March 28, 2024

Council, city beginning work on strategic plan

To keep up with ever-evolving community needs, the city is beginning to look at the Newton Strategic Plan.

Work on the strategic plan for 2017-2019 begins for the city council with a review of the vision, mission and value statements, which were last established in the 2015-2017 Action Plan.

“Four years ago, as we began a new direction for the city council at that time, we started out with the idea of establishing a vision of the community. Through some of that process the city council adopted the mission and vision statements along with some values,” city administrator Bob Knabel said.

The current vision statement for the city states: Newton shines brightly: Newton is a progressive, family friendly community, a rising star of Central Iowa, and a place to call home. The mission statement says: The mission of the city of Newton is to be the best provider of excellent services through a professional, innovative team dedicated to high quality performance and fiscal responsibility.

Finally, the value statement for the city reads. We provide leadership and support to create and maintain a thriving community through these values: we act with honesty and integrity; We demonstrate compassion and empathy; we are accountable and dependable; and we serve through collaboration and teamwork. We serve with pride and respect. This is our commitment to those we serve.

“The vision and mission statements identifies where we want to go, what we want the future to look like and how we plan to get there,” Knabel said.

The council has been charged with looking at each statement and bring feedback to city staff at a future meeting.

Work has already started for city staff on the update by way of the community survey that took place earlier this year.

“The Planning and Zoning Commission is working through the survey as a beginning point for the future needs of the community and the direction citizens in the community see the organization and the community as a whole going in,” Knabel said.

Knabel said all of these efforts are particularly important for the comprehensive plan because it is a multi-year initiative with multi-year considerations. The community investment plan is also what the city directors use to allow for planning as to when major needs are going to be necessary.

“The comprehensive plan provides a broad overview for the direction of the community. It is the city action plan and the community investment plan that provides the implementation tool for the comp plan,” Knabel said. “The community investment plan and comprehensive plan go together for you to actually set a course for your annual budget.”

He finished by telling the council that while staff assists with work to complete the plans, it is the council as elected officials that make the final decisions.

“It is your statement as the direction that you want the city to go,” Knabel said.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com