CALUMET VILLAGE — Last Saturday’s Calumet Community Day was to provide community members an opportunity to offer their feedback and thoughts on the future of the village as it moves forward with its revitalization efforts and prepares to update its five-year Master Plan. It was for that reason that village officials prepared a Village of Calumet 2023 Master Plan Survey.

Village Manager Megan Haselden said that comments and thoughts of residents and surrounding community members are crucial in updating the plan. The completed surveys have already provided officials with some clarity on the direction they want to see the village take.

“A lot of people gave feedback that they would love to see more collaboration between the communities,” Haselden said. “More collaboration with Calumet Township, with the village of Laurium, while trying to keep our own individual identities as municipalities, but also realizing that we are one, big community and how important that is.”

Haselden said that even while the village has a Master Plan, and the Master Plan contains a well-defined vision statement, that vision has not effectively carried forward to the community.

“So, a lot of property owners have asked, ‘What is the vision here?’ and we want to bring that to light,” said Haselden. “We want our vision to be very clear and concise.”

Haselden said that in the front row of everything village officials and stakeholders are attempting to do in moving Calumet forward is keeping everyone on the same page, which is part of what the Master Plan is intended to accomplish.

Hasleden admitted though that community engagement is always a struggle, but community engagement is vital to updating the Master Plan.

“The Master Plan is going to take feedback from everyone,” she said. “That’s why we’re asking everyone who hears about Calumet to give us feedback on that.”

But in addition to the Plan, Haselden said officials are currently working on a separate, Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan, she said, will almost mirror a business plan.

“It will be a more condensed version of the Master Plan,” she said.

The Strategic Plan is going to be a collaboration of all of the village boards: the Village Council, the Downtown Development Authority, the Historic District Commission and the Planning Commission.

“We’re going to have a joint meeting,” said Haselden, “and really lay out what the visions for the next five years are going to be, and what are our action items to get there.”

Each of the boards will then have a very clear idea of what they are supposed to be working on for the next five years, she explained.

To read the 2018 Master Plan, visit http://www.villageofcalumet.com/uploads/1/1/8/5/118509013/final_master_plan_7-23-18.pdf