Milligan city’s new planner
|
Nevertheless, Milligan, a native of Warren County, has become the city’s first-ever planner after living out of the area for about 10 years.
With a master’s degree in city and regional planning and prior work experience as an associate planner for a private consulting company in Oxford, Miss., when she heard about the job, she said she decided it was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.
Milligan took the reins as the new city planner Wednesday, with space being cleared away and converted at the city’s Codes Enforcement office on Belmont Drive for her new office.
She said while she hasn’t had enough time on the job to determine problem areas, one of the first areas she will concentrate on is to develop a system where the city can better utilize the geographic information system currently available through Cookeville.
Currently, when city officials need a map, they piece together different parts of maps to get it, Codes Officer Jim Brock said. With the city’s better utilization of the GIS system, Brock said employees will be able to pull up a map in an instant.
Brock, who had assumed day-to-day planning duties although it was technically not his job, said McMinnville is ready for a full-time planner.
He said the Local Planning Assistance Office in Cookeville, while helpful, could not fully meet the needs of a growing city.
“There’s a lot of things that need to be kept up with to deal with on a daily basis,” he said, “rather than on a weekly or monthly basis.”
Milligan will attend Planning Commission meetings, attend planning and zoning meetings, update maps, maintain legal notices and the planning commission agenda as well as research items on the agenda, among other duties, including performing tasks at the direction of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
Brock said he now will be better able to supervisor codes issues, noting current projects involving codes are the new pool, the Greenway trail, the Farmers’ Market pavilion and the upcoming changes on Main Street.
He said the city is fortunate to have been able to attract Milligan to the position, which required a graduate degree.
“We’re fortunate to have somebody of Lisa’s caliber to be with us,” he added.
Milligan said while McMinnville has changed since she’s been gone, she hopes to maintain the city’s standards and improve upon them if needed.
“It’s interesting for me to be coming back because this is my hometown, so I course I want to see things developed here and improved upon if possible,” she said.