Linden 2025 unveils draft vision, mission statements

By Bobby Horn Jr.

 

LINDEN—The next public meeting of the Linden 2025 committee will be held at the Mary Daughty Senior Citizen on March 3 at 6 p.m.

City Administrator Bob Swisher said that since the committee began meeting Jan. 14, they have developed Draft Vision and Mission Statements, goal areas and specific tasks that fall under each goal. The 2025 Draft Vision is “In 2025, Linden will be a friendly, accessible, historic small town destination with outstanding family values and venues for music, recreation and retail,” while the 2025 Draft Mission is “To achieve our 2025 Vision for Linden, we will unite and beautify Linden to attract business and investment and to provide quality community services, events and infrastructure now and in the future.”

Rather than focus on one area of Linden, the committee has developed a list of six goal areas, each one with specific tasks tied to them. The goal areas are unification, beautification, business and investment, community services, events and infrastructure.

“Unification was deemed the most critical and the first of the goals to be addressed if the other goals were to be achieved,” Swisher said.

The committee said that the use of events, such as existing ones like the rodeo and Wildflowers Trails Festival as well as new ones such as 4th of July; Lumberjack event; Frisbee/Horseshoe event and adult sports league could help unify the community.

In the area of beautification, the committee came up with three tasks: publicize and enforce existing services, develop funding for existing organizations that keep Linden clean (such reviving the Yard of the Month designation) and develop new funding, new partners and new organization(s) to clean-up Linden. A fourth task, with a specific emphasis for Linden’s downtown area was also added.

Through the use of incentive packages for business and industry, the committee said it hopes to “Rebrand Linden as a business and entertainment hub” by attracting not only copycat businesses such as 5-D Steakhouse and Morris Twin but also what it called “subsidiary businesses” such as logging and western stores, for example.

Improving the city’s infrastructure is another area of concern. In addition to upgrades to the water and sewage system, the committee said it would like to see installation of fiber optic lines, improvements to the roads and sidewalks and utilities buried where possible.

The committee said that it has come up with several areas that need addressing to improve community service. 

These include development and expansion of existing health, wellness and medical services as well as fitness opportunities (e.g. fitness center, walking paths, cycling paths), expanding child care options and assisted living options and providing continuing education in language, computer systems, dance, cooking, art, painting, watercolor, sculpture, poetry among other areas.Dius cum