City adopts fresh mission, vision statements

PATH FORWARD

There are days when we move from different vision points and goals but a mission is something we can always see and have in front of us as to what is our overall value that we want to provide to our residents. It keeps us moving forward and I think that’s important for us.”

Laura Liegois, Fort Madison City Manager

FORT MADISON – Fort Madison has seen viable growth in street repair, rec trails, the marina, and schools, but the city hadn’t put the mission or vision into words – until Monday night.
Now the city has a formal mission statement and a lengthy, but encompassing, vision platform that was approved by the Fort Madison City Council Monday night. The meeting was moved to Monday to accommodate voting at City Hall for Tuesday’s primary election.
The city’s formal mission statement, generated by city staff, focuses on growth and quality of life for residents of the city.
The mission statement reads: “The City of Fort Madison will strive for community growth, quality of life, and moving forward for the next generation.”
The Vision statement, however, is an 8-bullet point list of how the City will be leaders in the community.
In its entirety, the vision statement reads:
“We will be leaders in the Fort Madison community and value the following:
• operate a city government that is fiscally responsible, accountable for our actions, and we are accessible to the community of Fort Madison’s needs.
• Practice continuous improvement in operations for future developments of services, infrastructure, and long-term planning for Fort Madison.
•Provide and create a safe community in Fort Madison with strong public safety programs.
•Promote growth in Fort Madison by working with community orgnaizations to support current businesses, growth of new businesses, and welcoming new residents to our community.
•Take pride in the community that we serve and encourage the community of Fort Madison to participate in community beautification.
•Encourage growth of housing opportunities in Fort Madison.
•Enhance quality of life opportunities for all ages in Fort Madison to be healthy, active, and engaged in our community.
•Appreciate and participate in preserving the historic areas of our community for the future Fort Madison.
City Manager Laura Liegois said the vision statements were set up to help define more specific goals for the city staff going forward.
“A lot of times when we get into those goals that fit under these vision statements that gets us into the deeper goals. Goals of new downtown sidewalks, our goal is we want five new businesses in x amount of years. Usually, we get more goal driven under those,” Legois said.
Councilman Jack Gray said the statements cover what the city is already doing, want to do, or has achieved.
Councilman Rusty Andrews said the statement was lengthy, but looked good to him.
Mayor Matt Mohrfeld said as a framework for mission and vision statement he wanted to adopt it so the council could get more granular into the goals driven by those values.
“One of the things when Laura came on board, and even prior to her arriving, we talked about having a good comprehensive mission and vision statement and some goals. This is the front of this,” he said.
Liegois said the statements are important because it gives the city something to strive toward achieving.
“There are days when we move from different vision points and goals, but a mission is something we can always see and have in front of us as to what is our overall value that we want to provide to our residents,” she said. “It keeps us moving forward and I think that’s important for us.”
The statements were built at city staff level.
Councilwoman Donna Amandus, who’s one meeting away from her announced resignation, moved to approve the statements and the council approved 7-0.
In other action, Fort Madison Fire Department Lt. Chad Hannum told the council that an open house has been set for the fire station on June 12 to help local residents know about the need for a new firehouse. The event will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will include informational activities, tours, and light refreshments.
Hannum also informed the council that applications for open slots at the fire department have been coming in slowly and additional means of attracting new candidates for testing could be needed. Current Fire Chief Joey Herron will be resigning in April of 2025 and Hannum said other candidates may be needed for additional openings in that same time frame.
In an unrelated issues, Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld said he was holding to a commitment to offer to buy the city a beer at Turnwater Bar and Grill. He will be doing that on Wednesday, June 4 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. The public is invited.