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Home About Us B2B Club Breaking News Contact Donate Events / Programs Feedback Ideas Incubator Industry Clusters Links / Resources Progess Funds Progress Teams Public Art / Murals Publications		Breaking News July 15, 2005 - Event seeks to unite town divided by lakes Jill Steinke, for Daily Tribune More than 50 businesses and organizations will come together Saturday to offer residents a taste of Rome's small-town feeling, but it's just one part of a big idea. The most populated municipality in Adams County is working to unite its 2,886 residents. Since the Community Progress Initiative kicked off a year ago, Rome residents have been busy creating a single vision for a town that had become divided by its four lakes. The Taste of Rome on Saturday is viewed as a start. "Our plan is to create a feeling of unity in the community," said Kathleen Krueger of Rome. The idea of unity and community involvement has been slow to catch on, town clerk Terri Anderson said, but she has seen more change in Rome in the past year than ever before in her 25 years in local government. In the past, residents expected the Town Board to handle all ideas and complaints, she said. "People just are not used to being able to be a part of making things happen in their town," Anderson said. "So many people have the attitude that the Town Board runs the town, and they're beginning to find out that's not the way it is in the town of Rome." With the help of the Community Progress Initiative and some eager residents, that change in attitude has become visible. Now residents are working on committees, conducting research and seeing projects through. "Progress Initiative is getting people thinking about what they can do in the community," Anderson said. Anderson is ready with evidence for anyone who questions the impact of the Community Progress Initiative in Rome. The Taste of Rome, she said, will be the perfect example of residents putting their own ideas into action. The event will feature much of what the town has to offer in business and soon in industry. The backdrop will be the new Alpine Village business park, which already has attracted several tenants. Organizations also will be represented at the event, which Anderson hopes will encourage more residents to get involved in the community. "When you come to this event, you're going to be able to see all the businesses that are operating in the town of Rome and all the organizations, so it will totally give you a flavor of what living in Rome is like," she said. The main idea of the event, however, will be unity. "I see a community coming together to have one big celebratory event," Krueger said. Krueger and Linda Sheppard are co-chairwomen of the Rome Connection Committee, which was created in response to the progress initiative. The committee has representatives from Lakes Arrowhead, Camelot, Petenwell and Sherwood, as well as residents living in other areas of the town. Since the fall, committee members have met every week to plan an event that they hope embodies the idea of "Community Unity" and encourages more action under the initiative. "It follows through on what our initiative is because everyone is involved," Krueger said. Through their collaborative efforts planning the Taste of Rome, Krueger said she already has noticed an increase in pride in the town of Rome and not just in each person's lake association. Property owner associations previously sent out their own newsletters and coordinated their own activities, which kept Rome residents clustered in neighborhoods. "It was pretty much like four separate communities here," Howard Stewart said. He lived in the Lake Arrowhead community but recently moved next to the municipal building. Being away from the Arrowhead activities, he decided to get involved in the town by serving on the Rome Connection Committee. "Regardless of which lake you live on, you still live in the town of Rome," he said.
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