COLUMN: What’s the plan?

Having owned a manufacturers’ representative firm for over twenty years, that lesson has been demonstrated to me more than once. As buying habits, marketing responses, and lifestyles change, the way you reach your customers and, ultimately, their customers has to change, as well, or you’ll be left behind.

If you never leave this area for longer than a day, perhaps you are not aware of the towns throughout the country, much less the state, that are experiencing growth in the same stagnant economy that has halted progress here. They are looking beyond business-as-usual as they seek solutions to the ills that face their communities. The most successful ones are those that are looking to their communities to offer suggestions and new ideas. They are involving the community in ways they haven’t in years, if ever, as they develop programs to put people back to work and get the dollars flowing again.

It is no secret that Barrow County’s preservation community was dealt a blow last week when the Winder City Council voted to reject a half-million dollar matching grant that would have helped toward the restoration of The Granite Hotel. The members of the council apologized as they expressed concern that friendships and longtime relationships were rooted solely in the outcome of that vote. That was more disappointing than the outcome of the vote. I’ve known most of these men all or most of my life and while we don’t agree with each other on every issue be it civic, church, or personal, you are still my friends and I value that relationship more than anything. For the record, I don’t envy any of our elected leadership the task of trying to please everyone all the time. We live in difficult times. Our local elected officials are being affected by the atmosphere of distrust that has permeated the relationships between the elected and the people they were elected to serve. It isn’t a pretty picture and doesn’t look to get better anytime soon so long as business as usual is the order of the day.

So who’s to blame for all this? Got a mirror handy? Too many of us fail to get involved in local government beyond casting a ballot and some don’t even bother with that. But they are the first to criticize and the most vocal on the local blogs or at the corner store. There’s very little constructive substance to any of the blogs I’ve seen – usually comments to a local news story – and most of those are probably authored by the same five people hiding behind different screen names from which they spew their vitriol.

Meanwhile, our local officials – good friends though they may be – are not pure as the driven snow on the topic of who’s to blame. Holding meetings at the end of the work day during supper time and on Wednesday church night is sending the message to the community that you really don’t want their input. You need the input of the community worse now than ever as you work to find solutions to the financial impasse facing our town and county.

What would be wrong with local officials scheduling weekly “meet the community” events at local restaurants or gathering places within their respective districts? Schedule them for different days of the week and varying times of day, publish the schedule a month in advance, and encourage your constituents to come with their questions and ideas? Your constituents won’t feel like they’re intruding on your work or home schedules and will feel that you are open to their thoughts. Look at your scheduled meeting times/ days. Bite the bullet, inconvenience yourself once a month and change the meetings to be more inviting to the people who elected you. Encourage their involvement rather than their criticism and suspicion.

And, for cryin’ out loud, make a plan for the future and stop flying by the seat of your pants. It’s wearing really thin with the voters. Until people recognize a real plan to address the issues facing our community, they will continue to believe it’s business as usual around here.

You’ve got some good folks with a lot to contribute to the overall good of the community. If you’re smart, you’ll put them to work; stop marginalizing and patronizing them. The wagon is mired up to the wheel hub and you’re waving off everybody who can help.

It’s time for a change in the way business is being done around here and, gentlemen, that is your call.

Helen Person is a Winder resident and columnist for the Barrow Journal. You can reach her at helenperson@windstream.net.