Goshen Mayor Kyle Roddey is busy meeting with the committees that are carrying out the village’s “Goshen 2020” vision statement.
The statement lays down a swath of ideals that paints Goshen as an aesthetic, children centered, community minded, artistic, green and engaged community.
“Particular emphasis is placed on Goshen’s heritage as a horse racing community. Both the municipality and private property owners work to ensure a clean and appealing appearance,” the statement says.
Roddey met previously with members of the community to draft the vision statement and has now taken on the role of administrator to move the vision forward.
On Tuesday he met with a handful of engaged Goshen citizens who are part of the sidewalks committee to brainstorm ideas for improving Goshen’s foot traffic.
“It’s not like we have a major sidewalk issue in the village, I certainly wouldn’t characterize it that way,” Roddey said over the phone. “But Goshen 2020 is all about, ‘Lets identify a perfect situation and then get it as close to perfect as possible.’”
The committee talked about creating incentives for building owners to repair the sidewalks in front of their buildings, creating an email address to report damaged sidewalks, inventorying the village’s sidewalks, and exploring grants to help fund repairs.
The sidewalks committee is one of about four active committees: The Greenwich Avenue Committee, the Main Street Committee and the Environmental Review Board. The next one will likely be a Programming Committee for events, Roddey said.
While Roddey largely serves as the engine behind vision statement’s implementation, even going so far to as to call up Goshen residents and ask them to serve on committees, he eventually wants them to be autonomous entities.
“Because Goshen 2020 is about Goshen, not about me,” he said.
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