Printable VersionOn one of the cloudiest days of the year, many members of the community were looking at brighter days ahead.
“We seem to be at a crossroads right now,” Interim City Manager Charlie Cassens said. “Although we’re in a recession we do feel it will come back, and we’re actively preparing for that future.”
The purpose of the session was to envision Lake Havasu City in 20 years and coming up with a strategy and an action plan for the entire community to work toward, Cassens said.
“The goal of the meeting was to begin a process of examining where we want to go as a community,” he said. “It started with the foundation laid by Robert McCulloch. We all agreed that we are experiencing what McCulloch’s goals were and now it’s up to us to take those next steps.”
Mayor Mark Nexsen said the most important goal to him was that the city not become a “one horse” town.
“Yes, we all know tourism is one of our strengths, but I don’t think we can survive on tourism alone,” he said. “If we don’t bring in more jobs and more opportunities, we’re not going to grow to where we want to be.”
While several groups have held different planning meetings in the past, Cassens said having as many stakeholders involved during the discussion could make a big difference.
“Some folks who were there might feel like we didn’t get a lot accomplished, but this kind of strategic planning can take days or weeks or months to finish,” he said. “So, I am really pleased with the progress we made in several hours that would normally take us several days.”
The meeting seemed to hit the right note for several in attendance, including Lake Havasu Hospitality Association Executive Director Greg Tryon.
“I think this was much needed to get the city in unison or on the same page,” he said. “A lot of us are already working together toward the same goals, and there’s a lot we can do but we haven’t had much direction on doing it. We didn’t have enough time (Monday) to finish everything but this could be really great if we keep it moving forward.”
Lake Havasu City Marine Association Executive Director Jim Salscheider agreed.
“I thought the afternoon session was the first sign of leadership I’ve seen from the city in quite a while,” Salscheider said. “With all of the heads of so many volunteer organizations, there’s only so much we can do. We need the city as a partner to actually put this on paper.”
The group also discussed the strengths of the city, which will serve as the backbone of a future plan.
“We know how important the Lake is here,” Salscheider said. “It’s one of our great strengths, and it’s a premiere boating destination in the Western United States. … We have name recognition because of the London Bridge, and we’ve got a great community.”
To go along with the strengths, the group then discussed various weaknesses.
“Our tourist infrastructure needs work. We need to make sure we have a higher quality to offer the tourists that do visit,” Salscheider said. “We also get a lot of negativity, like our education system, that we don’t counter effectively. Our school system is not the worst by a long shot. We have a great school system, and we need to start letting people know about it.”
The group started the foundation for the future of Lake Havasu City Monday, but Cassens said the group would continue the process of developing a strategic plan in additional meetings.
“We got pretty far into the strategic planning process,” Cassens said. “We’re not stopping here. We got some really good feedback, and I think we’re all interested in proceeding with all of the steps from here.”
You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com.
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