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Community

Planning the Future of Mercer County

Mercer County Better Together
Mercer County Better Together held a meeting for Viola residents in February

Residents of Mercer County are being asked to help plan its future. The next in a series of community meetings will be held Thursday night in Eliza.

The series is sponsored by an organization called Mercer County Better Together. Project coordinator, Kyle McEwen, says these meetings and a survey will allow people to share their visions, hopes, concerns, and ideas. 

"We have statements from each community that will emerge based on the data we collect at these events. And we'll also have that on a county-wide basis to really get a deeper understanding of not only what folks in these communities value, support, and look for, but also what projects can be the most sustainable and most beneficial."

Meetings have already been held in Sherrard, Viola, and Joy, with last and 11th set for June in New Boston. Then McEwen says the  Mercer County Better Together steering committee will tabulate all the responses and in August start considering which projects to pursue.

Seed money for this comes from a foundation made possible by the estates of two sisters, Roberta Looser and Dorothy Looser-Flake, who wanted to support economic, educational, and cultural opportunities in Mercer County. 

More information, and the survey, are at mcbettertogether.org.

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.