WARSAW — The Warsaw Common Council is one step closer to adopting a strategic plan for the next four years.

City Planner Jeremy Skinner met with the council for the third in a series of work sessions centered around identifying what the plan should encompass.

The council briefly revisited the last meeting’s topic of communication, particularly in a social media-driven culture, and how best to utilize such avenues as Facebook and Twitter.

Next on the discussion list was how to approach neighborhood revitalization. Over the next four years, the council especially hopes to focus on existing neighborhoods. The previous strategic plan, adopted in 2012, focused on Market Street improvements and the idea is to see about adapting similar projects to other areas of Warsaw.

It was suggested that, rather than the council approaching a neighborhood and telling them what needs to be done, inviting neighborhoods to approach the council. One idea was to have a certain amount of funding set aside for neighborhood revitalization and allowing the neighborhoods to tell the council what their needs are.

Business growth within a neighborhood is not necessarily a bad thing either. It was noted that, when Menard’s and Martin’s first went in, area residents were concerned; however, afterwards, they expressed appreciation at being able to walk to get a gallon of milk or other necessities.

Safe means for kids to access parks also came up. In some areas, there is no direct access to a park and some neighborhoods do not currently have sidewalks.

“It would be nice to create the ability for these kids to get to those places,” Thallemer said.

Attracting new residents nowadays depends largely on quality of life and that is what the council hopes to focus on with its new strategic plan.

The council plans to reconvene soon to go over what has been discussed during this and the previous two work sessions and begin the process for adopting a working plan for the next four years.