Butler County Tribune, IA
03/06/06
Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program comes to Aplington
The city of Aplington has been chosen to participate in the Iowa’s Living
Roadways Community Visioning Program, a program designed to assist Iowa’s
small communities in landscape enhancement planning. The program brings
local leaders and volunteers together with the professional designers to create
visionary approaches to community betterment. The objective of the visioning
program is to design liveable communities by creating an aesthetically appealing
environment that meets residents’ basic needs. “The visioning program
addresses community enhancements related in some way to transportation,” said
Sandra Oberbroeckling, project manager for the visioning program at Iowa
State University. “Examples of projects proposed by committees are entrance
corridor enhancements such as landscaping and entryway signs.” Aplington is
described in the visioning program application submitted by the community as
“pleasant, peaceful, clean and safe.” Areas described as needing improvements
are the U.S. Highway 57 entrances on both the east and west sides of the city
and beautification of the city park. Jenny Troyna, economic development director
for the city of Aplington, said the two areas were chosen because they were the
most public areas in the community. “The two entrances are the main entrances
[to town],” she said. “We’ve got entrance signs, but they need to be spruced up.”
Troyna said they want the park to “look as nice as possible” for their annual
celebration of Aplington Days when the location is the host of events. Aplington
shares a common goal with the 113 Iowa communities that have participated in
the visioning program¾proposing to enhance or expand trails to make outdoor
physical activity more convenient. “A lot of small communities have been
proposing enhancements related to trails,” Oberbroeckling said. “Trails are
becoming a really popular form of recreation.” A survey developed to identify the
needs of the community was sent to randomly selected residents on February
10. The survey data will be used to measure items such as the priority of physical
activity to citizens, commuting habits, the importance of community
enhancements and the willingness of community members to participate in the
implementation of projects. The survey results will be incorporated into a goal
setting process that includes an inventory of Aplington’s resources. The inventory
process includes an analysis of cultural, historical, visual and natural resources in
the community. A participatory design process is used to get input from the
community as a whole as well as the steering committee to make meaningful
decisions regarding transportation enhancements in the community. Visioning is
a collaboration of the Iowa Department of Transportation, Iowa State University
and Trees Forever