Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, IA
12-05-06
Pair of women work to convince Oakland to focus on growth
NICOLE WEIS, Staff Writer
OAKLAND - A retired teacher and a glass bead artist: One has lived in Oakland
for the past 21 years after relocating from California, and the other has owned a
jewelry business in the community for approximately one year.
What do they have in common? Not a whole lot, but Ruth Murray and Kelly
Shatto do share one passion - their love for small town life.
While neither has an official title, they call themselves the mouthpieces for the
Oakland Enrichment Project Team, an organization dedicated to examining and
tackling community improvement issues.
"I feel Oakland has a lot of very interesting and talented people," said Murray,
whose husband David is also on the OEPT. "We have a lot of potential here.
People care about each other. But the community works in segments. We need
to pull together the segments."
Murray and Shatto have found, however, the first step in doing that is to combat
apathy.
Of the 120 business and building owners who received postcards informing them
of a presentation during which they would be given the chance to voice their
suggestions to better Oakland, only four showed up.
"We need to get everybody in the same boat, headed in the same direction,"
Shatto emphasized, referring to the low turnout.
The chance to do that will be this weekend when Oakland participates in a threeday community design workshop, which will be held Thursday through Saturday .
After receiving a $5,000 grant from Iowa West Foundation and $500 from the city
of Oakland, the OEPT has arranged for a team of eight volunteer architects,
consisting of professionals with the Iowa Architectural Foundation and
students in the College of Design program at Iowa State University, to offer
consulting advice along with an official set of possible design plans for Oakland.
Local business owners can also set up appointments to consult with the
architects.
For its $5,500 investment, the city will be receiving approximately $30,000 worth
of work.
"We're not going to feel it in our pockets," Murray said. "These plans will enable
us to apply for grants that will specifically target areas that we would like to
improve."
Those areas include the entrances to Oakland, the historic downtown area and
the signage in the community.
"We want to take some things that are really not the nicest looking and landscape
them, or camouflage them," said Murray. "What I would envision is the entire
area of the Oakland corridor coordinated with landscape that is easily
maintained."
Making the downtown storefronts and the backs of buildings that face the main
drag in Oakland more presentable are on the list of cosmetic changes Murray
would like to see.
Both Murray and Shatto believe enhancing the current architecture and creating
a more inviting downtown shopping district would draw people to the city and
influence residents of Oakland to shop locally more often, something vital for
retail businesses, like Shatto Designs and others, to succeed.
"If we don't shop local, we're cutting our own throats," Shatto said. "The goal is
not to die. If small towns don't continue thriving, they die.
"Change brings growth," the business owner continued. "What we're trying to do
is cause change to happen. If it doesn't, the community will go stagnant."
On Saturday eveningat 6 p.m., the community is invited to the Oakland
Community Building to review the Design Team's suggested changes and plans.
The culmination of the plans will hopefully guide the community in goal setting
and eventually finding funding resources to make the plans a reality.
It's an opportunity that shouldn't be missed, according to Murray.
"This will make our town a better place to live and do business," she said. "We
want to involve the community to promote Oakland. We want to get people
involved so they feel a part of Oakland."