Visiting the elected officials in Hendricks County reminded me of the importance of a seemingly simple, yet often overlooked aspect of governing: long-term planning.
Each time I’ve met with local officials in their counties, I close our meetings by asking about best practices that they use that could be replicated across the state. The Hendricks County folks insisted that their focus on long-term project planning and fiscal planning have set them on a course of success not just now, but for years to come.
This type of forward thinking is something that I’ve supported for years. It was one of the driving forces behind the Stellar Communities program I launched last year. Stellar Communities is a collaboration between several state agencies to fund a comprehensive plan for a given city or town. Two communities – North Vernon and Greencastle – won the funding last year and we have a list of applicants for this year’s round as well.
What Stellar has done is force interested communities to think big and make a plan for long-term needs in roads, housing, and quality of life. Even those communities that applied but missed out on the funding in 2011 told us the exercise of planning ahead has been a positive experience for them.
It appears as though the towns in Hendricks County agree. And as the county continues to grow in population, I hope their vision serves them well.
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