The West Virginia Community Design Team at West VirginiaUniversity will assist Ripley city officials April 3-5 in formulating and prioritizing revitalization efforts.


When invited by a community, the CDT staff organizes the network into a multi-disciplinary team, typically 20 individuals, that conduct a weekend visit. The team typically consists of landscape architects, heath care professionals, transportation engineers, tourism specialists, historic preservationists, public administrators and economic specialists who spend a day gathering information from community members, followed by a day formulating recommendations and ideas for the community to consider as part of a revitalization agenda.


“The CDT has a unique familial nature because team members are housed with a family in the community, which helps build a sense of trust in both the team member and the community, allowing the team to learn about the community in a more informal setting,”said Jeremy Morris, CDT program coordinator.”In addition to hosting the team, the community provides a potluck dinner each night of the visit, which again allows the team and community to sit down in a more relaxed setting to discuss issues and interests of the community.”


Another notable feature of the CDT is that each team is unique. Though core team members serve on numerous visits, no two teams have ever been identical. Each community receives its own team that is assembled based on the issues outlined in its application and the availability of team members.


“The visit takes place at a rapid pace,”Morris added.”The team arrives, conducts work and exits the community within 48 hours. This rapid pace helps both in recruiting team members and bolstering community participation because it is a short, focused, one-time event that does not overburden them with responsibility.”


The West Virginia University Recruitable Communities Project will fund the $3,000 CDT visit. RCP is an effort to help communities recruit health care professionals and to understand factors involved in retaining health care professionals and their families as part of the community. It is estimated that in return for the $3,000 investment, the community receives approximately $15,000 in time and expertise from Community Design Team members.


A broad range of issues will be addressed during the CDT visit, which may include landscape or streetscape design, traffic issues, downtown revitalization, as well as health, youth and social service issues.


Some of the specific issues identified so far for the Ripley visit include maintaining and improving the delivery of healthcare, recruiting new and retaining physicians, attracting small businesses and potentially other quality large industry, upgrading streets and sidewalks and improving water and sewage systems. Organizations with additional issues or suggestions are urged to volunteer to be a part of the process.


“It is vitally important that the community comes out for the public meetings,”said Morris.”The success of the visit will rely on a broad-based community effort, and the team can only address the issues that are communicated to them during the meetings.”


The schedule along with meeting locations and times will be provided closer to the date of the visit.


The CDT is program of the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences Division of Resource Management with contributions from WVU Extension Service and numerous agencies, organizations and individuals across the state and beyond that make the program a unique experience for each community.