The city of Statesboro will host four public input meetings to develop its first city-wide strategic plan to identify and prioritize goals.

According to the Statesboro Herald, city council in February approved a $28,500 contract for the Atlanta-based consulting firm Amec Foster Wheeler to develop a citywide strategic plan.

“It’s a plan to identify what the city’s goals are and to identify the priority and to identify funding sources,” Frank Neal, City of Statesboro director of planning and development, said.

The public input meetings will not consist of a formal presentation. Instead, citizens will be able to view city maps that will display different aspects of the city and other reference materials.

Representatives of various city departments are expected to be in attendance to answer any citizens’ questions or concerns.

Citizens will also be able to fill out surveys that describe what they feel should be the city’s main focus for the future. Surveys will also be made available on the city of Statesboro’s website until May 30.

The meeting dates and locations are as follows:

April 24, 1:30p.m. to 3:30p.m. at Pittman Park United Methodist Church

April 24, 5:30p.m. to 7:30p.m. at the Bulloch County Board of Education

April 27, 11:00a.m. to 1:00p.m. at the Russell Union Ballroom

May 13, 10:00a.m. to 1:00p.m. at Brannen Hall

The Mayor Jan Moore and Neal have made an effort to include one of the meetings on Georgia Southern University campus, because the city wants to get the student input in this process.

“We want to make sure we’re hearing what the students have to say because they are a vital park of our community,” Neal said.

The complete strategic plan will give a 5 and 10 year plan to implement which will prioritize projects and areas that the city needs to work on and find possible funding sources.

Neal expects that planning process to be complete possibly by September and a final public meeting will be scheduled to present the plan.