On Tuesday, April 19, as part of the Competitive Florida Partnership Grant that Madison County received back in December, representatives with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) and members of the community formed five teams to participate in the Competitive Florida City of Madison Asset Mapping Exercise.
The five teams included:
Black Team: Tim Bennett, City Manager; Tim Johns, Enterprise Florida; Brian Kauffman, Suwannee River Water Management District; Taylor Teepell, DEO; Britney Moore, DEP and Liesl Voges, DEO and Tour Facilitator.
Blue Team: Brenna Dacks, Visit Florida; Lisa Frieman, Madison Chamber of Commerce; Bob Gitzen, DEO and Tour Facilitator; Stormie Knight, DACS; Elda Rogers, USDA and Chris Peary, DEO.
Green Team: Jason Aldridge, DOS; Gaylen Phillips, DOS; Myra Valentine, City of Madison; Ronni Wood, DOS; Jeremy Crute, FSU and Samantha Parks, DEO and Tour Facilitator.
Red Team: Thea Austin, DEO; Brian Bergen, Putnam Chamber of Commerce; Steve Minnis, Suwanne River Water Management District; Jessica Webb, City of Madison; Mark Yelland, DEO and Tour Facilitator and Korinna MacNeill, DEA.
Yellow Team: Doug Brown, Madison Superintendent of Schools; Lindsay Cohn, DEO; Richard Fetchick, DEO and Tour Facilitator; Jennifer Johnson, DOH; Diane Head, CareerSource North Florida and Kenda Robinson, USDA.
Asset mapping is a key part of the Competitive Florida City Planning Council process. The concept of this exercise is that each community is unique and has its own assets.
Throughout the day, each team toured several different locations in Madison that are considered assets, or the points of strengths, for the county. By visiting these areas of interests and reviewing the feedback of the teams, DEO is able to determine what the grant money will benefit most in the community. The different assets visited included the Busy Bee, the Madison Church of God Family Life Center, O'Toole's Herb Farm, Treasures of Madison County Museum, Jellystone Park, Downtown Madison, the Greene property, Madison County Memorial Hospital, North Florida Community College and many, many other sites.
At each asset, attendees were encouraged to reflect and delve into issues along the lines of their subject matter expertise in ways that they would feel would ultimately be useful to the asset in question.
After the site visits were complete, the teams and individuals of the Madison County community gathered at the Main Street Playhouse for a delicious lunch, catered by Norris Cafe.
When lunch was finished, Liesl Voges, DEO’s Competitive Florida project manager, opened the afternoon session with an overview presentation and introduced her colleague, Richard Fetchick, DEO planner.
Fetchick called on each of the asset mapping teams’ members to provide their individual reflections on the assets that impressed them during the morning site visits.
The assets mentioned the most were “how nice the people are in Madison,” and “the beauty and charm of downtown Madison.” Next were team reflections and getting ready for team presentations.
The Blue Team commented that “everybody they met in Madison was positive,” and their belief that the Madison Church of God Family Life Center was their selection as top asset for the future range of services that would be provided to the residents of Madison.
The Black Team rated “beautiful downtown Madison” as the City’s top asset! The Yellow Team, which visited Madison’s new hospital, the Health Dept., NFCC, St. Leo’s Education Center and local schools, rated the leadership of these assets as “strong and passionate.”
The Green Team rated O’Toole’s Herb Garden as Madison’s “biggest untapped potential” and last but certainly not least, the Red Team rated the Greene Property, with infrastructure in place, as #1, the historic Tobacco Warehouse #2, and the Downtown area as #3.
Overall, the team members felt the City’s 100 mile Bike Loop remains an untapped resource with tremendous potential for attracting greater numbers of cyclists, who would also want to enjoy what Downtown Madison has to offer.
Voges concluded the asset mapping exercise by facilitating a group discussion and wrap-up.
Information gathered during this activity will be incorporated into the draft economic development strategy which is the next step in the Competitive Florida planning process.