This is my email message to Ralph Pasola, Community Planner and writer
of the Stockbridge Master Plan
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Hi, Ralph,
I started reading your Master Plan for the village of Stockbridge. I
particularly enjoyed your choice of photographs and the opening words
on what planning is. The other statistical data was something I'd never
seen before on Stockbridge and the township where I make my home; so it,
too, was quite interesting.
Wow. This thing has everything a Village Manager needs to know and understand the
job, it has history, water and sewer line mapping, statistics that won't quit, DDA priorities
(I never knew we had a unified speaking on this , but it sounds pretty good to me), school
census information, roadways, soil types, natural area maps, parks and recreation
(Stockbridge is sorely lacking), and so forth.
Public Involvement in Planning. When I got to the Planning and Public
Involvement section, I was heartened by this goal and objective. Even before the Village
adopts this Draft Master Plan, is it possible to send it to the citizens via email so they can
have input as well? I have begun a dist list called TALK CITIZEN. It's been well received,
and the list keeps growing. (I have a long way to go before I hit all 1240 people, BTW.)
Is this and your explanation letter an appropriate use of the documents? Else, how will the
public get involved? (And I don't just mean the normal list of suspects.)
If I am still here in a few months, I will engage the help of the Area Chamber, Lions Club,
Veterans organizations, school officials and volunteers, the SDDA, our township governance
neighbors, the local newspaper folks, and anyone with the desire and will to get involved.
I will challenge people to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.
As regards blight vs. beautification, I have a plan I call The Dashboard, a
quarterly review of the Village for what is and is not goal-oriented behavior by commercial
and residential areas. I see it as being a voluntary effort, where once per quarter, our residents
are treated to a surprise audit of one area or another, where a rating scale that mirrors our plan
objectives and ordinances is assessed, tabulated, and communicated to the citizens via email and
the local newspaper. This seems to me a more righteous way to go about it than heavier code
enforcement tactics. By doing the Dashboard activity, we could possibly eliminate more of the
negatives of code enforcement elements so hated by our citizens. Instead, we would work this as
a preventative maintenance activity, where it is also a means to teach village code and ordinances
in a non-threatening way. So, for example, each quarter's inspection could address some section
of code or ordinance that is spotlighted by the Dashboard Review.
In the Government section, I was delighted to see at least the mention of something
I've felt strongly about for a long time, intergovernmental agreements. Related to this, I did not
see any mention of the government's responsibility to educate and work with our citizens on all
manner of modern-day threats and risks that could negatively or positively impact our basic safety
and security needs as a community. I have assembled a "ready team" to begin working on that in
earnest, in the way of a federal/state grant from the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Blame
my ERIM days or just the normal chaos I feel about me on a daily basis, and you might
understand my concern with this one. I think our Master Plan would have a great deal more
credence if it attended to this very basic need as well. It seems to me, having this base covered
would be just another positive reason to locate to Stockbridge to raise a family or start a business.
Having been so distracted for a number of years now on other issues, I fear our officials have not
given safety and security the sort of attention it now merits, given today's world.
Economic Development. What is the Ingham Co. Brownfield program?
There is much I could say here, but I will wait for another time.
YOUTH. In what I've read so far, I have found very little mention of the youth recreational
activities problem that is ongoing on Stockbridge. We must not leave it out. In some way, we
need to address this and our plans to correct the situation that is surely related to our problems
with illegal drugs. We can easily proclaim that all small towns now struggle with this situation
as well, but that is not good enough. We need to confront it or it will consume us and our future,
since the young people are our future. What I fear most is an attitude of apathy and resignation.
Only concerted action will push back on the problem.
I can see me and other managers consulting this book often. In the near term,
I see it as a great compilation of information useful for grant proposal writing.
I will let you know if I have other comments. But now it's lunch time and this is
already too long.
THANKS, FRANK, to you and Carlisle Wortmann for all your work on it!
-Sharon
Sharon R. Baller
Interim Manager, Village of Stockbridge
115 East Elizabeth Street, P.O. Box 155
Stockbridge, MI 49285
517.851.7435
sballer@vil.stockbridge.mi.us
"History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Great souls are they who see that spiritual is stronger than material
force, that thoughts rule the world."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against
cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have
no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience
when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless
to vex your mind."
-Leonardo Da Vinci
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When in doubt ... throw glitter!
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