the action plan and projects completed were listed as either short-term (one to two years,) medium-term (three to five years) or long-term (five or more years.)
The next steps said Trumbley, will be incorporating the plan’s actions into annual operational planning and reporting so they can keep guiding decision-making and that will include strategic planning, operational planning, annual budgeting process, implementation and performance measures.
Copies of the strategic plan are available at city hall.