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ONTONAGON - Citizens in Ontonagon came together Wednesday evening in an effort to brainstorm a collaborative plan to revive the struggling county.

Asked to leave all negativity at the door, citizens of the county, including representatives from the townships, the Economic Development Corporation and various organizations, were invited to a special meeting of the Ontonagon County Board of Commissioners Wednesday evening at the courthouse in Ontonagon to look at the future of the county.

More than 50 people turned out for the meeting, dubbed the Ontonagon County Partnership, to offer ways to bring industry back to Ontonagon, whether it be through tourism or manufacturing companies.

Frank Wardynski, MSU Extension director, created a strategic guide, including the objectives for the new partnership, and a list of studies that have been conducted for the county, including the Downtown Ontonagon Economic Enhancement Strategy in 2000.

"We need to develop a plan for Ontonagon County," Wardynski said. "We need to step up and fill plans."

Wardynski challenged the group to look at several different scenarios, such as figuring out what industries Ontonagon County can support, if demand were not part of the equation.

Making a list in the front of the room, Wardynski listed several of the group's ideas for Ontonagon, including renewable energy, green energy, biofuels and developing a use for the abundance of trees and water in the area.

"I think those are areas we have strong potential in," he said.

He also wrote down tourism, including developing hotels, restaurants and getting information out about what Ontonagon has to offer now.

The group also considered local agriculture, like growing food locally, planting sunflower fields for the oil and using forest for paper, hardboard and furniture.

"There used to be an agriculture industry here," he said. "It shrunk drastically and there's a lot of reasons for it. I still think there's a lot of places for some of the conventional in terms of beef cattle production."

Also, Wardynski asked the group what role the citizens can play in helping develop and supporting entrepreneurs.

Wardynski suggested others helping others in the community, whether it's to build businesses or find jobs in the county.

Wardynski stressed the importance of the north and the south ends of the county working together to make this collaborative effort work.

The partnership came up with the idea to hire a grant writer and an urban planner to help promote and develop the county to draw businesses and people to Ontonagon and considered completing the marina project.

The group talked about how Ontonagon industries have been affected by the national economy.

"Demand and supply," Wardynski said. "There's less dollars out there in everybody's pocket and there's less of it going everywhere."

Wardynski asked the citizens what can be done to make Ontonagon County an attractive climate for business start-up, which means showcasing the friendly community and defining the reason to live there.

In order to "fix" downtown, the county is going to have to look into receiving money from the state. The group tossed around ideas such as fixing the site of the fire that took place more than a year ago, and rehabilitating buildings, in order to market Ontonagon.

"We need to decide what we want to be," he said. "Do we want to be a retirement community, a marina community, a tourism community?

"In my opinion, we need to be all of it."

Next, the county will need to look for funding and decide what the next step is toward reviving the community, Wardynski said.

"We need to consider everything we have in this county," said Victoria James, president of the Ontonagon County Chamber of Commerce and village council member. "We need to have a whole inventory of all the business, health care, hospitals, ambulances, schools, what schools can offer."

James said numerous studies have been conducted in Ontonagon County that currently collect dust on shelves and she would like to see those studies put to good use.

"I can tell you the master plan for the village of Ontonagon is sitting on a shelf just like three or four previous master plans that are sitting on the shelf that will never get done," James said. "We have to do something."

The next meeting of the Ontonagon County Partnership is at 6 p.m. Nov. 18 in the Ontonagon County Courthouse.

Stacey Kukkonen can be reached at skukkonen@mininggazette.com.