Those who follow this column might notice that there have been several articles this year relating to future plans and concerns for Lycoming County. The reason for this is preparation for the approval of the study: “Lycoming 2030: Plan the Possible,” the new Comprehensive Plan for the county. The last plan was done in 2006, which now almost seems a lifetime ago. Do you realize that iPhones were not even in existence in 2006? The Blackberry was cutting edge in communication, and the iPod was the hot thing for listening to music. President Obama was just beginning his first term of office as President of the United States. Women wore UGGs on their feet, American Idol was the TV favorite, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (the sequel to the first POTC) was the top-grossing film, and the Kardashians were unknown. Poor Kim Kardashian only had 856 friends — on her MySpace page! So yes, the world has certainly changed a lot since 2006.

This pull of change must be met wisely, and this is the responsibility of the Planning and Community Department of Lycoming County. For several years now they have been gathering data through their research, discussions, meetings, talks, and even one-on-one interviews with this inquisitive Webb Weekly columnist. This background work of the Planning Department was originally presented back in January in a County Hall Corner column entitled, “Planning the Future.” It was mentioned at that time that beginning in February; presentations would be made at the regular Thursday morning County Commissioners Meetings. There have now been six of these presentations, and they vividly demonstrate that the people involved with this project have certainly done their homework.

The comprehensive plan is actually a multi-municipal plan. There were six areas of the county identified. The “Greater Williamsport Alliance” consists of the City of Williamsport, South Williamsport, and Duboistown Boroughs, and Armstrong and Loyalsock Townships. The “Montoursville-Muncy” region consists of Montoursville Borough and Fairfield and Muncy Townships, but not Muncy Borough. That community is in the “Muncy Creek” area along with the Hughesville and Picture Rocks Boroughs, as well as Muncy Creek, Shrewsbury, and Wolf Townships. The “Lower Lycoming Creek” covers Lycoming, Old Lycoming, Loyalsock, Hepburn, and Lewis Townships. The two main thoroughfares are covered by “US-220/I-99” area which consists of Jersey Shore Borough, and Porter, Platt, Nippenose, and Woodward Townships, and “US-15 South” which covers Montgomery Borough, and Clinton, Brady, and Gregg (Union County) Townships.

Through extensive work and discussion with municipal and community stakeholders in these six designated areas, eight key areas of concern were identified. On February 15th, the enthusiastic but always wise Mark Muroski from the Planning Department gave a brilliant review of the infrastructure needs particularly related to the roads and bridges in the county. On February 23, the high-intensity and always interesting Jenny Picciano, Lead Planner, gave an insightful presentation on how the economy is changing and how these changes will impact the area workforce. On March 1st, Kim Wheeler, who has the energy of a game show host, gave an impassioned review on how the delivery of services such as fire and EMS as well as the difficulty of filling local boards are negatively impacted by the fragmentation of local government. The very professional Josh Schnitzlein, Hazard Mitigation Planner, spoke on March 8th about the distressing and continuing problem of flooding, which four of the six multi-municipal areas identified as a major concern. John Lavelle, Supervisor of Municipal Services for the Planning Department, apologized in advance for the rather tedious material he had to present to the Commissioners at the March 15th meeting on land use regulations and enforcement. The March 22nd presentation by the insightful Tom Krajewski, Community & Economic Development Planner, highlighted the critical shortage of volunteers and how civil engagement has been on the decline for years now. On March 29th, Joshua Billings will be discussing water quality issues, and Kurt Hausamann, County Planner, will conclude these presentations on April 5th by reviewing the significant social, economic, public health, and safety concerns across the county caused by the epidemic of drugs, and particularly heroin.

The purpose of these talks is to flush out any significant issues that the public may have. When this is completed, a final draft will be presented at a public hearing, yet to be determined. The final plan will be presented to the commissioners to be adopted by the end of June. It cannot be emphasized enough how important this work is. As Mark Muroski quoted from the New York City planner Robert Moses, “the time to fix the roof is while the sun is shining.”