Group ready to unveil vision for Lima

LIMA - The future of Lima and Allen County is about to appear in PowerPoint

Allen 2020, the group that for the past 18 months has been developing a vision of what the county could look like by 2020, will share that vision with the community next month. Group leaders have tentatively planned a Nov. 13 meeting during which they will unveil the result of nearly two years of planning.

Chairman Lyle Gilbert said the process involved more than 120 volunteers working in 10 categories ranging from the arts and education to land use and public safety.

"Basically, it was open for citizens to dialogue about how they would like Lima to look in 2020. This is a grass-root, nonpolitical effort to get the people together and tackle issues that are important to the community," Gilbert said.

The project actually began six years ago during a conference for the Common Threads project. Participants in the conference were broken into groups to discuss possible advances for the community. One of those original groups eventually evolved into Allen 2020.

The project is a partnership between the Lima Allen Chamber of Commerce and Common Threads. Chamber President Jed Metzger said his group would help shepherd the plan into actual action.

Metzger and others will present the plan and suggested action during the November meeting. They will also take their plan on the road for a variety of presentations to township trustees and other groups. From there, the community volunteers will be asked to lead the charge, Gilbert said.

"Our goal is to have the citizens of Allen County, those interested in seeing a future that they would like to choose rather than one chosen for them, to get involved," Gilbert said.