River Town enthusiasts came out in force to participate in the River Town Community Planning Meeting at the beginning of November.  As people arrived, everyone had an opportunity to mark up a map of the area with their top two favorite and top two most frustrating areas (see photos below, all dots were also annotated with the specifics of the individual's concern or interest).  Then the meeting organizers from the LNC and the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership gave presentations outlining the motivation to plan ahead around our River Town identity and reviewing all the river-related ideas and initiatives that have been floated in the community in the past 10 years or so.  The summary of proposals to date is posted on our Documents page; it is entitled Lewisburg -- River Town Planning.  After that, everyone divided up into focus groups on several different topics.  Each group engaged in intense discussion and dialogue in response to prompt questions related to their selected focus and each group closed by listing their top 2 priorities.  Though the groups were looking at things as diverse as community, economic development, the built environment and natural resources, their priority projects were very consistent throughout:

• connecting the rail trail to the river, with river access,
• developing routes north-south along the river,
• improving biking and walking infrastructure throughout the community, and
• facilitating community-initiated gatherings.

For more detail on the responses summarized here, please see this compilation document:  Lewisburg Focus Group notes (450k).

Here are the prompt questions the groups discussed:

Community Life 

1. *What do you like best about living in Lewisburg? (What are you most proud of?)
2. *What places/businesses/social events/amenities or other community assets make a community pleasurable and memorable to you?  - this may be here…or some place you like to visit.  (e.g. walking paths, scenic views, educational displays, heritage monuments)
3. What are your feelings about the celebrations/events currently held in Lewisburg?  (e.g. festivals, river events, heritage offerings…)
   If you don’t attend are there reasons you’d like to share or ideas for improvement?... Ideas for new events?
4. What types of community events are needed to bring residents together here in Lewisburg?  (Have local artisans/sports enthusiasts offer workshops, historic or environmental walking tours, school-related programming.)
5. In our regional marketing to bring people here what would you promote as the attraction? How?
6. Citizen involvement is important for creating a vital community.  What percentage of your community do you think is actively involved in making Lewisburg a great place?  How would you engage more people?

Downtown Lewisburg 

1. What type of businesses do you regularly support in your downtown?  What type of businesses would you regularly support if they were in your downtown?
2. In a town of the size, type and location of Lewisburg, what mix of public spaces and social activities would you consider to be ideal and realistic?
3. What challenges stand in the way of attracting businesses and related social activity to Lewisburg?
4. What do you think is the trend for residential living in Lewisburg, and what is shaping the trend?
   Describe the relationship between your downtown and residential neighborhoods.
5. Are there downtown destinations that encourage people to walk between home and downtown?  What are they?  What else should there be?  Are there things preventing people from doing this?
   Is Lewisburg bicycle and pedestrian friendly?  What suggestions do you have to improve this?

Built Environment 

1. What words (adjectives) would you use to describe the experience of traveling to or through Lewisburg?  Do these words also accurately describe what it is like to live and work in Lewisburg?
2. As a River Town, what image/identity do you want Lewisburg to present to visitors and prospective new residents?  What prevents that image from taking shape?
3. What is Lewisburg’s heritage… your unique story to be told?  How could this be used to invite people to visit your town?
4. How has your heritage impacted the pattern of development that exists today?
   What benefit or hindrance does this present?
5. What are Lewisburg’s most prized buildings?  What words would you use to describe the borough’s architectural character?
6. How does your built environment relate to being a River Town?

7. If you want to attract more visitors to the river in Lewisburg, what would you do to make them feel more welcome and want to return? (e.g. bike racks, signage, riverside facilities, downtown lodging, etc.)

Natural Environment 

1. What are Lewisburg’s greatest environmental assets? (e.g. community garden, eagle’s nest on bridge…)  What do we need to protect?  What is your most valued natural setting to visit in town?
2. What are Lewisburg’s biggest environmental challenges? (Pollution? Flooding? Access?)
3. What are your most valued public spaces?   Parks, recreation areas, scenic vistas… Where do you like to take out of town guests, when you go for a walk?  Is your destination natural or built or both?
4. Is it important for Lewisburg to have direct access to the Susquehanna River?
   Why or why not?
5. How could a stronger connection with and to the River bring benefits to Lewisburg? …to the region?
6. What additional uses would you like to see for the Borough’s river frontage?
   (e.g. walking trail, water trail camping, picnicking, x-country skiing)
7. Are there any groups (or resources) which it might help us to coordinate with to identify/address environmental needs?

All Groups

1. Are you aware of any groups or individuals that would be interested in actively participating in the revitalization efforts for Lewisburg?
2. What are your top 2 priorities for our River Town?

Feel free to review them yourself and weigh with your opinion in now.  It's a long list, but each group only focused on one set of 6 or 7 questions and then the last two.  Responses can be sent by email (elmstreet@dejazzd.com) or posted as comments on the blog or by snail mail (PO Box 298, Lewisburg, PA  17837).  There will also be a River Town Team meeting in January on Wednesday, January 14, at 7:30pm at the Borough Building.

The December RTT meeting focused on an unexpected test of River Town Team attentiveness, civic engagement and problem-solving.  Just a few days after the public meeting described here, the Borough crew brought in a brush hog borrowed from Kelly Township and cleared the entire bank at Soldiers Memorial Park.  While the River Town Team had been calling for an improved connection, including more visual access, between the park and the river, the overly mechanized clearcut was not what we had had in mind.  Over the past months, we had had conversations with the County Conservation District, an Eagle Scout, as well as internally, and had developed a proposal based on that input to trim two selected view corridors and establish a path more formally down the bank in one location.  We were expecting to have that implemented by the end of spring through a combination of Eagle Scout efforts and a work crew from the prison.  Maintenance moving forward would then be done by volunteers.  With the bank denuded abruptly, we have an opportunity at least to establish a plan and better process moving forward.  Let's make sure conservation best management practices stay front in center as a priority for the Borough.