At a special meeting last week, the Winthrop Town Council began discussions on shaping a townwide strategic plan that will highlight goals and projects for the next five to 10 years.
During the initial conversations about the strategic plan, councillors talked about what they see as some of the biggest issues in Winthrop the council needs to address. They also debated the shape the strategic plan should take in the coming months.
Town Manager Tony Marino said that the council could look at bringing in an outside consultant to help with the planning process. He estimated the cost would be around $5,000 to $7,000.
Precinct 3 Councilor Joe Romano asked that a representative from the consulting firm meet with the council to discuss the planning process at its next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 8. The council agreed to the request.
“What we are looking for is the direction in terms of projects we think need to be prioritized,” said Letterie. “Obviously, infrastructure and flooding is going to be a major concern, but there are other things that the town should be looking at doing. It could be in terms of the schools or maintenance of our buildings or streetscapes or whatever the interests happen to be.”
Letterie and Marino both mentioned the Win2030 Vision document that was completed a number of years ago as a launching point for the current strategic planning process.
“It was a great document … and that is sort of what I was using as my template or guideline for projects and things that the council at that time wanted to do,” said Marino. “We have been using that; we met with Councilor (Suzanne) Swope and Council President Letterie. Councilor Swope did a great job with going through and identifying a lot of the projects that we had already done in the 2030 Vision, so the thought process that she had was maybe to expand on this, to take the 2030 document and add some new projects in there so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
“Or the council can look to adopt a whole new strategic plan,” the town manager continued. “It’s goals for the next five to 10 years – where do we want to be – global thinking.”
In the previous towns where he has worked, Marino said the strategic planning process has consisted of the town leaders coming up with strengths and weaknesses in the community, ideas for goals and projects, and narrowing that list down to five or six strategic goals.
“As I work for you folks … that is certainly something that would help me,” said Marino.
During the initial strategic visioning meeting last week, councillors hit on a number of major issues and goals for the town.
The ongoing flood mitigation and infrastructure issues in the Tileston, Girdlestone, Pico, and Morton areas were mentioned by several councilors. Also brought up by several councilors were efforts to rehab the old middle school gym and the ice rink to increase recreational programs for youth and all residents.
“I would love to see a complex (at the old middle school gym), that would be a lot of money, but that is more of a long-term thing,” said Precinct 6 Councilor Martin Finn.
Marino noted that in addition to the possibility of converting the old middle school gym as a broader-based community sports and recreation complex, it could also be used as an emergency shelter in place of the high school, in turn opening up the opportunity for more grant money to rehab the gym.
Letterie said the town has had long range plans to make improvements to the ice rink, noting that locker rooms in the gym have to be used for the rink, and that there are also handicap accessibility issues that need to be addressed at the ice rink.
“There’s been a plan in place to explore additional locker rooms … and to just redo the lobby itself,” said Letterie.
Romano said some of his goals include finding more ways for the town to get mitigation funds from Massport for town projects, and for the town to work with the state on an improved Yirrel Beach management plan.
Precinct 2 Councilor Kim Dimes said that in addition to the Tileston and Girdlestone improvements, she would like to see a study of all public and private seawalls in Winthrop.
Councilor-at-Large Kurt Millar’s wishlist included an improved marketing plan for the town and upgrades to its IT infrastructure.
Councillor-at-Large Max Tassinari noted that the town has a tough needle to thread when it comes to balancing economic development with the impacts it could have on the town through factors like traffic and parking.