The Civic Capacity Countdown - #8: Contention or Cooperation
A Downtown Building is at the heart of a community response
We are just over one week away until the Civic Capacity celebrates its first full year of publishing relevant and valuable information to our communities here in Miami County. To help mark the milestone, this publication for the next few days is going to countdown ten of the most widely read and most impactful stories that have been written the past year at Civic Capacity.
This publication is growing each and every day and whether you have been with us from day one or just yesterday, looking back at these stories help remind all of us how far we have come, not just as a publication, but also as a community.
Back in 2017, the author and Council Member Todd Severt came up with an idea; what would it look like if the at-large council members came together to have informal conversations with residents about their concerns. What came out of that idea was a quarterly meeting with residents and council members held at different places around the community to improve the communication between City Hall and our residents.
One such meeting was held on March 9th and representatives from the Troy Historic Preservation Alliance were in attendance to discuss a burdensome load-bearing test that was being required for the stabilization of the IOOF/Old Miami County Courthouse.
This particular edition of our publication became more impactful when one realizes that just one day before this meeting, the city’s legal counsel sent a letter to Judge Wall asking that the stabilization project be halted and that the building be demolished. I seriously doubt any of the council members in attendance knew that letter had existed, but that letter demonstrates the lengths some individuals took to not work in a spirit of cooperation, but in a spirit of contention.
And in the end, cooperation won out.
This town has always been a town built on cooperative efforts. Individuals, groups and businesses for generations have worked together to make our community a stronger and more vibrant place for visitors and residents. Ask anyone who has been in our town for any period of time, cooperation helps make our community what it is today.
This publication hopes it is a spirit that never dies out.
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