In the summer of 2017, members of Barton County Young Professionals were meeting with at-the-time interim Great Bend City Administrator George Kolb. Kolb challenged the group to think about Great Bend’s future and what they wanted to the city to look like 20 years from now. Shortly after the interaction with Kolb, BCYP secured funding from the Harm Trust to hire Shockey Consulting to form a visioning process and strategic plan.
The visioning group, Great Bend Better than Great, brought in 55 community members to form a steering committee and received public feedback on goals for the city going forward.
Great Bend Better than Great Co-Chair Mark Mingenback says those goals are established and ready for the implementation phase.
“The risk with a plan like this is does it just go onto a shelf,” said Mingenback. “The shelf gets dusty, and then in a few years people look at this and wonder what it is. Being concerned about that, we have a plan to map the future and hold parties accountable for the goals.”
(Read more: Great Bend Post)
