A draft of the proposed strategic plan intended to help to guide all of the town needs—not just budgetary or capital items—for the next decade or more is now ready for more public input. The Board of Selectmen (BOS) has called a public information session on the proposed strategic plan draft on Thursday, July 25 at 6;30 p.m. at Town Campus.

The 10-year strategic plan is a BOS initiative. Selectmen have been working on a draft of the plan for months and a draft of the plan is now available on the town website at www.madisonct.org.

The plan is an initiative of the BOS, but the Board of Finance (BOF) and Board of Education (BOE), along with town department heads and key community stakeholders, were involved in the process.

The BOS began the process in early 2018 when it put out a request for proposals to companies that would help guide the town through development of the plan. Three proposals came in; a selection subcommittee selected Management Partners and the contract was awarded in late June 2018.

Representatives from Management Partners held two public input sessions on Nov. 27, 2018. (The sessions were originally supposed to be a week apart, but a freak snowstorm in mid-November canceled the first workshop.) Just a handful of residents joined the many elected officials attending the sessions, which sparked significant debate among elected officials.

At the BOS meeting on Feb. 11, 2019, selectmen received a draft of the plan that included resident comments and comments from stakeholders to consider. Since that time, the BOS has been working to edit the draft of the document to get it ready for public comment.

At the BOS meeting on June 24, First Selectmen Tom Banisch previously said the board is now at that point.

“I sent around the finished version of the strategic plan that we worked on as a board and its my feeling that we have done our job here on getting this together and now it is time to give public input,” he said.

Public input would include public hearings, stakeholder meetings, one-on-one meetings with relevant parties, and a revision period. Banisch said the hope would be to have a more formal draft ready for adopting by the board in late August/early September of this year.

The first public information session is Thursday, July 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Town Campus, 8 Campus Drive. Check the town website madisonct.org for more information on the strategic plan as well as meeting dates and agendas.