Brainstorming
Session
Ideas
from Imagine Madison
will be presented on July 18
Session
is culmination of
Ball State students work in town
By
Laura Hodges
Contributing Writer
MADISON, Ind. (July 2011) Local residents can continue
to Imagine Madison during the month of July.
Led by undergraduate and graduate students at Ball State Universitys
School of Urban and Regional Planning, the community visioning project
will continue this month with a public presentation at 7 p.m. Monday,
July 18. It will be held at the West Street Gallery, 301 West St.
|
Photo
courtesy of Meagan Tuttle/BSU
Local
residents participated in a June
workshop in downtown Madison, Ind.,
to view ideas for developing the city.
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Everyone who would like to hear and talk about innovative
ideas for the city of Madison is welcome to attend. The presentation
is the culmination of a process that included completion of surveys
by many Madison residents, site research by students and interaction
between residents and college students over several months.
On June 16-18, the students and three faculty members led a charette
or workshop at the former Kernens Hardware location. Nearly 100
drawings were displayed to illustrate ideas from the 28 participating
students.
We seemed to have a pretty positive response, said Meagan
Tuttle, a masters candidate and teaching assistant with the Ball
State program. That was very encouraging to us as well.
Jenny Eggenspiller, development director of the city of Madison, said,
I felt that they did a good job of getting input from the community
and making (residents) feel welcome.
She said, It was refreshing to speak with young people who have
good ideas and are interested in taking them to our community.
One community member who attended the charette, Jan Vetrhus, said the
most surprising idea to her was the water lift up the railroad
incline. In simple terms, the system would consist of two cars, which
would be on opposite ends of a pulley system. The north end would be
at Johnson Lake, where a tank in one car would be filled with water.
At the same time, the car at the south end would empty its water into
the Ohio River. Gravity would pull the heavy car slowly down the hill
as the lighter car ascends. Im really excited about that,
she said.
|
Photo
courtesy of Meagan Tuttle/BSU
Participants
look on materials
provided during workshop.
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Vetrhus also liked the idea of terracing the riverbank
with retaining walls and vegetation to hold the soil in place during
flooding. However high the river is, it looks the way it is supposed
to look. That way the riverbank is always useful, she said.
Vetrhus is chairman of the Mitigation Committee which allotted money
to the Imagine Madison project. The Mitigation Committee
is managing funds given by the states of Kentucky and Indiana to mitigate
any negative economic effects from construction of the Madison-Milton
Bridge.
Tuttle said one reason the Ball State group has come up with such innovative
ideas is were coming in with an outsiders perspective.
Many of our students had never been in Madison before. They were
encouraged to draw on knowledge they have learned in the classroom and
to use their own imaginations freely.
She said the ideas fall into five main categories:
Sustainability;
Redevelopment;
Transportation;
Corridors (such as entry ways to Madison and connections between
areas);
Tourism and Economic Development.
A team of five students is looking at issues surrounding sustainability.
Tuttle said they are considering a model for the 100 block of East Main
Street to become energy and resource independent, that is
to find energy sources that arent dependent on coal. That block
could also become a model for re-use of water runoff, Tuttle said.
Tuttle said that at the end of the Imagine Madison project,
the Ball State group will present a comprehensive report with all the
ideas generated by the student team as well as community residents.
Then its in Madisons hands to find the movers and
shakers to implement these ideas, she said.
Eggenspiller commented that although the students were not expected
to provide cost estimates or feasibility studies, they were fairly practical
in the ideas they presented. She added, They realize the possibility
of public-private partnerships. Theyre not expecting to put all
this on the shoulders of the city.
After public presentation of ideas on the July 18, a steering committee
will evaluate the ideas and possibly begin implementing some of them.
Community members who were invited to serve on the steering committee
are: Camille Fife, Dan Baughman, Dave Adams, Dee Comstock, Jim Lee,
Jan Vetrhus, Jim Pruett, John Bruns, Karla Gauger, Kathie Petkovic,
Larry Folkner, Larry Newhouse, Leticia Bajuyo, Linda Lytle, Lucy Dattilo,
Nadja Boone, Peter Ellis, Rhonda Deeg, Beth Black, Robyn Ryle, Terry
Smith, and Tony Ratcliff.
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