Wagner, SD

Goal 1: To Create an Attractive Community

Objective 1:             The Horizons Cleanup Task force will conduct semi-annual community clean-ups.  To be conducted the first weekends of May and August every year.

Implementation Steps:

1.  At the start of each year the task group will contact the City of Wagner, the Yankton Sioux Housing Authority (YSHA) and the National Guard to request participation.

a.    Ask City to contribute operators, equipment, volunteers and budget for landfill fees.

b.    Ask YSHA to furnish equipment, operators, use of their landfill, and volunteers.

c.      Ask National Guard to furnish trucks, operators, and volunteers.

2.      The week of the cleanup the committee will call homeowners and landlords to get permission to pick up “stuff.”

3.      Following each cleanup the task group will prepare a summary report to have available for presentations to service clubs and city officials for financial support and volunteer recruitment.

Evaluation Method:

The Horizons Annual Cleanup Committee will take before and after pictures to demonstrate progress in goal achievement.  The committee will prepare an article for the newspaper to be published the week following the cleanups, and submit a report to the Wagner Horizons Vision Group within 30 days of the cleanups. Information regarding the cleanups will be posted on the blog.

Objective 2:            Develop a Community Beautification Program

Implementation Steps:

1.      Form a Beautification Committee by February 1, 2008

2.      The committee will investigate areas to plant flowers and where to get funding by March 30, 2008.

3.        Committee will establish a “Yard of the Week” program to implement summer of 2008 by May 1, 2008. 

Evaluation Method:

The Horizons Vision Committee will ask the gardeners to take before and after pictures for a final report to the committee by October 31, 2008 with suggestion s for the following year.  Progress throughout the growing season will be posted on the blog.

Objective 3:            Determine ways to reduce vandalism & graffiti issues.

Implementation Steps:

1.      Form a committee to assess the severity and develop methods of intervention

2.      Contact city officials and seek their participation on the committee by February 1, 2008.

3.      Contact Law Enforcement to get their cooperation by January 15, 2008.

4.      Assess the extent of the problem by March 1, 2008.

5.      Contact other communities who have dealt with similar problems by May 1, 2008

6.      Develop and report a program to the Horizons Strategic Vision Committee by June 1, 2008.

7.      Implement the program beginning June 2, 2008 through December 31, 2008.

Method of Evaluation:

A record of the frequency of graffiti and vandalism for the past year will be established using police department records.  These will be compared with similar records during implementation and afterwards.

Before and after photos will be taken to record the improvements of individual incidents.

**With-in the past couple of weeks Weisser’s has been broke into.  The front glass door was broke and vandals gained entrance to go on and steal beer and cigerettes.**

Members of the Wagner community have been participated in the Study Circles and Leadership Plenty training provided through the Horizons II program, which was funded by the Northwest Area Foundation.  This training focused on leadership development of members of our community.  Those who participated learned how to express themselves in public, work in groups, deal with conflict, identify and refine community issues, and how to develop plans to take action.  It helped identify the human capital of our community—the skills and interests of our citizens and their willingness to make Wagner a better place in which to live, raise families, and retire.  New relationships also developed during the training.  This new social capital created the energy to address some of the issues that are in our community.  The plan that follows is first step in making Wagner safer, more attractive, and a more progressive community.

In order to provide community support of this community strategic plan, the Northwest Area Foundation requested that input be received from at least 15% of our community.  The number for Wagner’s was 201.  A total of 289 surveys were returned.  The community members were informed of the surveys through a newspaper article, drop boxes were at First Dakota National Bank & Commercial State Bank, Rotary members, Triple F Supply, Wagner Good Samaritan Center, Wagner Community Memorial Hospital, the Visioning Committee, and Wagner Community School. Students and school staff returned 226.  The results of these surveys will be shared with the school district staff and youth agencies of the community.  Thirty blank surveys were delivered to Yankton Sioux Housing Authority, but none of those were returned.

A sample of 51 adult surveys was analyzed.  The following are the top issues of that group:

1)        Describe Wagner to a stranger:

          FRIENDLY & CULTURALLY FRIENDLY; GREAT SCHOOL SYSTEM

2)        What would make you more comfortable in our town?

          MORE POLICE, LESS CRIME

3)        What three things do you like best about Wagner?

 FRIENDLY, WAGNER LAKE & OTHER PARKS, SCHOOL & SCHOOL OPPORTUNITIES IT PROVIDES.

4)  What three things do you like least about Wagner?

          UNKEMPT PROPERTY, VANDALISM & GRAFFITI

5)  What are the three most important improvements Wagner needs in the next

      five years?

INDUSTRY, ASSISTED LIVING, MUNICIPAL POWER, CLEAN UP MAIN STREET, CLEAN UP THE SALE BARN, STOP LIGHT ON HIGHWAY 50.

This information can be found in the Community Strategic Plan, 2007, for Wagner, SD.  There is a great deal of other useful information that I will be posting as the weeks go on.  Please read and share your comments with me!!  Also, I would like to take pictures of items pertaining to our city and our future goals.  Please keep me posted if you see such things. 

Dawn Bures

Remember those “FUN” pre and post surveys that the Horizons Staff had you take during Study Circles and LeadershipPLENTY?

Believe it or not - it was for a purpose!  Those pre and post surveys help us to understand how much your community learned about poverty and about leadership by your participation in those specified curriculums.

As a result, we have assembled a community profile with the results of the pre and post surveys for both Study Circles and LeadershipPLENTY.  Check out your community results by clicking on the links found under “Survey Data” on the right hand side of your community blog.