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As Webb Citians celebrated the opening of a Route 66 Visitors Center that came about in part because of the vision of residents led by a group of Drury University students, Carthage city officials and Drury are preparing for a similar “visioning process” in Carthage to start early next year.
Jay G. Garrott and students from the Springfield university’s Hammons School of Architecture, will come to Carthage starting in January to help Carthage residents decide what’s in store for the city’s historic side in the coming years.
The project is called by the city the “Carthage Courthouse Square District Visioning Process,” but Garrott said he expects the committee that will be formed will look at much more than just the area immediately around the Square.
When he spoke to the crowd gathered to dedicate Webb City’s new Route 66 visitor’s center on Tuesday, he talked about how the students’ job in Webb City quickly grew from the city’s original mandate.
“When we came in and were originally asked by (Webb City) Mayor (John) Biggs to look only at Main Street and look only at a few blocks and to give some recommendation for façade renewal,” Garrott said. “We, the students and I and Jeff Barber (with the University of Missouri Extension Office) and the advisory group, quickly began to look at the need to study the entire length of Main Street and the vitally important aspect of Route 66 as it cuts through and across that corridor.”
Garrott and Carthage City Administrator Tom Short spoke unofficially at the dedication of the Webb City Route 66 Visitors Center on Tuesday about how to get started in January in Carthage.
The process will start when Carthage officials travel to Drury to meet with the class and tell them about Carthage.
Then, sometime in January, a public meeting will be held to create the Carthage visioning group and talk about the goals and objectives of the group.
Garrott said he anticipates that group will meet once a month for about a year. It could continue to meet after the work by Drury is done, but that will be up to the local participants.
“The strength of the study, from the city’s standpoint, will depend on the participation by local residents,” Garrott said. “We will be working to develop a vision of what the community will look like 20 years hence and the key is collaboration.”
Garrott said what will come out of the meetings will be a 150-page detailed statement of the vision to come out of the meetings.
In Webb City, a downtown advisory group is still meeting, almost two years after the work by Drury’s students was completed.
“We consider the vision to be the tool kit to be used by the advisory committee after we leave,” Garrott said. “The vision is developed by the advisory and we provide the tool kit they would use to continue the work beyond the visioning process.”.”
As Webb Citians celebrated the opening of a Route 66 Visitors Center that came about in part because of the vision of residents led by a group of Drury University students, Carthage city officials and Drury are preparing for a similar “visioning process” in Carthage to start early next year.
Jay G. Garrott and students from the Springfield university’s Hammons School of Architecture, will come to Carthage starting in January to help Carthage residents decide what’s in store for the city’s historic side in the coming years.
The project is called by the city the “Carthage Courthouse Square District Visioning Process,” but Garrott said he expects the committee that will be formed will look at much more than just the area immediately around the Square.
When he spoke to the crowd gathered to dedicate Webb City’s new Route 66 visitor’s center on Tuesday, he talked about how the students’ job in Webb City quickly grew from the city’s original mandate.
“When we came in and were originally asked by (Webb City) Mayor (John) Biggs to look only at Main Street and look only at a few blocks and to give some recommendation for façade renewal,” Garrott said. “We, the students and I and Jeff Barber (with the University of Missouri Extension Office) and the advisory group, quickly began to look at the need to study the entire length of Main Street and the vitally important aspect of Route 66 as it cuts through and across that corridor.”
Garrott and Carthage City Administrator Tom Short spoke unofficially at the dedication of the Webb City Route 66 Visitors Center on Tuesday about how to get started in January in Carthage.
The process will start when Carthage officials travel to Drury to meet with the class and tell them about Carthage.
Then, sometime in January, a public meeting will be held to create the Carthage visioning group and talk about the goals and objectives of the group.
Garrott said he anticipates that group will meet once a month for about a year. It could continue to meet after the work by Drury is done, but that will be up to the local participants.
“The strength of the study, from the city’s standpoint, will depend on the participation by local residents,” Garrott said. “We will be working to develop a vision of what the community will look like 20 years hence and the key is collaboration.”
Garrott said what will come out of the meetings will be a 150-page detailed statement of the vision to come out of the meetings.
In Webb City, a downtown advisory group is still meeting, almost two years after the work by Drury’s students was completed.
“We consider the vision to be the tool kit to be used by the advisory committee after we leave,” Garrott said. “The vision is developed by the advisory and we provide the tool kit they would use to continue the work beyond the visioning process.”.”
