Citywide Survey Reveals Hopes For City Of Farmington

FARMINGTON — Participants at the city's second strategic planning meeting Thursday night focused on ways to improve economic development and communication in Farmington.

About 26 people attended the meeting, compared to more than 30 people at the first session in December. City officials had hoped more would attend the second meeting but several people were sick and others had already left for the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

Matt Hutcherson with the Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Farmington Planning Commission said participants need to do a better job of telling others about the strategic planning meetings.

“We have to be doers instead of talkers,” Hutcher- son said. “We're having the same people over and over.”

Teresa Ray, who is facilitating the sessions for Davis Business Planning, said the firm could send out another mass mailing to tell citizens about the next meeting. But at the same time, she said a smaller group is not necessarily a bad thing, noting that the city wants people involved who are “willing to roll up their sleeves” and work on a strategic plan for the future of the city.

For Thursday's meeting, Ray listed major topics for economic development and communication on large pieces of paper.

Under these headings, she had written comments and questions that came from a citywide survey and comments that came out of the first strategic planning meeting on Dec. 1. She added to the headings as participants discussed the topics Thursday.

The topics under economic development include retail/ restaurants/alcohol sales, technical companies and education, recreation and marketing. The following comments were made about each of the headings.

Retail/restaurants/alcohol sales: “the city needs more sit down dining restaurants and more fast food restaurants,” “we need competition for IGA,” “why are there so many empty stores?” “how can we showcase our restaurants and retail stores to visitors?”

Technical companies, education, post high school education: Assets in Farmington under this heading included classes provided by Northwest Arkansas Community College and Northwest Technical Institute. Others wondered about the possibility of classes through the University of Arkansas in Farmington, funding for an indoor facility and city involvement with the school. Ray said some people from the survey had asked about redrawing the boundary lines for the Farmington School District.

Recreation: possible future recreation venues included a water park, a fitness center, skate park, walking and biking trails, tennis courts, additional parking at Creekside Park, a city park and town square, soccer fields, car show, a campground and RV parking, paint ball facility and tracks for off-road vehicles and motorcycles.

Marketing: a town square, landscaping and lights, improving the appearance along U.S. 62 through Farmington, a welcome packet and visitor information.

Under Communication, the following comments were written on the piece of paper: improve the city website, a “Forward Farmington” team to think of ways to help the city, Town Hall meetings, brochures, post minutes and other information on the website, monthly emails and newsletters, a community sign, improve search engines to help promote Farmington through internet searches and link websites.

Farmington resident Jim Gallagher said the first thing the city needs to do is to “decide who we are.”

He pointed out that Eureka Springs has certain characteristics and Farmington needs to think about its own characteristics to help promote the city.

“What is it we want people to know about us,” Gallagher said.

Richard Romero, who is a retired landscape architect, civil planner and urban planner, pointed out businesses looking to locate to communities will look at the zoning laws, taxes and infrastructure of those cities.

“Those are the critical elements that attract businesses like hotels and motels and bigger restaurants,” Romero said.

He recommended the city create a data base with this information to help market Farmington to developers.

Another issue hurting the city, said police Chief Brian Hubbard, is the price of land and rental costs.

“Everyone is wanting a diamond for a chunk of clay,” Hubbard said.

Amy Hutcherson, president of the Farmington Kiwanis Club, agreed, adding, “We've got to get prices down and be a little realistic here.”

The next meeting will be 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 2, at the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Coop on Double Springs Road. Ray said participants would discuss city revenues and city services at the third meeting. From that point, the group will work on a plan to take to the Farmington City Council.

“We'll put together who and how and make some stuff happen,” Ray said.