Lewis County Solicits Public Feedback For Strategic Plan

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Lewis County residents will soon have the chance to voice their opinion on a variety of topics, such as where they want to see Lewis County improve, on public surveys that will soon be made available.

Details of the initiative were provided by Mackey Smith, an independent advisor from the Utah-based Tanner Consulting International, during a teleconference at Friday’s Board of County Commissioners Mayors’ Meeting. Smith explained county plans to seek public input that will be incorporated into the Strategic Plan for the next five years. 

Those who choose to communicate their observations through the surveys can convey their thoughts on a variety of issues, including housing affordability, transportation, utilities and economic development. 

The Strategic Plan will reportedly include a yet-to-be-determined list of goals, along with corresponding objectives, strategies, timelines and estimated costs pertaining to each of those goals. 

“It’s a community-based strategic plan and what that means is that this particular consultant we have selected has a unique way about doing this,” described County Manager Erik Martin when contacted by The Chronicle for further clarification. “It maximizes community engagement because you’re using actual community members to go out and ask questions. But it also helps produce the impact on staff as we’re going through this process because the information gathering is done by both the consultant and these citizen volunteers that we have on the SPAC (Strategic Planning Advisory Committee). That’s the parameters of the data gathering that’s going to happen.” 

The strategic plan should neither be considered a wish list or schedule, but simply a roadmap for how to best use public funds over a five-year period. 

The previous Strategic Plan for 2012 through 2015 contained 10 general goals that ranged from developing and implementing a Lewis County Government Emergency Action Plan to creating a Youth Traffic Court.  

Once the 16-question public surveys are finalized, they will reportedly be accessible through the county website at lewiscountywa.gov, along with a few hard copy versions that could be available via public venues, such as local libraries. 



Community members filling out the confidential questionnaires will be invited to list their primary concerns, as well as jotting down what brought them to Lewis County and completing a checklist of priorities. The last part of the survey will ask each respondent to submit demographic information, including age, gender, occupation and other related data. 

“What we’re really trying to do is work with each of your communities and involving them and making sure you have a seat at the table and are lending us your feedback,” said Smith at Friday’s presentation.

The consultant reported that he will be visiting Lewis County from Jan. 30 to Feb. 7 in order to attend focus-group sessions of about 20 to 50 people in the interest of finding out if he and members of county government are “understanding” their priorities. 

In expounding on community engagement efforts, Smith asked the mayors in attendance to help facilitate “dialogue sessions” in their respective cities and towns that would allow him or members of the advisory committee to “dive into conversation” based on relevant topics. 

“We measure our success by the rate of this plan being implemented and it’s our drive, and not only our goal, but our expectation that this won’t be a plan that just sits on a shelf (or) that this is a pat-on-the-back exercise,” continued Smith. 

Once all the surveys are collected by about March, according to Martin, local elected officials and department heads will use the gathered feedback to implement the five-year plan by May or sometime shortly after.