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Macomb, IL – The McDonough County Board is trying to plan for the county's future -- and it's aggressively seeking the public's help.
The board recently wrapped up several weeks of focus group sessions to begin crafting a new comprehensive plan. Panels discussed topics such as transportation, economic development, housing and land use among others.
Members of the public were also invited to attend and voice their opinions. Some did attend, but McDonough County Comprehensive Plan committee chair Bill Carle says he wishes there would have been more.
"Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of people turn out for the evening meetings, but we did for the afternoon meetings," says Carle. "Those were pretty successful, although the evening meetings were pretty good too."
There were nine meetings that started in late May and continued through July 1. Bushnell, Colchester and Macomb hosted three meetings each.
The county first garnered public input from mailed surveys, then the focus group meetings were held. Now, Carle says one or two more public meetings will be held, though no date has yet been set.
"That's the $64,000 question," said Carle when asked how the county plans to get the public more involved this time around. "We can't make them come to the meetings. We have advertised the focus group meetings, and tried to get that information out. If the county had a website, that the public could always go to and find out what's happening in McDonough County, I think that would be very helpful."
Carle says crafting a comprehensive plan is important because it shows the state and federal government that the county is sincere about planning for the future. He says it's easier to approach them with grant applications and ask for money if there's a concrete plan in place.
Carle says he'd like to review and update the comprehensive plan, once crafted, every other year -- or at the very least -- every five years.