Stockbridge Amphitheater

My edit of the meeting

Most recent plan PDF

There are two chunks cut out where the presenter wasn’t speaking. I rotated the video -90 degrees from the original, boosted the audio and transcribed.

Survey is here; https://www.research.net/r/Henry2045

Official county page; https://www.henrycountyga.gov/806/2045-Strategic-Plan

Original source; https://youtu.be/_TRF0oNU1dM

AI Generated Transcript;

is is a long time away and it’s an aspirational point in time and so we really want to hear
breadth of ideas so don’t don’t be afraid to you know throw out something lofty that is the point
of a vision and a goal that’s this far out and the third piece on here is that feedback will
be collected and shared in multiple ways this meeting is the fourth public meeting in a series
of five public meetings the community can also participate by filling out a survey so i think
folks might have seen a flyer whether that was a person or whether that was online so there’s
a survey attached to the list of public meetings we would also love it if you could fill out the
survey so we could get your input and data in that format all right and then most importantly
your voice matters that is why we are
conducting these sessions we’re spending the entire month of may trying to collect community
feedback your voice really reflects the needs of priorities of where this community wants to go
over the next 20 years and this plan is important because it’s going to set that long-term vision
that’s going to sustain over multiple generations so when you’re providing your feedback today
i challenge you to think about not only yourself and your perspective but the people in your
community your families people that are going to grow up here so put yourself also in their shoes
and think about you know where do these folks want to grow up in addition to you know where
do i want to grow up and where do i want things 20 years from now okay so we’re going to get into
project timeline next so if you were writing on the project this is some context on how we got
to today so this whole process started in january and commissioner england alluded to the leadership
workshop that kind of kicked off this whole process in january at that workshop the leadership
team came up with a vision for 2045 which we’re going to see and talk about today and in addition
to that they came up with seven goals which we’re also going to talk through today since that time
in january
we’ve done two concurrent project work streams the first was in-depth planning and discovery so we
spent a month planning we spent two months doing department interviews so we’ll see a lot of henry
county staff here today so we’ve talked to them and gathered all your feedback we did board and
commissioner interviews we did senior leadership interviews we’ve interviewed business stakeholders
municipal stakeholders and this entire month we’re doing community stakeholders so
that’s one work stream and then the concurrent work stream is actually on community education
and what we’re attempting to do with that work stream is to pilot
information about the henry county government to relay and make available to the constituents
in this county so that you understand how the county serves you how you can contact the people
in your in your county government how the county operates so
you’ll get departments members in this group that you can talk to them they’ve helped us
so
if we do plan an overview
so that gets us to our strategic planning overview
this triangle diagram represents the framework that we’re using to guide our strategic planning
process so each part of this pyramid is interconnected and it starts at the top
with our values so the county has a core set of five values and those are accountability
collaboration service fiscal stewardship and integrity um i almost forget this time i got
them all so those values are the core of everything that they um with that with that
we already kind of talked about the values of the county but the mission of the county is to provide
exceptional services to enhance the quality of life for all citizens through the efficient use
of resources and the vision which was created during the leadership workshop is here for 2045
and that is to be the
foundation for a vibrant innovative connected and exceptional community
the activity that we’re about to do is going to be centered on
this vision statement and this activity is going to be a grounding exercise because
it will help us understand what to anchor to when we talk about our goals so um with that
we’ll get into our um our first activity so this is our first piece of input that we’d like to
share with you uh everyone in the middle of your tables has a set of post-it notes and so within
your table um there are five words you know foundation vibrance innovative connected and
exceptional and among your table divide up we’d like you to divide up the five words to make sure
that they’re all covered within your table so some folks will have two words some folks only have one
but we’d like you to write down um your
word and then write down what that means to you uh what does that mean in 2045
and then we’ll debrief on how people have defined it because we um these will have
different definitions according to your perspective and your lived experiences
yeah and then we’ll discuss the group
can i read that one?
i’m sure you can
like some of these words might resonate a little bit more with you than others so
i would go ahead and take those ones

So, for foundation, is there someone here who wants to share what they were and why they decided to define that word as such?
Sure, I’m not shy.
I’m with the Walnut Creek Watershed Coalition.
I come to all these meetings with Henry County.
I want to know why my foundation one of them is conservation of natural areas.
I’d like to know when the county in this plan, have you consulted statewide?
wildlife action management plan?
Have you consulted the upper river,
upper Okmulgee River Basin plan?
Have you taken any of those recommendations,
proven the recommendations by the Atlanta Regional Council
to preserve space and water quality
and have you incorporated any of that into the plan?
Yeah.
We can definitely consider those.
I think if they were considered for the land use plan
though, that is one of the basis documents
that we’re using to develop this.
So this plan ties together all of the existing
strategic planning in the county.
So I hope that answers your question.
Well, not really because when you do these plans
and you establish all these zonings,
you ought to have zonings for wildlife areas,
natural conservation.
Henry County doesn’t do that.
It doesn’t require conservation easements.
So this is part of the land use plan.
I mean, they’re separate,
but they’re, they’re,
they’re intricately related to each other.
Right.
So we’re using prioritization and the goals
that were developed in the comprehensive land use plan
and then bringing those into this plan.
Well, none of that’s in the land use plan
maps or plans either.
They haven’t consulted any of those.
Walnut Creek is determined by the state
to be a watershed of moderate global importance.
What’s Henry County doing about that to preserve it?
Why do we have 90% of the land use plan?
Why do we have 90 miles of the great streams in Henry County?
Why do we have two public lakes
that have fisheries advisories in our list that isn’t correct?
Why is Lake Jackson where we all fish?
Partly because of what comes from Henry County.
They’re, they’re related.
They’re not separate.
Man and the environment are related.
A healthy environment, it was healthy people.
No. So I agree with you.
Protection of natural resources is very important.
When we get to our goals, let’s continue to talk about it.
I think there are certain goals where I think
that would fit in quite well.
So I think when we go to our goals prioritization discussion,
let’s continue to talk about it then.
Thank you.
All right.
So for foundation, I saw themes on infrastructure, integrity,
transparency, those all went into the foundation,
and so I really liked how folks took different lenses
on what foundation meant.
Is there anyone else that wants to talk about foundation?
Or if you want to move on to vibrant,
if someone wants to talk about vibrant?
I don’t want to talk about it.
I just want to say something very simple.
I wrote integrity and transparency because.
Oh, you wrote that.
I did because I, I’m sorry, I’m honest, forgive me.
I want to see that in Henry County.
I don’t see that.
Well.
Turned out so small because I think people are tired.
I talk to people that have come out in the community and stuff.
I work in this community and other communities.
We need integrity from the beginning.
Oh, the little stuff doesn’t matter to me.
But we all start with integrity and transparency.
What’s the purpose?
Yeah. And I think when you look at the goals,
you’ll be pleased to see that public trust is a big one.
So I think the county leadership
and departments are really listening to that.
Okay. Vibrant, did somebody want to talk about vibrant?
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
Vibrant, I think of that in several things.
One is an economically successful community
that we have jobs here, we have opportunities,
we have good schools.
You know, that’s a good thing.
Another thing is traffic management because,
and a lot of you know, and I often tell people,
I was at work in Gwinnett before I come here,
used to live there, the traffic up there was horrendous.
We’ve got traffic problems down here,
but we don’t want to end up like that up there.
And also, and this kind of takes up.
You were in my master naturalist class.
Yes, sir, I was.
Oh, okay.
He was in one of my classes.
And I said, I completely understand what you’re saying.
Environment, streams, water quality, you know,
you have to be able to understand what you’re saying.
Water quality, air quality, and preservation of trees
in natural areas.
I think if we put all of them together,
we could have a vibrant community, with smart growth.
And I say smart growth.
I don’t mean, oh, we’re gonna build 800 houses
over here and the infrastructure can’t support it,
the schools can’t support it.
There needs to be some balance.
I mean, hey, I’m all for smart growth and development.
It’s a good thing.
it’s done properly does anyone want to share what they need to find innovative
us all right so cutting-edge state-of-the-art and progressive leading the way to new and exciting
things community that uses new technology
and planning to be better as a whole for the community outside the box
consulting the wildlife action plan and river basin plan for important advice
pathfinder disruptive yeah I love it bringing more modern business into Henry
County so I think when you look at the goals I hope you’ll see a lot of the
things that y’all are talking about
in this set of goals when we move on to the second part of this discussion all
right I connected did somebody want to share their definition of connected okay
Henry County is growing and that’s good but traffic and road systems haven’t caught up yet and it’s going to be a while before they really get there.
level on I’m seeing now that there’s so many bottlenecks in the way you thought
I got the idea of a good roundabout success that’s great but it has slowly developed but it’s still a problem so I seem to fix that
right traffic is a big piece of physical connection for sure alternative modes of transportation
connection also has to do with connection in community so I think some folks
Dave mentioned that in their definitions right community involvement city
representations working together trails all of that that definitely has to do
with being connected and then exceptional did anyone want to share
unexceptional okay supporting our small businesses being a thriving city being
commitment to improve committed to improvement understanding how and being
a destination and having I’m sorry I can’t read everyone’s handwriting but
maybe destination I think that’s that would merit being exceptional so thank
you so I think for this exercise the takeaway is that
all the
things that we see as the vision for Henry County what we’re aspiring to do
the next piece of our exercise is thinking about what are the most
critical components that we need to have in place in order to reach that vision
for 2045 whatever that means to you so in our next activity we’re going to work
our way down the pyramid and the next piece is on strategic goals so like the
how of how we’re going to get to the mission of 2045
during the leadership workshop the leadership team developed these 7
strategic goals and I think this echoes a lot of some of the sentiments that came
through as we’re talking about the vision so the first goal is to foster the
well-being and safety of all so this goal was a vision to encompass holistic
well-being so that’s physical mental emotional health and then safety of all
course which is you know core to anything else that we achieve because you can’t um you can’t
do anything else unless you feel safe uh two delivering standardized financially efficient
and responsive services so as your henry county local government is their responsibility to
provide you a very good service and so one of the goals of the county is for that service to
be consistent and for them to be a good fiduciary of your dollars number three is on talent so you
know you cannot provide high quality services without high quality people providing you those
services so the third goal is to cultivate retain and empower the region’s top talent
and then you know we did talk about traffic and you know infrastructure as a whole so that includes
you know facilities it can also include technology but the fourth goal is on building
reliable modern and sustainable infrastructure so you know really taking care of what we have
and doing better with what we have i know like sustainable growth also came up so
that would also i think be a part of this goal number five is on positioning henry county
as the self-sustaining economic hub in the metro region um there were
uh there were comments on you know making henry county a destination
um making us more vibrant with more retail and entertainment options making sure that we support
small business all of that would fall under ensuring that we are a self-sustaining economic hub
and then number six is on what you have brought up that integrity piece and the
accountability piece so number six is on strengthening public trust awareness and
understanding across multiple generations and the reason why this goal was written this way
across multiple generations piece is because you know we are all different uh you know you wouldn’t
approach a gen alpha and connect with a gen alpha potentially the same way that you would
you know millennial or someone from gen x so just making sure that we’re meeting people where they
are and communicating with people in a way that’s meaningful to them so that’s number five is on
making sure that we’re meeting people where they are and communicating with people in a way that’s meaningful to them
and then number seven is on enhancing inter and intro governmental communication collaboration
and coordination for continuous improvement and so this is on you know breaking down silos within
governments within cities so um you know this county is very matrixed in how it’s governed
and how it functions you have four cities you have the local government um you have municipal boards
that function separately so your school board has its own budget and they do their own thing and
then water does its own thing so um making sure that all of those entities are coordinated and
collaborating that um that is what number seven is getting towards so that they can um you know offer
its offer every county constituents of higher quality services and day-to-day communication
okay so with that we are going to move into the goals prioritization exercise
and so um considering uh what we’ve talked about with the 2045 vision and what you believe to be
the most important we’d like for you to decide individually and you know you can talk among your
table as well because i think uh you know depending on your experiences you’ll have a
different view on what’s more important than others but decide which two to three goals are
the most important to you so for each goal that you pick
you’re going to take a post-it and write what like the number of the goal and then you’ll write
why you chose that goal and you’re going to keep your post-its at your table because we’re going to
use them for the next exercise so and if you have any questions just raise your hand i’ll come over
but if you’ll choose just choose two to three and then they’re on the wall over here and then
they’re also up here on the in the gray half of this slide but i think it might be too small for
over here
so but so if you want to move tables you can um if you want to go over there you can
yeah we’ll work on that
i won’t
I think everyone’s in a good place now.
So show of hands.
And just raise your hand
if you picked a certain goal.
And then we’re going to count.
And that’s going to be our rough survey
on which goals were the most important to folks.
And then we’re going to shift
into the second part of this exercise,
which is going to focus
on the most prioritizing
goals so if you picked goal number one as one of the um goals that you found the most important can
you raise your hand all right so one two three four five six seven eight nine ten um okay for
ten for number one eleven eleven okay uh all right goal number two if you raise your hand if you pick
two okay one two okay you know the services is what the county provides right okay but it’s
here for number two uh goal number three on talent one two three okay because you know the people are
the ones providing the services so that’s awesome uh number four on infrastructure all right wow
six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen okay wow clear uh and then number five
on uh being an economic hub in the region uh one two three four five four five five
for number five and then number six on public trust uh one two three four five six six
oh wow that’s like the same number for the number of the goal uh and then goal number seven on
uh governmental collaboration uh communication coordination one two three four
okay it’s like four okay um all right so
all right so the top three were goal one
goal four and goal six um did someone want to share why it was goal number one all right kevin
hey guys i’m good so goal number one i feel like was the easiest one because it doesn’t matter
what else we do if people don’t feel safe where they are then it doesn’t matter then they don’t
want to be here if you don’t feel safe in your home and you don’t feel safe about the environment
watershed conditions if you don’t feel safe about the fire protection or when you call 9-1-1
that somebody’s going to pick up the phone and you’re going to get a quick response
then it doesn’t matter how bad or good the traffic is it doesn’t matter if you have a fancy restaurant
you’re not going to raise a family here you’re not going to put roots down here so so that’s
number one um did someone want to share why they chose goal number two
another two folks that chose that one
part of it is we have to have emergency services to cover the area and reduce response time
because without that not only do we not get our response time but our insurance costs go up
because we don’t have the infrastructure there to support what we’ve been building all along
overbuilding causes lack of infrastructure and the response time of our emergency
services
ve three talent
hello i think that number three we look at talent um we’re talking about 20
years from 25 years from now which seems like a long time but it’s not
and so you’ve got to look at people we’re going to carry that goal 25 years
somebody that’s going to be carrying on this goal that’s not even born yet we had this we talked
about this yesterday so you have to think about that or when a leader is probably still in
elementary school at this point so we have to look at the talent and start recruiting them now so
they’re prepared and they’re grown to be able to carry out these goals all right number four
infrastructure
i think building reliable um modern and sustainable infrastructure is important um
this mr commissioner angela was mentioned about hubs and i think that’s important
because that limits the transportation time from one area to another you can live work
play locally in those hubs as opposed to having to come home
and then number five oh
i’d like to add one thing to number four to be proactive rather than reactive oh yes okay
so the plan for things you see coming down the road rather than the way that we have
traffic at five miles an hour about jones border road and 81 convinced that we need to we need a
bigger highway or more ambulances or police officers right they anticipate growth for
actively planning but that’s why we’re trying to review planning now to try to get ahead of
those things in the future um okay uh number five thank you for adding that by the way
uh all right uh number five on economic hub did somebody want to share why they chose that one
right now in the area the cost of living out weighs the wages through taxes housing costs and
all of that so your small businesses our costs are too high to start a small business within the area
and they can’t hire additional help because they can’t afford to and then they can’t pay wages that
are going to be economically sound for families to live within the area when you’ve got taxes
doubling and tripling every year the people can’t afford to work in within the community and they
don’t choose to stay within the community as well right so keeping an eye on how policy can impact
development of business in the area and definitely of supporting our small business
so that posts can support themselves and their families
so one of the reasons that we’re doing some master plans in the old kelly town and it speaks to this
is i want my son who’s 17 to have this opportunity to be able to live back here i won’t have to live
if that’s so what he desires so that’s one of my biggest drivers
great making sure that we keep here for generations
uh and making sure that it’s a place where we want our families to grow up
all right number six uh strengthening public trust i know a lot of folks picked this one
so i don’t know if anyone wants to share about it
number six was important because it also kind of backs into number three
what do you say about the future to me the public trust creates the longevity of the vision
so we create a division and then we lose the public trust
for instance if i lose the public trust i’m only going to pass it down to my kids
so if we lose and we don’t gain the public trust then we lose the vision so they don’t
believe i don’t believe in it they’re not going to believe it and whatever we do create is not going
to carry it on like it’s not going to happen yeah because it’s um it’s like a promise
you don’t see um like that future that was promised yeah thank you for sharing that
um and then enhancing
um
you know like you said they’re not coming back here
you know some of the older people don’t want to come back here
but something has got to happen we have gotten y’all have got to start this i might have to start
so that people will return
what’s the purpose of trust?
we just started zietngrity to save our lives
put your money in another state, another state.
What’s the purpose of that?
We need to grow, develop, we need,
we ain’t just gonna get these kids together.
I blame us.
So far as you read, I blame us,
this generation, previous generations.
We haven’t been there the way we should have been there.
There aren’t any reasons for that.
There could be fear.
I’m tired of hearing about financing money.
You don’t need money for everything.
Just talk, have a conversation, sit down.
How will a millennial upset you, threaten you?
You know what I mean?
Just have a conversation with people, include people.
Let them have a voice and say so.
You don’t do that.
Thank you for sharing.
Yeah, because the relationships, I think,
are built, you know, one-on-one through conversation,
through connecting with other individuals
in a meaningful way.
And enhancing inter- and intra-governmental communication.
So, for me, this is huge from not only a fire department perspective but for the citizens here.
A lot of folks don’t realize that the inter-governmental communication,
when we talk about all the construction that’s going on,
the county government doesn’t have much control or much say in those municipalities
when you see these town homes, apartments, and when you see all this construction,
happening inside the municipalities that don’t have a fire response.
The county is still responsible for that fire response.
For example, Jonesboro Road, Jodico River,
all of this growth you see, the apartments, the town homes,
all of that, most of that, a lot of that is inside the city limits.
From the county’s fire marshal, we never see those plans until it’s built.
I’m gonna give you an example.
The largest target distribution center, I believe, in the state of Georgia,
it’s 48 acres under the roof in the city of Hampton currently.
It’s currently operational.
The fire department that responds to that,
the first time we laid eyes on the plans inside that building
was when we did a walk-through after it was already built, all right?
The large tire fire that just happened in McDonald,
the only reason that warehouse did not burn to the ground
was because it was built under county code, not city code.
We had just done an inspection, fixed the sprinkler system,
had that happened in the city of Stockbridge,
possibly McDonald, Hampton, Locust Grove,
that building may have burned to the ground.
So that’s, for me, why that collaboration and coordination
is very important for all of our instances.
So from my end, I think this is super critical.
So from my end, I think this is super critical.
So from my end, I think this is super critical.
I think all of these goals connect to each other.
I’m Kevin, I work for Henry County,
and there’s a lot of county employees in this room,
and I think it’s been really important that they show up here.
Nobody’s asked them to come, nobody’s forced them here,
but they’re all citizens of Henry County and they care about the direction.
When we’re talking about this intergovernmental communication and
coordination, everyone hates traffic in Henry County.
Everyone talks about the infrastructure piece, but when we talk about the traffic,
Everyone hates traffic in Henry County. Everyone talks about the infrastructure piece, but when we talk about the traffic,
and we look at what’s been affecting that, we talk about I-75, it’s horrible.
We talk about 155, it’s horrible.
We talk about 81, 42, everything gets backed up,
and now we’re talking about that reactive approach,
so now we’re looking at bonding.
But we have to understand that we don’t have any control over these state routes,
so we have to do a better job of identifying what these future state routes are going to do,
so we have to do a better job of identifying what these future state routes are going to do,
county develops and make sure that that’s at the top of their priority list because
we are the ones that are impacted by that
and thank you for your example because i think that was really great at showing
um you know how complicated it is when there are multiple governments trying to work together
and trying to communicate but maybe not in the manner that they wanted to or to the degree that
they wanted to okay so the second half of this exercise is going to focus on the top three
um goals that were prioritized so that was one four and six so for each table i’d like you to pick
well i’d like two tables to pick one two tables to pick four and two tables to pick six so
for one um which two tables would like to pick number one okay so this they’re taking number one
and then or you want to take
number one yeah yeah okay all right so you you these two tables will take one
and then uh who wants to take number four two tables to pick number four
how do we take four okay you want to okay middle tables take four and then um corner
tables if y’all will take six and then um within your table we’d like you to write down the two to
three things that we need
must do to accomplish this goal and so you know you’re not going to cover everything it’s just
the two or three most critical things that you believe that we need to do and then at your table
nominate a spokesperson to share the the two to three things that your table comes up with
They allowed them to take that land space away and demolish the two houses that were
on it behind Zach’s. And then they re-did the playing of the land. So then now this road
floods every time it rains. And it never did that. So what’s it doing to the housing community
that’s down below it? Because you changed the topography of the land. Now you’ve created
an issue on the infrastructure.
But they already started demolishing the trees before they put up a public notice of what
was going to go in there and then it was taken. So now they’re going to put the building that
was supposed to be going there. It was supposed to be a storage room and that’s been tapered.
So now it’s just…
And then you’ve got all of these
but this table is talking about
number four. So it’s built reliable, modern, stable infrastructure. And we’re talking about
the two different things that we must do to make sure that the shoppers have it on the other side.
Okay. All right. And then I don’t know who’s writing down…
It never got done before.
And recently was torn down and still has gates and fencing around it now.
We’re planning it all.
Or planning it all.
We just moved here about three years ago from Florida.
So we’ve watched this ever since.
So we’ve watched this ever since.
We’ve watched this ever since.
Where in Osceola County, it’s just right outside the neighborhood,
they allowed building apartments.
All these huge housing developments didn’t maintain or provide for the
infrastructure to the roads, et cetera.
So the last hurricane that came through right after we moved out, flooded half of town.
There was no drainage left either for the one year to go.
Not a lot of people could do that.
Do you see it happening here?
Well, next door, I don’t see a sense of where it is going to go.
I think it’s also sort of in here.
Do they have enough light?
Well, it’s, I’m a great friend of Tucker, and I’ve been walking with him ever since.
I was in the same town for thirty-four years.
Well, I’ll tell you, he was in Savannah.
Oh.
He lived in Savannah.
So?
And I was involved in that when I was young.
Right.
And I still have family down there, and I kind of like taking care of them.
That is going to turn into a lot of money.
Oh, yeah.
Well, I mean, they’ll just go to Savannah since then.
They got that new high-end thing.
Yep.
And they’re trying to get out.
And they’re trying to get out.
And that thing is the biggest fan of ours.
Alright, we’re going to go ahead and start the debrief. So for goal one, does this table, do you all want to kick us off?
Okay, so the two to three things.
Two to three things. Foster the well-being and safety of all.
Hey y’all, I want everybody to be safe, I want everybody to be well, continually.
So, I don’t know, we were just hitting on everything because everything intertwined.
But let me go over here to the bottom.
Progression of life through visible action.
Refreshing, unmistakable, and lovely.
When I moved to Henry County, it was violent.
That’s why I moved, it felt so violent, all that grass and stuff.
And that was good for my well-being.
Being in nature.
It is, it makes you happy.
So, we were talking about the community being aware of what’s going on.
Uh…
And then, some people’s definition of community is different than others.
So it’s really kind of, that’s another conversation we’re going to.
But then, talking to her, because she’s been dealing with children.
I was a child before.
Um…
And she’s been dealing with children a while.
A long while.
And making a well.
Some of y’all going through stuff in here right now.
That ain’t nobody else’s business.
That might be Dutch military, but you’re sacrificing your time to talk about the well-being and the safety of all.
And she just kept on hitting back at the children.
Because those are going to be with us here 24-5.
And two things.
Community needs to be more aware of what a community really is.
I shouldn’t feel unsafe to go knock on your door.
Because my car broke down.
And my phone was dead.
It was 9-38 at night.
In my community, I shouldn’t feel that way.
But she said we got to be more aware of community.
Okay. Point the blame.
Whatever.
You told me you can’t do it alone.
And they’ve been only announcing so many types of ways to get people in here.
To work on our well-being for 20-45.
I want to be well tomorrow.
I want you to be well tomorrow.
But it’s strength in numbers.
And I’m sure other people support you.
I support the water.
I support you.
But I can’t do it all.
You can’t do it all.
As a community.
It’s going to get better through effort that is visible.
Not just these words that are audible.
You can see hurt easily.
Let me see you love easily.
Be aware of that.
Just be aware of that.
It’s getting better.
It will be better.
For everybody.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So I think, you know, the vibrant, animated, connected, and exceptional.
The word at the end of that is community.
And so that is really part of it.
So thank you for focusing on that.
Other, number one, the two to three things.
Yeah.
So the two to three things we must accomplish to go.
We have a table.
I can tell you, I worked for Henry County Police Department.
I worked for another police department before I started this one.
We have one of the best public safeties in the county.
I can tell you that.
I’m not just saying that because I work for them.
But what we do.
We are so actively involved.
We have officers now who, you know, as a major does, he participates.
He’s a golf coach.
We do other hats that we do other than just being a police officer.
Our fire guys do it.
Our dispatchers do it.
There’s so much more that we try to give back.
And it’s all about these, I saw, we talked about kids.
It’s all going back to these kids.
So we want to be that example.
And I think a lot of it starts with us.
It starts with us in public safety.
That means us.
And I think that’s the biggest thing.
We don’t want our kids to be afraid to come and talk to a police officer.
So that’s something that we always encourage them to strive to do.
So, I mean, I think that is the biggest thing.
We really want to implore change.
Like the young ladies up there, just having a conversation.
Having an understanding.
Because, you know, we’re quick to judge somebody just the way they may look or dress or something.
But you never know what a person has gone through in their life.
I can say that about myself.
I’ve been through a lot of things.
As young as I try to share those things with the kids.
And a lot of them have a better understanding.
So I can tell you, here we have one of the best public safeties in probably Georgia,
if not the nation.
And I love being a part of that.
I really, truly do.
Thank you.
Thank you for focusing on the relationships and especially making sure our young grow
up in an environment where they can thrive later on in life.
All right.
So number four.
The two tables in the middle.
Oh, you stay on.
So you got to go first.
I’m going to go first.
Okay.
Okay.
Infrastructure, build reliable, modern, and sustainable infrastructure.
That can mean a lot of things.
I feel that, you know, growth is good, development is good, but there has to be a plan, not just
start building it and then try to figure out how we’re going to look at it.
Okay.
And how are we going to support that infrastructure needs to go forward.
And now, I’m also a believer that developers and builders need to pay impact fees because,
you know, it’s not like they build 300 houses and walk away and leave the taxpayers holding
the back.
Green space would be great.
But you know, we’ve got some great parks in here, so that’s also – we need to make sure
we have green space, bike trails and stuff like that.
What about the bank?
Okay.
Yeah.
I think the bank is the best place to go.
Yeah.
And the property.
Properties are not going to be maintained.
That’s got grass as tall as me growing around there.
I’m sure you all have seen that, too.
I see it.
Also, the one big thing is the traffic.
You heard me say this before.
I already mentioned this earlier, but I’ll say it.
The years that I’ve worked in Gwinnett County, the traffic up there is really bad, and I’m
afraid we’re moving in that direction.
I mean, it’s areas of the county, like Cedar Rapids, that are not as safe.
The area of Cedar Rapids, you know, is more of a rural area.
I think it’s a lot more of a rural area.
I’ve already mentioned this earlier, but I’ll say the years I worked in Gwinnett County,
the traffic up there is really bad and I’m afraid we’re moving in that direction.
I mean, it’s areas of the county like along 75 that’s bad, other areas it’s not quite as bad yet.
But, you know, just that’s where we’re moving to. So I don’t want to see that happen here.
And again, you know, infrastructures, the environment, like the fellow right here talked about the water quality and stuff like that.
So I would really, you know, some things we got to think about because, you know, tomorrow will be here before we know it.
And we’ve got to be prepared for growth. I mean, I think it’s great big companies coming here, building distribution centers, building factories.
But we have to have an infrastructure that supports that.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Very comprehensive response.
Yeah, really.
Keep going.
All right.
Okay.
So we had number four.
And two things that stuck out was anticipating the growth by upgrading the sewer systems and water systems.
And public transportation was a big thing that came up.
And creating a truck.
And we had to create a truck language to where it gets the big trucks away from everybody else and it frees up.
So then limiting distribution centers and multifamily dwellings and more entertainment and retail space.
Thank you.
Make sure that you write all of this down because we’re going to take this back into our planning process.
Okay.
Thank you for sharing that.
Wow.
Two very broad responses.
That’s great.
I think to the first points that both of you all pointed out, we’re on planning.
So thank you, everyone, for coming out because this is part of that planning process and making
sure that we are in a better place.
Can we move forward?
Yes.
Does any of the families have a master plan?
There’s a comprehensive land use plan.
Yes.
And then there’s a parks master plan as well.
There’s also an airport master plan that works in .
Can we get a medical update?
All right.
That gets us to number six, this kind of review.
Can I get a copy of that?
Okay.
That looks good.
That’s fine.
I’m talking about public education and engagement.
Um, most residents don’t know what government, what we do.
Like we talked about the rules, like we don’t control state rules 149, 42, 81.
Those are the G-9 rules.
So just having the understanding, educating the public on what we do, how we do, and what does it impact.
Because if you don’t have the public buying in, that’s, that’s, that’s part of the problem.
Understanding, hey, what do taxes do? We talked about homesteading.
That’s actually the freeze. You can’t do anything forward if you’re still paying taxes from 20 years ago.
Thank you. So yeah, the education piece I think is really critical.
Um, alright.
So number six, um,
we just wanted to,
to strengthen the public trust, um, the awareness and understanding across multiple generations.
Um, learning how to connect with, um, with people.
Being transparent, um, as much as we possibly can.
Attending diverse events to be around people that are different than us.
Um, having conversations.
Um, educating people.
Um, when we make a decision and explaining the why behind that decision goes a long way
to keeping everyone safe.
To keep everyone educated.
Um, so that they are aware.
Acknowledging people’s fears and why they think the way they do.
Um, and then explaining your process.
To, uh, acknowledge those people.
Um, communicate properly.
And, um, collaborations.
Meeting with different groups, bringing different groups together.
Thank you. Yeah, I love how, um, you really focused on that basic thing of just connecting with other people.
And talking to them.
Uh, and talking to people, you know, not just within your community, but maybe other adjacent communities.
Okay, um, we want to collect all of the data that, um, you all have, uh, documented.
So, if you can go put your notes aligned to the goal that, um, they were about.
And if you could do that now, that would be great.
Because we, we do, um, need to take all this back.
And integrate it into some sort of community actions.
I will.
Okay, um, thank you all for, um, engaging, participating today.
Uh, we appreciate it.
We appreciate your, your passionate discussion.
The lively conversation.
Of all the input that we’ve gathered today.
Um, if you would like to continue to give us feedback, we encourage you to take this survey.
Which can be found at this QR code.
It’s also printed on, the URL is printed on the paper that’s on your table.
And if you want to take that paper with you and, you know, share that with other folks in your community.
To get them to also give us feedback.
That would be wonderful.
Um, the other way that you can follow along with us for product updates is at our website.
And that is at www.henrycounty2045.com.
And you can also find us, if you forget the URL.
You can find this webpage by going to the Henry County Government site.
And then going to the County Manager’s page and, um, the 2045 link that you can find there as well.
And then, if you have any other questions.
Or if you have any other feedback.
You can reach us at our email.
And that is at 2045strategicplan at henrycountyga.gov.
Alright, and then with that, um, we’ll conclude today’s session.
We want to thank everyone again so much for coming out.
Um, and for your active participation.
That is what’s really critical to making, um, these sessions meaningful and worthwhile.
So thank you, thank you so much again for coming out and for your time this evening.
Alright, thank you.
Thank you.