Members of six task forces that are the result of the Owen 20/20 survey will have until Dec. 15 to develop a recommended plan of action and present that plan to the community.
Alumni of the Owen County Leadership classes of 2002 and 2004, along with current members of the class of 2006, agreed that should be enough time for the task forces to gather the information they need to make recommendations for the future of the community.
The task forces will be charged with coming up with short-term as well as long-term activities that fit within the framework of the six task forces the leadership group agreed should move forward at this point.
Those task forces — which were based on the nearly 2,400 responses to the Owen 20/20 survey last spring — include county-wide beautification; youth and adult recreation activities; enhancement of community services; economic development - tourism; economic development - agriculture development; and economic development - entrepreneurship.
The group decided that a land-use task force would not be formed. A growth management committee was appointed last spring and has been working for nearly a year to determine whether the community needs to implement land-use mechanisms.
“We’re making the recommendation that we drop the land-use task force to eliminate duplication of efforts,” said Kim Strohmeier, one of the co-chairs of the project.
Strohmeier, speaking to Leadership participants, said there were four options when considering the implementation of the land-use task force: incorporate those who signed up to serve on the land-use task force into the current committee; let them serve independently; let them consider other options, such as right to farm as opposed to planning and zoning; and not to form the task force.
“There may be people who say we’re wimping out on this,” he said. “But this committee is in place and has been working for a year and it appears they’ve done a thorough job. To have asked them to take on new members wouldn’t have been fair to either them or the new members who would have had to play catch up.”
He also said that forming a second committee would waste time since their efforts would most likely duplicate those of the land-use committee.
“And if that committee had come up with a different recommendation, the most likely result would have been nothing would have gotten done,” he added.
Individuals who signed up for the land-use task force will be given the option of picking a different committee. Owen County Judge-Executive Billy O’Banion, who appointed the initial committee, also stated that those who wanted to were welcome to join the committee currently in place. That committee, however, has a rule that no candidates or elected officials may serve and about half of those who signed up for the task force were candidates in the upcoming elections.
The leadership participants were then given specific instructions on how to come to a workable plan in the six areas. A steering committee, made up of three leadership participants as well as the task force chairmen was formed with Jim See, Beverly Miller and Carol Tudor representing the leadership classes. The remaining six positions will be filled when the task forces form and choose chairmen.
Temporary chairs, whose main purpose is to conduct the first meeting of each of the task forces, were also named. They include: Sarah Cobb, beautification; Jude Canchola, recreation; Gary Derringer, community services; Gilbert England, tourism; Karen Towles, agriculture development; and Carl Cummins, entrepreneurship.
The temporary chairs will set the first meeting of their individual task forces with a goal of bringing a plan back to the community by Dec. 15.
“The goal is to have a concrete product to present by Dec. 15,” explained Dr. Lori Garkovich, a specialist from the University of Kentucky who has been working with the project from the beginning.
A meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. April 25 at the extention office to explain the process to all task force members. Anyone interested in serving on a task force should plan to attend. Dinner will be served.

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