Dothan commission talks water, traffic, jobs

For the fourth consecutive year, Dothan city officials sat down over three days and talked the future.

During a closing long-range planning session with Florida consultant Lyle Sumek of Sumek & Associates, each commissioner prioritized their concerns as they identified challenges, opportunities and an action plan for the upcoming year and beyond.

City officials met with Sumek and City Manager Mike West Saturday morning finalizing their plans which will be available for view in a few weeks. District 2 Commissioner Amos Newsome did not attend the meeting because of an illness.

West said the annual meetings are valuable because they give city leaders the opportunity to speak about any issues they want to bring up, and it gives the city a chance to set workable goals for accomplishment.

“We’ve been doing these since 2006 and they are great,” West said. “We have seven very different people on the commission and we go through a process to sit down and discuss it.

“We establish a plan not just for the next year, but one that goes long after that."

West recently released a list of city accomplishments which he said were achieved as a direct result of this process.

Mayor Mike Schmitz said several items are emerging as major project priorities.

“Long-term water supply, transportation — that is, easing the congestion on the Circle and 231 — getting jobs, and working with the schools in the area of preparing the future workforce,” Schmitz said. “That’s what we’ve had a lot of discussion about."

Officials went into the process by having individual interviews with Sumek, identifying:

1. Items that did and did not get done during the past year.
2. Strategies to reach short- and long-term goals.
3. Identifying challenges and opportunities for the city over the next five years.
4. Top three priorities for 2010.
5. Suggestions for increasing commission effectiveness.

The planning process also involved key staff and department heads.

Discussions ran the gamut, from creating better paying jobs as an opportunity to allow native sons and daughters to return to Dothan one day to retaining local businesses and improving mobility by adding trails, sidewalks, and bike lanes and addressing the public’s needs for improved public transit.

Some of the priorities, like completing the next phase of construction of Ross Clark Circle from near the U.S. 231 intersection to Highway 52, requires the city to keep the project on the Alabama Department of Transportation’s calendar.

Other priorities, like the Highway 53/Cottonwood Road Ardilla intersection, are currently under construction.

Once the list is complete, District 5 Commissioner Taylor Barbaree said the objectives need to be posted in various areas of the city so the community becomes aware of the direction and priorities of the city.