Strategic planning session sets direction for Laurel’s future

LAUREL — A Helen Keller quote sums things up perfectly.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

The quote explains the goals behind the Community planning session held Tuesday, March 23 at the Laurel City Auditorium.

Community Strategic planning meetings are held to assist communities in identifying the areas of interest or needs/wants in their town, and gives the residents a chance to share their voices.

There were 30 people in attendance, including the Planning Meeting facilitator’s, Nicole Sedlacek from NPPD and Jan Merrill and Andrea Larson from Northeast Nebraska Economic Development District.

With the help of these community partners, a new priorities list was created.

The meeting began with a recap of the 2019 Strategic Planning meeting, and of the 11 priorities set at that time, five of them are currently in-process and on their way to being completed.

These five include the new Community Center which will also house the new Senior Citizens Center; Early Childhood; Firehall/EMT building, and Downtown Streets, Sidewalks and Sewer infrastructure.

The new planning list includes:

Housing – All types of housing were mentioned including but not limited to Senior housing, more affordable housing; more rental housing; taking out dilapidated homes and dealing with nuisance properties.

Investment in Youth – which included Early Childhood care and learning, Before–and–After School programs, the LCC School Bond, and getting the youth more involved on Community Boards and committees;

Parks and Recreation improvements such as bike trails; a splash pad; ball fields with parking; and expanded walking trails also made the list of potential improvements here.

Attraction of new business/industry and having a space for small new business ventures was also listed as necessities.

Tourism – making more opportunities to bring more people to town was also listed.

Infrastructure improvements were also listed as a top interest and included streets, wells, utilities and technology.

Dan Kuhlman was present and provided information for the updates American Broadband is making for Laurel, and those will be complete in the next two-three weeks.

Mayor Keith Knudsen updated the group that formal plans are in the works to repair Laurel’s streets and update the utility systems.

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