Ellsworth City Administrator Dustin Stambaugh wants to know what the residents of Ellsworth want from their city government in the future.

On Oct. 12, more than a dozen residents gave Stambaugh just that during a 45-minute town hall-style meeting at Ellsworth City Hall.

While not an official meeting of the Ellsworth City Council, Stambaugh said he did invite the council and Mayor Dan Finnegan to the town hall and gave public notice. Several council members did attend.

All attendees were asked to specifically focus their discussion on a possible mission statement, and core values of the city.

“I intend to reconstruct the mission statement, core values and new vision statement (which was published in 2004), but I can’t do that without the public and council guiding me on where they want me to go,” Stambaugh said. “I want to make sure I get as many viewpoints as possible.”

Stambaugh said his recommendations to the council and how he guides his staff will be based on that public input. He noted this is the first step to eventually developing a strategic plan for Ellsworth.

“Obviously, we want to be financially responsible and good stewards of whatever we have here,” Jan Bontrager said, “and I think the city, in my opinion, seems to be doing that fairly well. And I think just to continue to make the city an attractive choice that people will either want to live here or work here at some point.”

She suggested the city look at more moderate income housing options to attract people to the community.

David Miller said in its basic form, the goal of the city council and the city employees would be to provide the residents the things they can’t provide for themselves. That would include streets, water, traffic lights and stop signs. He said there is also functionality, access and beauty.

“So that Ellsworth is an attractive place,” Miller said.

Craig Dinkel, crops and horticulture agent for the Midway Extension District, asked that the city enforce codes to remove dead and dangerous trees so the community looks better.

Bontrager asked if the city could transform one of the empty buildings in downtown Ellsworth into an “Internet cafe” type of computer Wi-Fi hot spot to attract young people back to the community to live and work.

Jon Halbgewachs of Kirkham Michael & Associates, said Hays has a shared space facility where people can rent a cubicle, an office or an entire section of the building for that purpose.

“I would say that would be the ideal model,” he said.

Miller said he noticed over the years that the chip and seal on the city streets keeps getting higher and higher and the valley gutters never grow.

“Some of our streets are almost impassible in a car,” he said. “And I know that’s a big problem because you’ve got to dig it up and fix it one street at a time or one block at a time. But, if you go in the right direction, I believe you will eventually see some progress.”

Miller also said the retaining basin south of Old 40 Highway still needs to be addressed and made aesthetically pleasing.

“That’s the first thing people see in our town,” he said.

“I think we probably consider ourselves a progressive community for a small town, but still hold conservative core values,” a resident said. “We moved here 35 years ago from Hutchinson and we’ve always loved this town because of that.”

“So, while we’re for developing progressive policies and solutions to solve a lot of these suggestions, don’t lose traditional values that rural communities enjoy,” Stambaugh said.

One resident asked if the city could offer more activities for children, especially in the wintertime.

Another resident asked if the city could develop a dog park.

Also discussed was the possibility of putting important notices about upcoming events in with the city water bills as a way to let residents know what is going on in the community.

“I like that a lot,” Stambaugh said.

Halbgewachs talked about accessibility in the community for those in wheelchairs.

“Our city has done some upgrades downtown with sidewalk ramps for wheelchairs, but if you go outside of downtown, there are virtually none,” he said. “I’ve seen people in the past trying to push a person in a wheelchair on the sidewalk along Third Street. They had to prop the front wheels up and hoist the back wheels up to get them up there.”

Halbgewachs said there are sidewalks all over Ellsworth that are dilapidated.

“Some are them are brick, some are concrete, some have just faded away to nothing,” he said. “Other towns have done cost-share programs where the city would put up a percentage of the cost then the landowner would put up the other percent to upgrade sidewalks.”

Halbgewachs said Mosaic is a strong partner with the community and the people they serve need that accessibility.

Halbgewachs said he had three kids in baby strollers.

“It’s tough to push a baby stroller and a little 10-pound kid, let along a full-size adult in a wheelchair,” he said.

He said that longterm endeavor is something the city would really cherish.

Halbgewachs also suggested that when it comes to zoning regulations and attracting new businesses to the community, the city doesn’t let the minimum be its bar that it goes by.

“If you have stone in your building, ask them to put a limestone facade on their building to make it look nice,” he said. “That comes under beautification. Don’t settle for a rectangular box metal building. Don’t just settle for the minimum for building quality.”

Halbgewachs suggested providing free Wi-Fi internet to the public in the entire downtown area. He said something could be written in a franchise agreement with an entity that is providing internet services to the community.

Halbgewachs then shared his own mission statement for consideration.

“Ellsworth strives to provide a safe, clean, welcoming and accessible environment, modernizing for the future, while celebrating our past history.”

“That’s really good,” Stambaugh said.

Stambaugh ended the meeting by thanking the public for the opportunity to serve Ellsworth and for providing some feedback.

“I think this is a win,” he said.

Another meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26 at City Hall.