Project provides map for local change

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert County Leadership Class’s “Our Story. Our Opportunity.” county branding project culminated on Friday with the presentation of results and a video highlighting the county during a breakfast presentation held at Willow Bend Country Club.

The presentation ended months of surveys and focus meetings designed to get county residents’ opinions on just what exactly the county is to them — and what it is not.

In all, 332 county residents gave their opinions, a sampling that Main Street Van Wert Executive Director Dan Baisden, who is also a member of the leadership class, said was very good, noting that similar surveys in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Toledo each garnered less than 1,000 responses from areas much larger than Van Wert County.

Baisden and Amanda Miller, another leadership class member, presented the findings of the project, which was designed to discover both what county residents think the county is now, and what they would like to see it become in the future.

“We wanted to have a project that represented the entire community,” Baisden said, noting that the project did so, with people from all areas of the county, including Delphos, represented in the survey.

As part of the survey, the leadership class asked those responding to describe what the county is, and is not, to them.

Some of the words used to describe what the county is were “traditional”, “established”, “safe”, “cautious”, “consistent”, “practical”, “charitable”, “neighborly”, and “caring”.

Words that don’t describe the county included “thrilling”, “daring”, “risk taking”, “forward thinking”, “unconventional”, and “industrial leader”.

“It’s very common here in Van Wert County — and even our region as a whole — that we run 7-10 years behind,” Miller noted. “So whatever is happening somewhere else that you think is cutting edge, we might decide that it’s okay and good to try something like that 10 years from now.”

The survey also asked respondents to rate how they would like to see the county change, using a slide graph that rates how much people would like to see change from conservative to progressive (not politically), from relaxed to aggressive, from economy to luxury, from artistic to scientific, from fun to serious, from emotional to logical, and from introvert to extrovert.

Results from the survey indicate that county residents would like to see the county quite a bit more progressive, somewhat more aggressive, a little more luxurious, about the same as we are artistically, and a little bit more fun, logical, and extroverted.

Conclusions from the survey included the following”

While county residents recognize that being safe, secure, and traditional has its benefits, they also can hold the community back from opportunities for development, and that working to be more aggressive and open-minded to alternatives is essential to future growth of the community.

Being too conservative (slow to react to change) is holding the community back from advancement and opportunity, and the county should be willing to try new innovative ideas from time to time.

While the world passes Van Wert County by, the residents take notice; lagging population, loss of innovation, lack of cohesive county vision are giving individuals a laissez-faire(just letting things go on as they are) attitude about the county that could have long-term negative effects.

The county needs increased community pride in its surroundings, housing, building types, neighborhoods, etc.

The final component of the survey was to define “lenses” — areas in which we excel — on which marketing and storytelling can be based. Those lenses for Van Wert County include its educational facilities, its artistic bent, and its accessibility.

A side question also asked what county residents would buy if they had a blank check. Those responding said they would buy more downtown development (which Baisden said he supported, not surprisingly), a community swimming pool or waterpark, and more sidewalks and trails in the county.

The leadership class also developed a marketing video for the county that was also shown to those who attended the breakfast meeting (see below).