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  • Good Hope mayor Corey Harbison, right, talks with council members Tuesday at a NARCOG-hosted work session called to help students from Alabama A&M University develop a 10year comprehensive plan for the city. Benjamin Bullard

    City to form 10-year plan

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February 2, 2012

Good Hope embarks on effort to form 10-year plan

Alabama A&M enlisted to lead study through arrangement with NARCOG

By Benjamin Bullard The Cullman Times

GOOD HOPE — The city of Good Hope has three months to form a clearer picture of what it wants to become over the next 10 years.

Council members representing the former town — recently designated a city according to State of Alabama’s interpretation of recent Census figures — had their first meeting Tuesday with students and faculty from Alabama A&M University’s Department of Community Planing and Urban Studies to launch a semester-long program that will culminate in the development of a 10-year strategic plan.

The fruit of an arrangement between Alabama A&M and the North Central Alabama Regional Council of Governments (NARCOG), the program aims to provide small Alabama cities and towns with a free resource to help them set long-term goals, while simultaneously offering students in the planning field academic credit through real-world experience.

NARCOG planning director Joey Hester said the mutual agreement benefits everyone involved.

“We have done this in some other places in Alabama; we did it here in Colony in Cullman County back last year, and it has ended up being a ‘win-win’ for everybody,” Hester said. “The cities get some good insight into some things that future professionals can offer, at no cost, and the students really get an opportunity to engage in a process that they will encounter once they are practicing professionals.”

The Colony plan resulted in a comprehensive 41-page document detailing the town’s needs, breaking down its demographics, and prioritizing its goals. That assessment can be viewed at www.narcog.org/images/colony_sketch_plan.pdf online.

Tuesday’s work session paired the council, along with Mayor Corey Harbison, with eight A&M students led by Professor  Russell Fricano in an initial brainstorming session to cull ideas about how to identify the city’s greatest assets, and how to capitalize on those in the decade to come.

“Basically, what we will see out of it is a comprehensive plan that puts together ideas about things we would like to see happen in the City of Good Hope in the next 10 years,” said Harbison. “It will focus on projects, community development, infrastructure and ways we can keep improving our quality of life. We want to be able to demonstrate that Good Hope is an attractive place to live and to do business, and to find ways to use the resources we have to grow our city and hopefully get some good things going.”

Additional work sessions will be held at Good Hope over the next three months, before the A&M students present their comprehensive plan to the council sometime in May. The city's under no obligation to implement any or all aspects of the plan, but can choose to do so, if resources and community support are in place.



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 270.

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