The Envision Lincoln teams and their strategies

Health and Well-being

The health and well-being action team, led by Lisa Gibson and Laurie Richards, chose to begin their efforts with an education campaign aimed at increasing safety and reducing crime, and by developing family friendly events for Lincoln.

Throughout Envision Lincoln, drugs and crimes reporting emerged as a leading concern for community well-being. At local meetings, Lewis and Clark County Deputy Sheriff Chris Joyce often talks about the need for proper and timely reporting, which can be done anonymously.

When locals do call, they also often call him directly, rather than use the 911 or non-emergency numbers. That creates problems for timely responses if he’s off duty or out of service, possible safety issues for him when he’s on duty, and affects accurate crime statistics for the area.

“There’s no way to gather any relevant information about what actually is needed unless they do call the official numbers, so things are actually documented,” Gibson said.

Gibson’s team also plans to develop farmers market, craft and music events.

“We felt like it was not only a fun thing to do, but also a way to really highlight the local talent and offerings here,” she said.

Although Lincoln isn’t a big farming community, she said they’ll try to get a mix of local suppliers and non-local producers to improve healthy eating options here.

Gibson said her team is also fully supportive of Rick Freeland’s Powerhouse project and will look for ways to collaborate with him on it.

The Health and Well-being Team plans to meet again at 5 p.m., April 23 at Susie Gehring’s house at Spring Creek RV park.

Gibson said anyone is welcome to join. “It’s not just a little cliquey group that’s gonna get together and run everything. We want outside involvement from whoever would like to be involved.”

The Economy Action Team may have the heaviest lift of all three groups. Economic revitalization has been the most pressing concern discussed during Envision Lincoln. It’s a long-standing and complex issue with any number of differing priorities among community members for addressing it, but the team opted to focus on three efforts to get the ball rolling.

The first and possibly the most multifaceted strategy is Main Street beautification, walkability and safety. Lincoln’s empty commercial buildings, lack of developed paths, sidewalks or traffic-calming features was identified early in the process as something that makes Lincoln feel uninviting to both travelers and prospective businesses.

“What it all came down to really was that we were looking at downtown Main Street and trying to do some facelifts on certain places, develop a little character and figure out connectivity so people can walk around and kids can be safe while they’re walking to school,” team leader Ernie Lundberg said.

The team’s first step will be to set up a meeting with Tash Wisemiller, who visited Lincoln last month to discuss the state’s Montana Main Street Program, for information on how to proceed with developing a plan and how to work with main street businesses, property owners and the Montana Department of Transportation.

“There are going to be a lot of players involved. That’s going to be key, I think, to bring in all those players and landowners together, and make it a community project,” Lundberg said. “I think we got a good start.”

“I think what’s exciting about the fact the economy team is thinking about Main Street is that this effort has given that group the community’s sort of buy-in and encouragement to think about that issue and to take those first steps,” said Amy McNamara, with Trust for Public Lands.

The team will set the date for their next meeting after talking to Wisemiller.

Their second priority is to develop and implement a communications strategy in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce and Historical Society to highlight local activities and recreation by developing kiosks, maps, advertising and a visitor information center.

The teams third strategy is to create a subgroup focused on the Lincoln Airport, with Jerry Cain and Karen Frank-Plumlee tackling the effort to work with Lincoln-area pilots and hanger owners on a vison for the facility. They will also work on improving the airport’s connectivity to town through trails and a courtesy car and on promoting Lincoln through aviation community websites.

Natural Resources

The Natural Resources Action Team chose to limit their initial effort to one area: Trails.

Like the Economic team they saw the walkability issue as a major piece of the puzzle for Lincoln’s success and gravitated toward a strategy that involves a natural history education trail and signage.

“In order to get people up close and personal with wildlife and nature, it’s going to require trails,” team leader Gary Moseman said.

He said one primary focus of a potential trails system for the area involves connecting Sculpture in the Wild, Hooper Park and the River Park to the community.

In support of the vision Lincoln has for trails, part of the LOR Grant funding for Lincoln will be used to bring Trust for Public Land’s expertise in trail planning to bear as the Natural Resources Action Team moves ahead with their trail strategy.

Before their next meeting April 19, members of the Natural Resources team have several specific tasks to address, such as identifying additional partners for the trail effort, defining the area and the trails that connect to Lincoln and identifying the different types of trails and who they expect to use them.

Although the Natural Resources and Economy teams may overlap in their efforts to improve walkability in the Lincoln area, Trust for Public Lands’s Amy McNamara doesn’t see it as a problem, since it will increase coordination between the teams.

“I think it’s a positive thing that there is overlap in each of the action teams that are moving forward,” she said. “It will be important as they move forward that those groups come back together every three months or six months or annually, to coordinate and share their work and coordinate their progress.”

The teams should have the opportunity to compare notes when the Envision Lincoln “Core Team” - a semi-formal board comprised of community members who have been involved in the process since its inception-meets later in the spring to check in on the teams’ progress.

A larger, community-wide Envision Lincoln meeting is also in the plans for late spring or early summer.