Residents, commuters weigh in on future of Battle Ground

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Those who live, work, shop and play in Battle Ground can help The Navigators — a volunteer community vision committee — create a roadmap to a better future for a city that has nearly doubled in population in the last decade and now exceeds 20,000 residents.

The Battle Ground Roadmap survey is available for pickup at City Hall and several businesses in town. People can access to the survey online at surveymonkey.com/r/BattleGroundRoadmap. A cutout version can also be found on page C8 in the July 25 edition of The Reflector.

The survey features four scenarios for the future direction of Battle Ground: “Town & Country,” “Family-Friendly Enclave,” “Gateway to Outdoor Adventure” and “job-generating innovation center.” There are boxes to check in support or against each scenario and extra space to leave comments.

Community Development Director Erin Erdman said the survey was ready to go in time for the Harvest Days Festival. The Navigators got 155 surveys back from attendees throughout the weekend.

The next step was to launch a social media campaign with a video produced by The Navigators. This 1 minute, 54 second clip titled “Battle Ground: Let’s make new history, together” ushered in 750 more surveys when it was released July 23.

“It’s amazing when you think of all the surveys we got back after watching the video,” said Bonnie Gilberti, spokeperson for the city. “You could have a public hearing or a meeting for people to share their input. To get 750 people in one room at the same time would be nearly impossible without the video and social media.”



Erdman said the video cost the city about $3,200. Ryan Moor, one of the Navigators, wrote the script and asked his friend Will Nelson, from Portland, Oregon, to film the cityscapes using a drone and to edit the video. Tim Gaughan, another Navigator, narrated the script.

So far, the video is paying off.

“We got more than 1,300 surveys back in the first week. We are very excited about that,” Erdman said. “When talking to people on the streets, they were very excited to participate in the survey. They were excited to have a voice.”

The Navigators will have a booth at National Night Out Tuesday, August 7, at Kiwanis Park. Gilberti said this is the perfect time for community members to meet these volunteers, ask them questions about this vision campaign and how they can get involved.

Erdman knows how. Keep sending in those surveys. Each person who submits a survey will be entered into a drawing for a $100 Visa gift card.

“The vision is a voice of the community,” Erdman said. “The broader spectrum of people we can get to fill out the survey, the more successful in the long run we will be with implementation.”