OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE TOWN OF NORMAL
Looking Out 25 years to 2030
Prepared by the Landau & Williams Sub-group (3/26/04 version)
Focus group contributions from Cathy Bissoondial, Shirley Drazewski, Rebecca Landau, Jim Pohlmann, Rod Ruder, Susan Ryder, Jennifer Sedbrook, Pat Turner, and David Williams
Sense of Community
OPPORTUNITY: Create a strong relationship between ISU and
the town. Dovetail activities and planning. Promote the community
as a desirable college town. Promote the town as a college-friendly
town. Make ISU more of an asset than it is now. ISU students should
be warmly welcomed to the community and provided with a full range
of support.
NEED: Town and campus relations are and have been improving.
Need to improve even more. Any existing negatives need to be turned
into positives.
DESCRIPTION: Make students feel welcome. Encourage students to stay
in town. Those that leave can be ambassadors as they leave to work
for corporations, government all over the world. Examine what will
attract student to stay in town, and keeping them here over weekends.
The town for students was Jesse Fell’s legacy!
START UP: Make a strong statement that the town appreciates ISU
and the student community.
OPPORTUNITY: Attract the “Creative Class”
NEED: Attract more of those who have been instrumental in helping
the economies and growth of local communities: artists, professional,
entrepreneurs, tech folks, that value diversity, authenticity, technology
& recreation
DESCRIPTION: Become the “Madison” of Illinois:
- Insure that we have a variety of interesting restaurants to serve this class
- Increase the level of recreational facilities—market Upper Limits, increase winter sports & access, etc.
- Have a “creative” mindset—try new things and take risks!
STARTUP: Help locally owned business start or expand. Examples include the Garlic Press, Crazy Planet, the 2 restored theaters. Work towards more tolerance of people (gays, immigrants, non-religion folks) and have an accepting community.
OPPORTUNITY: Plan as a Region—Peoria to Champaign—may be Springfield
and Decatur
NEED: Businesses have saved billions of dollars through mergers,
acquisitions and partnerships. They have eliminated redundant services
and procedures. Neighboring communities should not be competing
for economic development.
DESCRIPTION: Set up a rapid transportation system within the region.
Work together trying to attract economic development. Seek to combine
facilities in order to have one first class operation, rather than
many average ones. Airport, museums, healthcare, water, education,
etc…
START UP: Start by having joint planning meetings.
OPPORTUNITY: Establish Inter-Community Planning Committees
NEED: To assure that community growth does not take place “at
the expense” of rural neighbors. To capitalize on joint resources
and expertise that benefit neighboring communities
DESCRIPTION: The Town of Normal would establish Inter community
planning committees between itself and neighboring communities especially
where shared resources are involved or where a possible benefit
to both communities could occur due to the collaborative. The committees
would especially serve useful on any project affecting the borders
of the partnering communities.
START UP: Town of Normal would work with current council of mayors
to determine key issues and areas where Inter Community Planning
Committees would be helpful. Assign a task force to assess issues
of interdependency between The Town of Normal and its border communities.
OPPORTUNITY: Help promote communication and understanding
among different ethnic/religious groups by implementing a “mini-exchange
program” for students ages 10-18.
NEED: The demographics of McLean are changing and it is becoming
a much more diverse community. Positive projects that help promote
strong relationships among different sub-communities can help prevent
future problems and go a long way towards really “celebrating diversity.”
DESCRIPTION: In partnership with schools and faith organizations,
create a “mini-exchange” program in which students in McLean County
can spend a weekend or week with another family of a different race
or religious background. Children and teens would be provided with
a great opportunity to learn about another’s culture without having
to travel to another country for a long period of time.
START-UP: The entire program could easily be started in the next
2-3 years.
OPPORTUNITY: Create and become a welcoming community environment
for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons (GLBT).
NEED: Normal added sexual orientation to the list of groups
who cannot be discriminated against in (year?). We need to go further
than this now and create a "gay friendly" community, which will
be attractive to not only GLBT persons, but their families, friends,
and allies as well.
DESCRIPTION: By making ourselves a "gay friendly" community, Normal
will attract a variety of people to town, not just GLBT persons.
People who appreciate and celebrate diversity will be drawn to a
community that is intentionally open and welcoming of all people,
and they will bring their businesses, money, and/or families to
such a town.
START UP: ISU already observes GLBT history and appreciation month
during October of each year. The Town of Normal could begin the
process by coordinating with the Normal Human Relations Commission
and ISU to be a part of this existing observance. In addition, the
town could alter its "Not in Our Town" signs to include a rainbow
or pink triangle - to indicate that we tolerate neither racism or
homophobia (or any "ism" for that matter - including religious and
cultural diversity, not just racism).
Events and Community Organizations
OPPORTUNITY: Widely distribute community event information
NEED: Visitors to our town find it difficult to acquire schedules
of festivals and events that are taking place during their time
in the area.
DESCRIPTION: Festival information inserts typically are distributed
once a year to Pantagraph subscribers; this is inadequate for everyone
concerned, and certainly to visitors. The information should be
printed regularly with a “freshness date” affixed to it and distributed
via mass mailing to postal patrons and placed in local hotels.
STARTUP: Order large quantities of the Pantagraph insert and place
in hotels, the Visitor’s and Convention Bureau and on the Internet.
OPPORTUNITY: Establish a world-class Cultural Exchange Center.
NEED: In an increasingly global world community, It is vital
for small and growing towns such as Normal to gain opportunities
to experience, understand, interact with and celebrate diverse cultures.
DESCRIPTION: The Town of Normal would establish and host a cultural
Exchange Center featuring a museum, library, food court, and conference/meeting
rooms where corporate, educational, and community groups can hold
diversity and tolerance training programs and activities. The Town
needs to recognize the immense cultural diversity of activity that
already exists in the community in isolation and help to facility
its exchange through festivals and the like. A community with many
festivals is a strong community. Consider a family cultural exchange
for a weekend program.
START UP: The Town of Normal will partner with ISU International
House and collaborate with community leaders representing diverse
cultural groups. The Town would host external groups, performers,
musicians, artists, authors, and speakers in keeping with cultural
exchange goals. Community Swaps and option. Cultural Center may
start as an annual week-long event in conjunction with the ISU International
Fair or the Cultural Festival.
OPPORTUNITY: Sponsor Family Fun Weekends in the Park from
Memorial Day to Labor Day during the summers.
NEED: To strengthen families, offering activities that can be
enjoyed together while battling the problem of obesity (especially
in children) sedentary lifestyles.
DESCRIPTION: Normal Parks and Recreation would collaborate with
area business, human service organizations and other interested
organizations to offer a floating fun festival that will rotate
to a different park each weekend. Music, games, equipment, heath
and fitness info, and healthy food and drinks would be distributed
at each free event.
START UP: Recruit interns and volunteer form IWU and ISU Kinesiology,
Health Education, Social Service and other Related departments to
assist with event planning, organization and implementation. Collaborate
with area businesses and not-for profit organizations for Heath
and fitness awareness components.
OPPORTUNITY: Create an annual cultural festival (similar to
Sugar Creek and Corn Fest) that occurs in downtown Normal on a summer
weekend..
NEED: WE are an increasingly diverse community with folks from
a variety of cultural & ethnic backgrounds, but we don’t have much
opportunity to get to know each other and learn about cultures other
than our own—we need to find a way to build bridges between our
varying groups.
DESCRIPTION: The cultural Festival could be set up just like the
existing Sugar Creek and Corn Fest in downtown Normal—focusing on
including ethnic foods, crafts, arts, music, etc.
START UP: Approach and coordinate with Downtown Normal Business
Association to make this become an annual event—begin by inviting
different ethnic foods and artisans to our current festival, then
expand.
OPPORTUNITY: Become the national model for positive collaboration
with community faith based organizations.
NEED: To improve efficiency and effectiveness of human service
delivery by strengthening and encouraging collaborative partnerships
between civic and faith based organizations that are working towards
a common goal
DESCRIPTION: Civic organizations will cultivate and maintain collaborative
relationships with the city's faith based organizations effectively
working to meet a common need.
START UP: Conduct assessment/survey to determine which civic and
faith-based organizations are serving in related human service areas.
Hold forums, round tables etc. to determine current efficiency level
of service delivery and to investigate and implement more efficient
possibilities through joint collaboration.
OPPORTUNITY: Make ISU more accessible to the community at
large
NEED: Downtown development can create a corridor that encompasses
ISU
DESCRIPTION: The cultural opportunities available at ISU are underutilized.
People without ties to ISU are intimidated by campus.
STARTUP: Encourage ISU to “face out” not cluster toward the quad
(i.e. CPA). Find ways to make parking and pedestrian access more
“user friendly”.
OPPORTUNITY: Open, accessible community performing spaces
(in and/or out-of-doors for non-profit music and theatre events
NEED: Few performing places for non-profit performances of community
groups in Normal located in places where the public congregates.
DESCRIPTION: Create open theatre spaces (or all-weather spaces)
in Normal parks, community neighborhood spaces, commercial areas
like downtown Normal or College Hills Mall, that are designed for
low-maintenance, ease of use. As various neighborhood centers are
planned around businesses or parks, integrate performing spaces
into the design. Organizations like the B-N Community Band, for
example, has a difficult time finding no-cost places to perform
where there is a built-in audience.
START UP: Create open performing space in Downtown and in the new
remodeling of College Hills Mall.
Human Services
OPPORTUNITY: Create safe and accessible day/ second/third
shift day care for pre-school children.
NEED: Disadvantaged children are denied educational and safe
pre-k, after school and second/third shift day care because the
costs are prohibitive for their parents. Because many parents, particularly
those working in service jobs are not making a living wage, their
children are placed in substandard care.
DESCRIPTION: Just as our society has made a commitment to quality
and affordable public school education, we must commit to giving
children a wholesome place to be while their parents are at work.
Using the model of Head Start and the ISU day care center for the
children of students, make use of existing facilities (abandoned
schools, empty storefronts, etc.) to create child care centers to
educate and entertain children of all ages. Children without good
day care enter the public school system at a disadvantage, and stay
as such. In order that there be “no child left behind” we must start
sooner.
START UP: Collaborate with the labor unions, schools and local vendors
to build affordable day care facilities close to low-income housing,
mass transit, shopping centers, restaurants and hotels. Staff in
conjunction with the ISU College of Education.
OPPORTUNITY: Develop a facility for the youth of Normal
NEED: To provide a safe, secure location for young people to
gather.
DESCRIPTION: Build a (or use an existing) facility where youth can
participate in healthy exercise, learn new skills, be exposed to
positive adult mentoring, establish good helpful friendships, and
become aware of community services available to them now in the
future.
START UP: Tap the young people of our community to survey what they
believe is needed in a facility designed for use by the youth of
the Town of Normal.
OPPORTUNITY: Create collaborative projects of an intergenerational
nature in town of Normal
NEED: Need to invest time and energy into the full range of
residents of town of Normal by capitalizing on the skills, talents,
gifts, and expertise of our older citizens with much to give to
the community and fill a gap which continues to widen in the lives
of more and more of the very youngest of the town's residents.
DESCRIPTION: Plan for residential area where senior citizens are
provided affordable housing and in turn give hours of service to
other young families who need day care supervision so parents can
be employed in the community work force, surrogate grandparents.
START UP: Identify successful programs of the same nature in other
locations and build on their experience in developing such residential
communities
OPPORTUNITY: Collaborative rather than competitive health
care
NEED: Need to work our way beyond the current competitive relationship(s)
between BroMenn and OSF physicians and hospitals and look to collaborating
on services not duplicating
DESCRIPTION: Find a way to eliminated current duplication of expensive
specialized health-care services between local medical groups and
eliminate restrictions on physicians attending patients only in
their preferred hospitals. More projects like the Community Cancer
Center need to be established as models of community cooperate ventures,
rather than competitive solutions that restrict patient choice.
START UP: Find another project like the Cancer Center, perhaps a
geriatric care center, that will further the collaborative community
model started by the Cancer Center.
OPPORTUNITY: Public Dental Care Facility
NEED: To provide access to dental care to families in the Town
of Normal with low income. To minimize time off from work and school
for dental emergencies by providing preventive care for uninsured
adults with low income.
DESCRIPTION: Using the Franklin Avenue Community Care Clinic as
a guide, the Town of Normal would provide a facility where local
dentist, orthodontist, etc. can donate services to care for eligible
low income families
START UP: Town of Normal would work with the McLean County Health
Dept., Scott Center and dental care professionals to establish a
network of participating care providers.
OPPORTUNITY: Continue to provide healthcare to those individuals
in need, who are underserved and/or do not have access to health
insurance
NEED: Medical services which can act as primary care provider
to above populations.
DESCRIPTION: The city will support Social Service agencies by collaboration
with and by funding clinics such as the Community Health Care Clinic.
We currently have 4000 patients---approximately 20% from Normal.
START UP: As above, Physicians and Hospitals need to support which
they do. Town of Normal need to lobby for this and show appreciations.
Community awareness could lead to funding. Goal: keep the doors
open, continue mission.
OPPORTUNITY: Serve the homeless
NEED: There are currently no beds in our shelters that enable
families to remain together.
DESCRIPTION: Currently all shelters are faith-based. Clusters of
small studios around parks, close to social services, staffed by
service learning organizations.
STARTUP: Redevelop older student apartment complexes that are being
underutilized because of new development
OPPORTUNITY: Gleaning & greening the Town of Normal
NEED: To put to good use excess food from businesses, farms
and community gardens – to eliminate poverty-related hunger and
malnutrition in B-N
DESCRIPTION: The Town of Normal will provide funding to area food
cooperatives (i.e. Harvest of Hope Committee, Midwest Food Bank)
to provide for a transportation system and food storage facility
fit for handling gleaned perishable and nonperishable goods and
for distributing the collected items to not for profit food distributors
serving area families.
STARTUP: Provide area businesses with information regarding the
Good Samaritan Act. Provide incentives to “donors”—farmers who make
available items for gleaning and greening
OPPORTUNITY: The working poor of this community will be given
maximum opportunities to live a satisfying life, and possess a feeling
of being valued for their contributions to our community and ourselves.
NEED: Primarily service workers, the community needs to ensure
these individuals have access to affordable healthcare, affordable
housing, affordable transportation options, and other basic "life
needs". The goal would be to attempt to "elevate" and/or incorporate
these individuals more into the mainstream, if they so choose.
DESCRIPTION: Research what specific issues this population struggles
with, and go from there. Consider such efforts as the Living Wage
program, but keep in mind that this still does not provide benefits
to these workers, so many of the problems remain. City should work
closely with Townships to assess needs and create solutions.
START UP: Identify methods to ensure service workers are being treated
fairly by their employers. This would entail some datacollection
techniques to assess what exactly is happening in the work
force within our community. Seek information from the social service
agencies, hospitals, clinics and other charitable organizations
who can give insight into the specific problems this population
faces. Important: Also need to determine what difficulties and/or
challenges the organizations who do attempt to service them face,
and why. Then, support these organizations to the best of our ability.
OPPORTUNITY: Establish Immigrant Welcome Center
NEED: To minimize challenges brought about because of the increase
of undocumented aliens working and residing in the Town of Normal
DESCRIPTION: Establish a Center staffed with interpreters, tax and
immigration professionals where non -citizens can obtain information
on legalizing their stay in Normal either on a temporary or permanent
basis.
START UP: The Town of Normal will partner with businesses that legally
hire non-citizens to provide time during the work day for immigrant
workers to be informed about and complete necessary documents to
legalize their stay in the city.
OPPORTUNITY: To become national leaders in providing human
service to Males.
NEED: Human services that are sensitive to and cater to needs
of males in the community that are experiencing crisis.
DESCRIPTION: New and existing human service organizations will be
cultivated, and maintained that will be sensitive to and address
the needs of males in the community that are experiencing crisis
such as homelessness, single parenthood, post abortion trauma, health
crisis, etc. These organizations will collaborate to assure access
for males to community services.
START UP: Assess current needs and related services geared toward
males. Review program policies for potential hindrances to access
of needed services. Identify and provide care in top five need areas.
OPPORTUNITY: Provide a resource to help people in the Town
of Normal deal with the anger present in their lives.
NEED: More and more people in our midst have mounds of anger
seething under the surface. Many problems might be avoided if the
anger issues were addressed before they escalated out of control.
DESCRIPTION: In areas of the community which show incidence of activity
precipitated by anger, establish a program to teach anger management
and ways to keep from reaching that point.
START UP: Investigate programs already in place and evaluate their
success and effectiveness. Look for areas in which they are lacking
and address those needs.
Education
OPPORTUNITY: Expand the school presence in our area neighborhoods
NEED: To increase sense of school as integral component of the
neighborhood and encourage residents to continue to feel a vested
interest in their schools
DESCRIPTION: This program (or philosophy) would actively seek to
identify residents in areas around a school who might not feel in
any way connected to school. These individuals would be invited
into the school building, before, during and after school.
START UP: Identify needs of residents in areas surrounding our schools
and begin to brainstorm services, programs, resources they might
need to avail themselves of.
OPPORTUNITY: Insure that all children are ready for school
and are reading at grade level by 3rd grade.
NEED: Research indicates that children who enter school healthy
and ready to learn and then are reading by third grade are much
less likely to fail and drop out of school and have other problems,
such as drug use and unplanned pregnancy.
DESCRIPTION: Insure that all children, from birth through 8, are
provided with low/no cost preventative health care, affordable and
quality child care, access to early education opportunities such
as preschool, full day Kindergarten and other early literacy efforts.
Specific projects that have been successful in other areas include:
(1) tax on tobacco products that are earmarked for early childhood
education (Proposition 10 which created county Children and Families
First Commissions in CA); (2) private, employer-sponsored child
care (several counties and states); and (3)Universal Preschool (
La Crosse county in WI, San Mateo County in CA) .
START-UP: Implement several award-winning programs with proven results
in other counties and states:
- Raising A Reader program, designed to help children be prepared for school through a take home book bag program in child care centers, preschools and in-home day care settings.
- Reach Out and Read – Developmentally appropriate books and educational messages provided to parents and their children by physicians at each well-child visit from birth through age 5.
- Parenting the First Year- monthly, age-paced newsletter prepared by pediatricians at the University of Wisconsin for new parents to help them understand the developmental milestones in their baby’s first year and appropriate ways to respond.
- Explore a designated source of funds to help implement these ideas and move towards universal health care and preschool.
OPPORTUNITY: Create a Walk to School Safely Program in our
community
NEED: To provide children a safe and healthy opportunity for
getting to school and increase a sense of neighborhood culture while
helping both the environment and children's health.
DESCRIPTION: This program provides children with a safe and healthy
method of getting to school. A parent or adult volunteer from the
neighborhood community accompanies a group of students along designated
safe routes. The designated adult supervisor "picks up" each student,
house by house, on foot, somewhat like a "walking school bus".
START UP: Provide safe, well-maintained walkways separate from vehicles
and identify safe routes for children to get to school in our community.
OPPORTUNITY: Create access to public school/before school/after
school events for all students and their families
NEED: To remove hindrances to school access for students and
their families (especially low income) at times when school bus
transportation is not available. To build greater collaboration
between school and family so that all families have opportunities
to give input at policy meetings held at schools.
DESCRIPTION: The Town of Normal will redirect bus service to assure
that bus routes touch each public school at times conducive to before
and after school events
STARTUP: Extend existing bus service to include all area public
schools. Negotiate routes to eliminate lengthy trips and multiple
transfers. Assure bi-directional access to and from area schools.
OPPORTUNITY: Using the model of the ISU student day care center,
create subsidized, safe and accessible day care for pre-school children
NEED: As full day kindergartens lose funding, the gap should
be closed by the university and the town
DESCRIPTION: There must be found a way to supply safe and educational
day care to low-income workers. By protecting very small children
from social problems and educating them, they will be more prepared
for school. The community needs to ensure that there is affordable
and quality 0-to-4-aged community support services.
STARTUP: Collaborate with unions, schools and vendors to build day
care facilities close to low-income housing. Use the Habitat model
Shopping and Commercial Services
OPPORTUNITY: Collaborative growth
NEED: Work with major employers to create “villages” – clusters
of offices, vendors, residences.
DESCRIPTION: Incentives could be given to commercial organizations
that locate in the heart of the town rather than on the Parkway.
STARTUP: BroMenn and ISU already have campus master plans—they should
be dovetailed.
OPPORTUNITY: Provide active and impressive downtown area not
only for residents but college students and visitors.
NEED: Downtown area needs to thrive. Attempt to change current
“look”
DESCRIPTION: I envision specialty shops, coffee houses and other
stores that ISU students may have access to and want to go to. This
is a must for college towns.
START UP: It has begun-----continue. Demolition is a start. Children’s
museum good—but, again, I think we want to entice the students and
their families here. We just visited Ann Arbor—great city close
to campus—and it was great to participate as a parent.
Housing Development
OPPORTUNITY: Efficient land use and preservation of farmland.
NEED: The need to feed a growing world population.
DESCRIPTION: (1)Give incentives to redevelop older neighborhoods.
Current rules make it easier to develop farmland than to redevelop.
Redevelopments often have to comply with new subdivision codes and
fees that are impractical. (2) Encourage Quality Density. Quality
density is more expensive to build than sprawl. Give incentives.
(3) Current emphasis on “token” green space is a waste of land.
Green space in parking lots, roadways, etc only makes destinations
further apart and increases reliance on automobiles. Development
should be pedestrian friendly.
START UP: Need to reexamine current codes. Encourage a quality density
development that can be a model.
OPPORTUNITY: Establish new neighborhoods that are characterized
by a sense of community, easy access to goods and services, green
space.
NEED: To revive the kind of traditional neighborhood that provides
a sense of security and closeness, has a diverse demographic, and
decreases the reliance on automobile transportation.
DESCRIPTION: By following the guidelines already established for
traditional neighborhood design, build in design review and incentives
for developers to adhere to this method of development. Revisit
zoning laws so that mixed-use is encouraged. New subdivisions should
be close to and encourage within them vendors for food, entertainment,
shopping, recreation. They should be pedestrian-friendly. All subdivisions
should be designed in collaboration with public transportation,
school accessibility and should connect to the Constitution Trail.
START-UP: Revise current zoning restrictions on mixed use. Collaborate
with a homebuilder to build a showcase “small house”. Hold a series
of public forums to educate on the drawbacks of sprawl, not just
in terms of land use, but in terms of the isolation that results
and the dependence on automobile transportation.
OPPORTUNITY: Create a Regional Housing and Land Preservation
Trust Fund in order to dedicate a continuous source of revenue for
affordable housing for McLean County.
NEED: The need to establish and preserve strong neighborhoods, provide
affordable homes and preserve green space and agricultural land
without contributing to sprawl.
DESCRIPTION: A Regional Housing and Land Preservation Trust Fund
established through private and public efforts would provide a reliable
funding stream to build and support affordable housing and preserve
green space. Ideally, this regional effort would partner with farmers,
developers, affordable housing advocates, cities and towns to insure
the funds, process and vision needed to manage the anticipated growth
of McLean County.
START-UP: Begin Fund for Bloomington-Normal area and then expand
to County.
Transportation
OPPORTUNITY: Create inter-urban “trolley” or “people mover”
system to provide 24x7 energy-efficient transportation networks
around Normal and the small communities adjacent to Normal
NEED: Need alternative, low-cost public transportation system
that quickly moves people around the Normal area and brings people
in outlying areas in to Normal for work and for commerce.
DESCRIPTION: Some type of state-of-the-art, mass-transit system
that runs 24x7 and is accessible throughout the Normal areas for
minimal cost to the rider-ship. Most likely should be a regional,
metro system that includes Bloomington and all surrounding communities
as far out as Lexington and McLean/Atlanta. This must be combined
with education and incentives (or automobile disincentives) that
strongly encourage its use over autos. The system could be combined
with parallel expansion of bike paths to connecting communities
and right of ways.
START UP: Establish a regional planning committee to bring the key
players together to begin long-range planning. Expansion of the
bike paths and providing public bikes (like those in Madison, WI
or Copenhagen) could be a first step.
OPPORTUNITY: Twenty-four hour, seven day a week public transportation
system that connects Town subdivisions.
NEED: A transportation system that efficiently serves this community
which is rapidly sprawling and increasing in population, allowing
for increased mobility for families, reducing the burden of School
systems and their bus programs, and allowing access to places of
weekend worship sites for families without private transportation.
DESCRIPTION: Public busses, city trains, shuttle services and the
like will provide 24-hr seven day a week service to all areas within
city limits.
START UP: Expand current city bus service to include Sunday service.
Assure all routes have no more that a 30 minute wait between runs.
OPPORTUNITY: Create a shuttle transportation service for area
campuses
NEED: Eliminate unnecessary student traffic congestion while
allowing for campus to campus collaboration
DESCRIPTION: Special route public buses will be made available to
B-N campuses with a circuit that makes strategic stops at campus
buildings. Service would be free to actively enrolled students of
either college or university and available for fee to riders without
campus affiliation.
STARTUP: Recruit and train work-study students according to guidelines
for a license appropriate to bus driving.
OPPORTUNITY: Expand constitution trail to Lake Bloomington
and other communities
NEED: linear park space for exercise, transportation, and recreation.
DESCRIPTION: Create a web of bike trails that is as efficient or
more efficient than our road network. On main routes, build bridges
over busy streets, current routes follow open spaces. New routes
should connect major destinations. Create protected street bike
lines to connect to the trail network.
START UP: Purchase right-of-ways before its too late.
OPPORTUNITY: Become the national model for Pedestrian Awareness
and Safety and Wheel Chair Mobility.
NEED: As the Town of Normal continues it's rapid growth and
expansion, it will experience an increase in pedestrian and wheelchair
traffic.
DESCRIPTION: Normal will modify traffic light timing, regulate or
provide snow removal for public side walks, regulate snow removal
for private side walks, and implement laws as well as awareness
training opportunities that encourage safe mobility for pedestrian
and wheelchair users.
START UP: Assess the town for current Hindrances to pedestrian safety
and mobility. Collaborate with Area organizations working with aging,
disabled, or pedestrian populations such as Life-Cil, YWCA, or People
First.
Town Infrastructure
OPPORTUNITY: Merging of the Twin Cities and Schools. Become
a real player in the Heartland and get more projects, services,
etc. done by consolidating many of our public services.
NEED: Rather than have 2 downtowns struggling to survive, merge
into one bigger city and eliminate waste of 23 city staff, 2 councils,
etc. Neither city is really big enough to be the best in can be
without the other.
DESCRIPTION: Consolidate our public services (libraries, trash,
transportation) to save $ and plan more on a regional basis—at least
with Bloomington and Normal together).
STARTUP: Start to consolidate one aspect – libraries?- and then
plan from there. The $ saved could go into bigger, visionary projects.
OPPORTUNITY: Planning for the Town’s infrastructure (water,
sewer, streets, etc.)
NEED: Update along with the town’s growth
DESCRIPTION: When projects are being contemplated such as the downtown,
refurbish or replace old water and sewer services. Work with the
City of Bloomington. Do we need separate water and sewer departments?
STARTUP:
OPPORTUNITY: Create a Regional Housing and Land Preservation
Trust Fund in order to dedicate a continuous source of revenue for
affordable housing for McLean County.
NEED: The need to establish and preserve strong neighborhoods,
provide affordable homes and preserve green space and agricultural
land without contributing to sprawl.
DESCRIPTION: A Housing Trust Fund established through private and
public efforts would provide a reliable funding stream to build
and support affordable housing and preserve green space. Ideally,
this regional effort would partner with farmers, developers, affordable
housing advocates, cities and towns to insure a neighborhoods, affordable
homes, preserve green space and agricultural and by (text scrambled
in here)
Technology
OPPORTUNITY: Create an electronic village within the Town
of Normal with Internet access (wired and wireless) in public areas,
schools, and all residences within the community
NEED: The need to expand community interaction and collaboration
into the digital or electronic domain; and the need to eliminate
any "digital divide" within the community.
DESCRIPTION: The Town would work with the ISU, the State, and telecommunications
vendors to provide Internet access as part of the Town's basic utility
services to its residents and provide free public access in meeting
areas, parks, consumer business areas, and schools. An e-mail address
(e.g., dave.williams@normal.il.us) could be provided every resident
of the town who wants one. The Town network would provide the infrastructure
for an array of online services for the community and forums for
interaction.
STARTUP: Provide free wireless service throughout the downtown Normal
area; provide Town e-mail addresses. Take advantage of not-for-profit,The
Fibre Authority project being developed with support from Bloomington,
State Farm, Senator Bill Brady, Dave LaLande, and others, to provide
low-cost, large bandwidth fibre access as a Wide Area Network within
the community and connected to the Internet.