Starting this week, insights from hundreds of residents about the future direction of Cortez will be shared with the community at large.
The Heart and Soul Project of Cortez has worked diligently over the past year-and-a-half to discover what makes our community beat. Through one-on-one interviews, formal and informal gatherings, block parties, community conversations and surveys, the project has gathered information from local residents to determine what makes their town special or where it can be improved.
“Many people have participated in some fashion or another as we reached out to community members to find out what they value most about our community,” said organizer Robby Henes. “We will meet together with some of the major decision makers and map out all the ideas that arose during our conversations.”
The first Community Conversation Synthesis to outline how the information can be used in the future will be held beginning at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2, at Empire Electric’s Calvin Denton Room.
In January 2012, the Orton Family Foundation awarded Cortez with a city planning grant to help uncover the uniqueness of our community’s heartbeat and determine how to uphold it.
Henes believes many local institutions could utilize the insights and collective wisdom gained from the conversations as a basis in how they move forward with their own missions.
For more information on Heart and Soul’s meetings and development, visit its website at www.cortezheartandsoul.com or call 564-4079.
tbaker@cortezjournal.com
