Goal to find out economic development wishes

The City of Ironton is asking residents to take a simple survey to help guide economic development.

Ironton Mayor Katrina Keith recently formed a committee of with members of civic clubs, economic development groups and “people with a vested interest in seeing the economic climate of Ironton change,” she said.

“We’ve been meeting and asking ‘where are we going? What do want to do here?’ Because we can’t just sit by,” Keith said.

She said that as they plan, one of the first things they need to know is where they want to go and what they want to go for.

“Are we going to go for manufacturing jobs, which we don’t have any land for, or are we going for recreation tourism, or all of the above,” Keith said. “So, we have to have a plan. One aspect of that is that we want the public’s opinion on some things.”

The committee came up with a survey to ask city residents what they want.

The survey will be available starting Sunday on the city’s Facebook page, the city’s website, on the web site Survey Monkey and, on Monday, paper copies will be available at the city water office and the mayor’s office in the City Center. Keith said they also hope to distribute it through local civic groups newsletters as well.

She said they want to make sure that the people filling out the survey are Ironton residents.

“Because it is someone is from Cincinnati, that won’t really help us,” she said. “We want to know what part of Ironton you live in, age, if they are employed. And then we are asking them to rank the best fit for Ironton — would that be increased retail businesses, would that be industrial manufacturing, technology, additional service businesses or recreational support businesses?”

Keith said they have heard a number of different ideas from getting a factory that employs 300 people to building up the riverfront for recreational use.

“We’ve heard people say a lot of different things, but we want to know what the majority of people think,” she said. “We have to work with what we have, but it will be interesting to know what the people are thinking.”

To fill out the survey, go to Survey Monkey and type in the keyword, City of Ironton. There are 17 questions to fill out.