By Joe Bachman
Multimedia Editor

STEVENS POINT — Finance officials have rejected two bids for the city’s strategic proposal plan.

According to officials, this process is a viewed as a long-term goal which puts emphasis into the planning future of Stevens Point. Once completed, the plan will assist the city as a guide for future and ongoing development.

However, while only $20,000 was budgeted for the planning, the two proposals came in at $39,125, and $74,150, respectively. Community Development Director Michael Ostrowski commented in a city memo regarding the two bids:

“While I believe this is a more appropriate range for the cost of a strategic plan, neither of them seem to be exactly what we had envisioned for this process. Given this, I would recommend that we reject the two submitted proposals and allow staff to seek out additional options/firms to complete this project.”

District 5 Alderperson Meleesa Johnson concurred with the rejection, however noting that further community involvement from residents will be necessary to help shape the future of the downtown and Division Street areas.

“After attending a couple of downtown and Division Street strategic planning sessions, holy smokes, those folks get it.” said Johnson. “…The process in which they achieved the product, in my mind, is exactly what we should be looking at.”