Eugene (KMTR) - The Lane County Board of Commissioners has laid out some new, ambitious goals for the year ahead.Commission Chair Faye Stewart delivered the annual State of the County address Tuesday night and presented the county with a “to do” list.
- The board would like to see property crime drop by 25%, a goal Stewart hopes to reach in the next 5 years.
- Combating the county's high infant mortality rate was also near the top of the list.
- Lane County is creating a revolving loan to help promote rural business expansion, job creation and retention. Commissioner Stewart said that loan should amount to at least $500,000.
- The commissioners want to revamp industrial land in Goshen to attract more development in that area, possibly resulting in more jobs for local workers.
Stewart said he knows the county will need to reach far to meet these goals, “and then we said, ‘Why not?’ We are in organization that has consistently achieved regardless of the odds. While we must make careful decisions, we are embracing a new outlook and a new approach to our challenges. They won't define us. They will encourage us to expand our creativity.”
Commissioner Stewart also said the county administrator turned to county employees for ideas on how to better provide services to the public in the year ahead more than 1,000 ideas came from that.
The ideas included merging departments. For example, the county could look into combining Health and Human Services with Youth Services and Children and Family Services. Or the District Attorney’s Office could merge with the Office of Legal Counsel.
Streamlining services appears to be a county theme for 2012.
