A community planning group based at West Virginia University was honored Monday, Aug. 7, in Charleston as part of a state conference on volunteerism, community service and service learning.
The Community Design Team, which helps West Virginia communities with economic development issues, was one of seven recipients of the 2000 Governors Service Awards. Gov. Cecil Underwood presented the awards.
“This is a nice honor,”said Elizabeth Messer Diehl, managing director and a landscape architecture professor in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences.”I think that we have been at this long enough that we are starting to see some real results. Communities are starting to implement some new ideas that came out of Community Design Team visits.”
Formed in 1997, the Community Design Team has assisted more than a dozen West Virginia communities with economic development planning. The group has 100-150 members, including WVU faculty, students, and members of various state and regional organizations.
Communities must apply to participate in the program. After a community has been accepted, the team recruits about 20 volunteers to visit the area for two days. The volunteers, who have expertise in specific areas, talk with officials and other community members about issues such as land use, tourism, historic preservation, traffic, parking and public administration. The visit concludes with a town meeting at which the team presents its recommendations and community members provide feedback.
The team also prepares a written report that the community can use for marketing purposes or with grant applications.
The cities of Logan and Weston are two Community Design Team success stories, Messer Diehl said. Logan, which the team visited in May 1998, has received thousands of dollars in grants to develop tourism. Weston, where officials wanted to improve access to the business district, has built a free parking lot across the river and restored a pedestrian bridge to the towns Main Street.
The West Virginia Commission for National and Community Service established the Governors Service Awards in 1995 to honor individuals and groups involved in helping solve social problems through volunteer service.