Mayor Underscores Importance of Public Participation to Initiative
Fort Wayne, Ind. – As promised, Mayor Tom Henry and the Legacy Fort Wayne Task
Force today announced that all of the input gathered during the community-engagement phase of Legacy Fort Wayne has now been posted online. The information can be accessed at www.LegacyFortWayne.org under the Task Force heading on the navigation bar.
Legacy Fort Wayne has stimulated thousands of discussions and comments throughout the community with nearly 900 ideas being formally submitted to the Task Force. More than a dozen different methods, both traditional and digital, were used to collect the suggestions.
“With the launch of Legacy Fort Wayne, I invited the public to join in a conversation about the future of the Fort Wayne Community Trust and City Light Lease Settlement funds,” said Mayor Henry. “The challenge was clear: look to the future, think long term, be bold. You took it on with enthusiasm, and we captured all that was proposed. Today, as promised, every one of those ideas, thoughts and comments has been published on the website.”
Mayor Henry made community involvement the centerpiece of Legacy Fort Wayne. The entire month of March was devoted to securing the ideas of Fort Wayne residents.
The community-engagement component encompassed seven open public forums, five specific audience meetings, group proposals, Meetups, Feedback Fort Wayne, the website’s Idea Form, telephone calls, e-mails, U.S. Mail, hand delivery, Facebook, 311 – One Call To City Hall, and the Mayor’s Night In.
“The Task Force and I extend a big thank you to the entire city for accepting the Legacy Fort Wayne invitation and getting involved in his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” added Mayor Henry. “Every idea from the public has now become part of the community discussion about how we should invest our $77 million legacy. Each will be considered thoughtfully. These unique resources are a treasure that can strengthen Fort Wayne for generations to come and better position our area for economic growth.”
Over the next month, at the request of the Task Force, City of Fort Wayne Planning and Policy staff will sort and group all of the “raw” ideas and proposals by impact areas and compare them to the Legacy Fort Wayne guiding principles. The data will then be incorporated into a matrix to show their correlation to the priority criteria.
The Task Force will review and analyze all of the information during May and June. Future work will include the establishment of a scoring or ranking system for the ideas. Further research may be employed during this period to gain additional insight, refine concepts and determine preliminary feasibility. A report from the Task Force is anticipated to be completed by midsummer.
All of the public input assembled during the community involvement piece of Legacy Fort Wayne is being considered by the Task Force as the members formulate the recommendations they will make to the Mayor and share with Fort Wayne City Council.
Formed by Mayor Henry, Legacy Fort Wayne is the civic initiative to guide decision making about the Fort Wayne Community Trust and City Light Lease Settlement funds.
While Legacy Fort Wayne will unfold over the next several months, the two funds will not become available until the settlement agreement has received the approval of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
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