SYRACUSE - A comprehensive plan for the Wawasee Village in Syracuse was the focus of discussion Tuesday in the Syracuse Town Hall.

The Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce decided in January to make a plan for the village their focus for 1999. Tuesday's meeting was the first step in beginning discussion on the future of the village.

Chamber President Tim Yeager said, "It was decided that we would take a look at Wawasee Village as a starting point."

Yeager said Tuesday's meeting was an effort to help the town council find a way to do what the community wants to do with the village. He also said they want to figure out what the community will accept and how they can preserve the current environment and make the community better.

Dr. James A. Segedy, professor at Ball State University's department of urban planning, led the discussion. Segedy was invited to the discussion as a facilitator by Yeager and the chamber for no fee.

"I'm kind of here to listen a little bit and see where we can go," Segedy said.

He said he has been in Syracuse and the lake area during the 13 years he has lived in Indiana.

"In those years, this place has changed quite a lot. You may not have noticed it because it's been gradual," Segedy said. "Change happens. If you want to stay the same way you are, and I think you should, you've got to change too."

He told the audience if they didn't make decisions for their town, others would.

"Whether you want to admit it or not, people are making decisions for you and about you," he said.

He opened up his questioning by asking the audience: "When Aunt Harriet comes to town, where do you take her to?" The people in the audience replied they would take her to Shipshewana, the Frog and the lake.

He then asked them where they wouldn't take her. The crowd replied they wouldn't take her to fast food restaurants, the whole town on weekends in the summer and on Ind. 13 at night.

Segedy said their replies told him they would take a relative somewhere other than the town and that said much about their views on the town. He asked the crowd why they would take someone to Shipshewana. One woman replied, "Because you can walk and actually do something."

He then told the crowd they needed to ask themselves five questions. He said they needed to ask themselves: who are you? where are you going? where do you want to go? how do you want to get there? and are you there yet?

One resident at the meeting said he was a longtime resident of Syracuse and said, "I think from day one I was here, the Wawasee Village was ugly."

Another Syracuse resident said, "There's no pedestrian traffic and no people who walk here. People have to get in their cars to go anywhere."

Another resident said, "(Wawasee Village) starts where the sidewalk ends."

Bill Dixon said the Wawasee Village is a real hodgepodge. He said people built their various businesses in the village independently of what anyone else was doing.

Another resident said, "It looks like it was built around the automobile."

Tourism in Syracuse was also discussed. One resident said from Memorial Day to Labor Day, tourism was fantastic. Another said tourism is important to the community.

Town councilman Paul Stoelting said traffic is a real concern, especially during the summer.

Segedy said that because Ind. 13 runs through the center of the village, it creates more of a challenge for any plans to the village. He said it would take professional help to deal with Ind. 13 because they would have to work with the state.

He said the town needs a comprehensive plan before they move forward.

"If you start to do too much, it'll be more than the town can handle," Segedy said.

A comprehensive plan, he said, would keep the village from growing project by project and creating more havoc. He said it is important for the town to do a contextual and visual exercise and draw up what they want the village to look like.

He also said, "You've got to look beyond the box and think creatively. Think differently. You've got to take some risks, you've got to stick your neck out a bit. But, with those risks come rewards."

One way to do that, he said, is to get a cross-section of the community involved. He said everyone from young people, clergy, merchants, lakefront property owners, non-lakefront property owners, single parents and others should be involved.

Stoelting said, "We never can get anyone interested unless we have to cough up money."

Segedy also insisted the money not come out of public funds. Public funds, he said, often come with strings attached.

Yeager said, "The chamber started (this discussion) but if it can't be the community's, then let's not do it."

As for the next steps, Segedy said, "I would say that in the next month or so you decide to go forward with something like this formally."

He also said community needs to let the town council know what they want, assemble a team to tackle the project and get the stakeholders involved to get the ball rolling. [[In-content Ad]]