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Madison Downtown Improvement Task Force Meets October 22; Volunteers Welcome!

In a sign that Madison's leaders may be coming to their senses, the Lake Area Improvement Corporation is finally putting together the Downtown Improvement Task Force:

Ashley Kenneth Allen is happy to announce that he will be representing this group's views and opinions on the new Downtown Improvement Taskforce led by the LAIC. We will be having a recruiting and kick-off meeting on Monday, October 22nd at 5 PM in the Madison Depot meeting room. Any individual interested in participating in Downtown Development and has 4-8 hours a month to volunteer is welcome to join us for our first official meeting. We will be establishing a committee of 8-10 individuals to work on initiatives to maintain and improve Downtown Madison. If you are interested, let us know [Citizens for Real Economic Development in Madison, Facebook post, October 9, 2012].

They've picked Ashley Kenneth Allen, and they are taking volunteers? It would appear the LAIC may be recognizing that Ashley and I are right about downtown development and citizen participation.

Alas, the LAIC is still lacking on the social media outreach side. There's no mention yet of the Downtown Improvement Task Force on the LAIC website. They haven't posted it to the Madison events calendar. But maybe LAIC exec Julie Gross knows she can count on Ashley on Facebook and Madison's most-read blog to get out the word.

4 Comments

  1. Mike H 2012.10.11

    What is AKA doing these days?

  2. First, I want to say that Julie Gross is doing a fabulous job at the LAIC. She has many great projects in the works and she has really opened communication lines with so many people.

    Julie has been very nice to me, involving me in the first stage of setting up this committee. I sincerely appreciate it. We are hoping to have a committee of 8-10 people for the taskforce. We have been talking to many people and asking for volunteers directly. Farmers, Downtown Businesses, Pastors, Bankers, Non-Profit leaders, etc. etc. We have been successful in recruiting a number of people so far.

    We are trying to build a group that can bring many views and opinions. To accomplish this, I have asked Julie to also have the first meeting open to the public to make sure that we reach anyone else that has 4-8 hours a month to volunteer. We are looking for serious people that can dedicate a lot of time to improving downtown.

    If anyone has suggestions, or complaints, or views that they want to share about Downtown, but do not want to be on the committee, I would suggest writing an email or letter to the LAIC or the committee, as this meeting will be specifically to form the committee and begin the initial work. I am sure there will be public input meetings in the future, but this one is specifically for forming the committee and organizing volunteers.

    Again, it is my honor to represent the diverse group on Facebook called "Citizens for Real Economic Development." This group of almost 200 people are passionate about retail development and have been very supportive of my efforts in the past. I will report progress to that group and your readers here on Madvilletimes.com.

  3. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.10.11

    Thanks for the update, Ashley! I hope the project works for the general welfare in an open, transparent process.

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