When I saw that “stakeholders” would be involved in last Saturday’s EDC event at the Collinsville Community Center, I knew things would be as up-to-date as things can get around here. Even though I don’t attend many town meetings, I had my calendar marked for it. Somehow, somewhere, I got the notion that it would review a resident survey taken quite a long while ago (I was wrong).
What I vaguely remembered was a questionnaire that took me close to an hour to finish: multiple choice answers on land use, downtown buildings, neighborhood challenges, potential land purchases for city facilities “east of town.” I didn’t keep a copy of it, but at that time any hint of downtown abandonment perked up my ears. I don’t want downtown to be abandoned; our historic downtown was a big part of why we moved here.
At this meeting there was some mention of surveys, just not the one sent to a large number of Collinsville residents. In the middle of the meeting I learned the surveys they were talking about were prior EDC meeting discussions and agendas.
The morning program was presented by Civic Connections Group, a company hired by EDC to advise on the future growth of Collinsville. I knew who they were, as I recalled a council meeting where their administrative contract for GIS (Geographic Information Systems) was announced in 2024. Having heard council discussions about growth plans, I was looking forward to visuals that we regular citizens could understand.
And I had already met the two presenters at an EDC meeting a couple of years ago when they were first selling their services to EDC. Young-ish and cute; their points mirrored the group’s website, stating the firm consists of “highly skilled consultants” who focus on small towns to provide “tailored solutions to strategic plans.” I don’t have a business card from either person, but my queries about official titles show “Chief Place-Maker” and “Chief Plangineer” with an additional staff member not present as “Chief Innovator” All three are replete with Masters degrees.
Cited by the two on Saturday were references to projects in Celina, Prosper, and they are also quite familiar with how Frisco got to be Frisco. Perhaps a slight chill in the audience merited their comment “not that you would want to be Frisco.”
The Collinsville plan itself covers five, ten, possibly up to twenty years, and as handouts, we all received twelve huge glossy pages on heavy stock. One set of six pages was Key Facts --not about Collinsville within city limits but within 30 minute drive time. Another set showed our City Limits and ETJ (extra-territorial jurisdiction), ISD Boundaries, Schools, Parks, and Eat and Drink locations. Interestingly, according to map legends, food trucks count as restaurants and Dollar General is a grocery. In response to questions about actual grocery stores, we are unlikely to qualify for real grocery stores, in part because the town is within a 30-mile radius of them.
I would venture to say most if not all of these pages could be found online without elaborate searching. I’m also pretty sure companies like this have a software where you type in the client name and these handsome pages will spit out.
At the end of the two hours we got a regular page with ten suggested activities (they called them “Goals”) to do. To accomplish any part of any one goal is going to require EDC members (now at the minimum of five?) to do it themselves, or get help from the approximately fifteen meeting attendees – considered a good turnout for Collinsville.
A few items seemed specific enough to be doable, like install high school internship programs with local businesses, apply for at least one state or federal grant (aren’t we already doing that?). But then there’s creation of a “Why Collinsville?” campaign, website, brochures, social media content etc. going to an addressee and viewer list to be determined. The town also needs a catch phrase-- I think it was determined that “Little town, big heart” was already taken.
A bit of warning was sprinkled into the meeting introduction: where towns have failed to manage growth, they said ominously, “it doesn’t work out well.” With business and business taxes key to everything growth related, Collinsville will need to confront that, sooner or later.
I hope the pretty penny spent on this cut-and-paste advisory helps Collinsville in the process. One thing for sure, we taxpayers can’t complain if we don’t participate in the EDC at some level. I don’t consider this report to be a complaint, just an opinion.
Marilyn Stokes is a retired public-school teacher. She lives in Collinsville where she is an active community and church volunteer.