News : Roadside improvements: Shellsburg begins Transportation Visioning Program

The Shellsburg visioning committee will have its first meeting on Saturday February 16th, 9:00 am, at Wildcat Golf Course. Shellsburg has been selected to participate in the 2013 Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program.

Community Visioning is a transportation enhancement planning program that serves Iowa communities under 10,000 in population. The program helps community volunteers envision aesthetic and ecological improvements along roadsides and related landscapes by blending environmental stewardship with community improvement projects.

The purpose of this initial meeting is to introduce community members to the Iowa’s Living Roadways programs and the visioning process. Shellsburg’s steering committee members will discuss their motivation for participating in the program and identify their goals and expectations. The community’s participation in the visioning program will begin with a survey developed by ISU to gather input regarding the citizen’s desires. Information and opinions shared in the survey will be very important in determining landscape enhancements.

During this process, Iowa State University’s landscape architecture department coordinates on-site community workshops with design professionals, ISU student interns and computer-aided visualization services. Trees Forever field coordinators provide guidance, education and structured facilitation of the planning process. Professional landscape architects create the conceptual design plans that reflect the vision of community leaders and volunteers.

At the conclusion of the Community Visioning Program, drawings and photographs describing the concept designs, along with an action plan, prepare the community to build on the visioning process, step by step, as resources become available.

For further information about participating the visioning process, please call Nancy Thorkildson at (319)-521-4080 or Dustin Hinrichs, Trees Forever field coordinator, at (319) 440-7529.

The Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation in partnership with Iowa State University Extension Landscape Architecture and Trees Forever, an Iowa-based nonprofit organization with a mission to plant trees and care for the environment. Since 1996, 192 Iowa communities have benefited from the Visioning Program.

Contacts:

Nancy Thorkildson, Shellsburg resident, (319) 521-4080

Dustin Hinrichs, Trees Forever, (319) 440-7529