Madeline Frume, introduced Kelly Shaw the Amarillo City Director of Planning. Planning is
“When government officials, business leaders, and citizens come together to build communities that enrich people’s lives, that’s planning.” –
American Planning Association. The City of Amarillo’s Planning Department manages a broad scope of programs and activities ranging from annexation for future development, to shaping neighborhoods and communities, to promoting redevelopment. The Planning Department maintains a substantial collection of mapping and demographic information for the City of Amarillo. Mr. Shaw shared with Rotary that recently through the direction of Terry Childers, the Amarillo Interim City Manager, a program called “
BluePrint for Amarillo” has been put into place. This program sets the strategic direction that the City of Amarillo will take in terms of focus, priorities and allocation of resources. By following a Community Engagement model, City staff have developed a process to pursue the
BluePrint for Amarillo objectives and initiatives in a way that can be measured. The program is a Top Down Initiative and addresses the following areas: (1) continue downtown redevelopment/Liberty Square efforts; (2) provide more opportunities for youth athletics and increased athletic facilities; (3) develop a capital improvement plan; (4) improve community appearance; and (5) improve the city’s older disadvantaged neighborhoods. Mr. Shaw is the team leader of the 5
th area being addressed. The group he is working with includes officials from Police, Public Health, WIC and the City Planning department. The first Amarillo neighborhood being considered for improvement is the “Heights area” of Amarillo. This area is located in north Amarillo between US Hwy. 87 and the railroad tracks. The initial meeting with the Heights area neighborhood was held on February 11, 2016 and was a huge success. All attendees at the meeting were asked to assist with developing a neighborhood plan by identifying what is undesirable about the current neighborhood conditions and what residents desire to be changed. This was followed by identifying what current residents want the neighborhood to become. Action strategies were agreed upon to address the physical environment, social, educational, housing and economic items that were identified during the meeting. An actual physical document will be created and acted upon. (
Bill Chudej 806-676-6850) The Amarillo City Council has partnered with the Potter County Commissioners court to fund $150,000.00 to use towards creating a more desirable neighborhood. Each put in $75,000.00. Success for
BluePrint for Amarillo is identified by, “The Process the plan goes through and everyone buying into being a part of the positive change.” The next two areas in Amarillo to be addressed are the Barrio area and then the San Jacinto area. More information about the
BluePrint for Amarillo can be found at
http://blueprint.amarillo.gov/ .
Jeff Lester, President, presided over the meeting, Invocation was led by John Kanelis, classification Newspaper Publishing, David O’Dell led the opening ceremony which included singing the God Bless America and the pledge to the American flag, Introduction of guests and visiting Rotarians was led by Dan Quandt classification Convention & Visitor Council. Guests present were Maggie Taliaferro, guest of Pam Thomas, and Rosemartha Tyson, guest of John Tyson. Also, in attendance was Ruth Quackenbush, from West Rotary Club and Chris Atkison, assistant District 5730 from the Post, Texas Rotary Club. Thank you to Dale Bippus and Gail Bram for greeting, Cal Harriman for ticket sales, Kevin Gandy for Wheels, Melvin Edes for providing free beef jerky, Rocky Gafford for providing a free pizza and Gina Rodriquez for taking care of everything else.
Ticket Drawing: The pot is up to $ 2,907.00, and it continues to grow. (David Norris 806-679-9326)
Quote: “Constant Kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.” Author- Albert Schweitzer (January 12, 1875 – September 4, 1965) French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician
