What’s the Most Pressing Issue Facing East Ridge?

A new organization of business owners and civic leaders was recently formed in East Ridge and it is asking for help from all residents to help move the city forward.

Pioneering Tomorrow was begun in late October with two dozen sponsors from the world of business, community leaders and civic organizations. The aim of the organization is ambitious: It wants to make East Ridge the best place in Hamilton County to live.

Former East Ridge Mayor Mike Steele is the organization’s spokesman.

“If we could get our leaders to collectively work on one goal and one vision and say, ‘ok, how do we get there,’ we could position East Ridge as a great place to live,” Steele said in a telephone interview last week.

In an effort to define the “one goal and one vision,” Pioneering Tomorrow is asking everyone in East Ridge to take a survey. The survey is asking a very simple question:  “What do you believe is the most pressing issue facing East Ridge?”

Steele said that Vince Butler, a consultant for the organization, did a great job on the survey. Butler worked with the leadership team to identify important issues facing our city. 

Some of those issues include: How do we keep our roads in good repair? How do we expand recreational opportunities to improve residents’ quality of life? Where can we improve city services? What can we do to better fund our fire and police departments? How do we do all this without resorting to raising property taxes? 

Butler said what the organization wants to do in the short term is to start a conversation between residents, business people, and our elected officials.

“If you are in a silo nothing gets done,” Butler said in a telephone interview. “We’ve got to build a consensus from all the stakeholders in the city. We’ve got to bring people to the table to start a discussion.”

Butler said he had a casual encounter encouraging a parent of children in elementary school to take the survey. He told them we’ve got to figure out what the community thinks; parents, church pastors, business owners. “We’ve got to start figuring out what the community as a whole wants to do.”

Steele said the survey will use a three-prong approach. It will be online for people to take at their leisure. The survey will be mailed to every registered voter in East Ridge. Thirdly, the organization will use young volunteers to go out into the community at places like grocery stores to get the survey into people’s hands.

“We’ve got to get a good number of people to engage,” Steele said. “We want people across all socioeconomic conditions and all races to get involved.”

Steele said Pioneering Tomorrow is a non-partisan, non-profit organization. It seeks input from its residents and the support of the myriad of businesses that is the backbone of the local economy. 

“I’d like to see every business from the state line to the tunnel to be a part of this,” Steele said. “Numbers speak for themselves.”

Butler said the organization will never be political.

“It’s about what is the future of East Ridge?” Butler said. “We want to make sure the city is where it needs to be. In five year we may be able to look back and see that this was a good thing and it will help people thrive.”

Click here to take Pioneering Tomorrow’s survey.