ANDERSON — Community leaders and other Anderson residents will have the opportunity to weigh in on how the city might change after being selected as one of the places for the Healthy Places for Healthy People program.
Anderson was one of 10 places picked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program; those 10 range in size from Los Angeles to Powell County, Kentucky.
It's a planning assistance program that connects community leaders with local health care agencies to create health districts in which downtown and neighborhoods will be improved in ways that promote better health and economic development.
An open community meeting to discuss the project will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Anderson Public Library Chief Anderson Room, 111 E. 12th St.. On Wednesday, community leaders and interested individuals will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for a strategy and action planning session at the Anderson Museum of Art, 32 W. 10th St., Anderson.
Ryan Phelps, senior transportation planner at Madison County Council of Governments, encouraged residents and local citizens to come to the open community meeting to have their voices heard.
“There’s been several different proposals that have been thrown up to the city of Anderson of how we need to change, how we need to move forward,” he said. “This is really the time for residents to have their voice heard for the city of Anderson with the professionals who can actually do what needs to be done.”
The EPA will be in Anderson prior to the community meeting to do a tour of the city with the steering committee for the project, which has essentially included Phelps, Tom Bannon as a main contact from Community Hospital Anderson, Rob Sparks from the Corporation for Economic Development, Stephanie Moran from Anderson University, David Eikes from the Board of Public Works, Dennis Ashley from the Madison County Chamber of Commerce and Pete Fritz from the Indiana State Department of Health.
There are at least three main priority areas for the project as of now, Phelps said:
• Programming a collaborative, active health campaign, tentatively called Active Anderson
• Designing the health district concept around Community Hospital Anderson
• Creating and promoting low-barrier health opportunities
While the pilot health district is planning around Community Hospital Anderson, the long-term plan is to create health districts around St. Vincent Anderson Hospital, Madison County Community Health Center and Jane Pauley Community Health Center.
The creation of health opportunities is expected to be through bike lanes, walking trails and installations at parks.
Bannon said he and Community Hospital are excited to be part of the pilot project.
“It’s one of those cases where this is the first time for us to go down this route,” he said. “There will no doubt be some trial and error. We will see just how much we can create and get implements and improve upon for the next go around.”
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