Merritt City Council is set to get to work on implementing its new Economic Development Action Plan after approving the 157 page document during its Tuesday meeting.
Mayor Linda Brown says this will help set the table for the how community will go about gaining and retaining business and people in the community. “We came up with some strategies to diversify the economy. What that actually means at this moment is open to wherever our plans take us to. We don’t know the exact industries at this point. But, we know we want to attract new industries, but we also have to retain our current industries and businesses.” Brown says the overall goal is to increase their tax base.
Brown says a major part of the plan is enticing those growing up in the community to stay in the community during adulthood and expanding the job opportunities in the city will help do that. “We need to bring them into our council meetings, we need to work with them, we need to mentor them. First of all we need to retain them by providing that job base, that employment base for them so that they can stay. I was one of these kids that grew up in Merritt and there was no work for me. I did my career outside of Merritt, but came back in retirement.”
Other parts of the plan include improving signage and wayfinding in the community as well as its overall communications strategy. “One of the top priorities in our strategic plan was looking at communicating what we do to the public. Being a little more open and a little more transparent of our decision making pieces. And community engagement. Partnering with our community and enabling our community to be engaged and have a say in what happens in the city as well.”
The plan stated that 50% of current residents have a negative view of Merritt and they believe that 60% of non-residents have a negative view of the city. Brown says they need to improve that first impression which could help improve the way Merritt is perceived from people both inside and outside the community. Brown says it’s a beautiful city and the perception can be changed.
