The Reimagine Chatham formal kickoff occurred on May 14, 2024, with the first of several public meetings planned for the study. Prior to the meeting, several Steering Committee members guided the consultant team on a 2-hour tour of the town and study area from Tightsqueeze to ODAC. Following the tour, the team then met with the steering committee to discuss their early impressions of the town. Those committee members present then completed an initial set of survey questions about their personal opinions on the positive and negative aspects of the town. Real time results were displayed on a screen by the system Metri-meter. The public session began at 6:00 pm. Counting steering committee’s members, the total attendance was about 37 despite it being a rainy day. The consultant team seemed satisfied with this initial public session. Earlier in the day, committee member Delilah While had facilitated coverage of the kickoff by WDBJ7 news and the clip was available to show at the public session. It is also posted on the website.
The team was impressed with the town and indicated that it had numerous aspects unique to a town this size such as many beautiful historic homes, two private schools, several small museums, county seat, strong and organized civic groups, etc. They hope to build on these assets. At the public session, the team presented an early economic assessment and an explanation that any strategy presented in the final plan will be driven by the local economic realities. Those attending completed the same automated survey that the steering committee members had completed earlier. Email addresses of those who signed in will be added to the mailout list and survey results will be posted when they are available.
The next actions by the consultant team will involve developing a more detailed survey to expand public input to help shape the growth and renewal strategic plan. Focus groups will need to be defined in cooperation with the steering committee so meetings can be scheduled to look more deeply into specific aspects of the community.
Awareness and outreach efforts continue. Informational cards will be mailed with the Town’s water bills at the end of May. These are intended to reach nearly everyone in the study area, regardless of whether they have internet access. This is because town water serves nearly everyone from Tightsqueeze to ODAC.
The committee encourages you to help in the awareness effort by sharing information with anyone who may be unaware but might possibly be interested. This is all intended to hopefully have people sign up for the email updates. The email list will be important in sending out the more detailed surveys and obtaining as much information as possible to help arrive at the desired community consensus on a town vision. Please check the ReimagineChatham.org site routinely for new information and visit our Facebook page if you use that medium.