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Some of the challenges that our community faces are bigger than any one entity can solve.
But not all of our problems fit that description.
Warren City Council has set up a marketing committee that has outlined several objectives for 2023 that will get at some of those challenges.
The committee, led by Councilman Jared Villella is made up of Villella, Wendy McCain and Phil Gilbert.
Villella has outlined the three separate topics that will drive the committee's efforts this year – transparent communication, connecting businesses to resources and improving the city's gateways.
On the gateways to Warren, one's first impression of the city depends on where they enter. Some entrances have signs, some don't.
Villella said the goal for the committee here is "even just to identify what we can do" to improve the visual elements of those entrances.
But signage in this context is much more than a "Welcome to Warren" -- the committee would like to take steps to improve both information and directional signage as well.
"We think we need to set the groundwork to replace the existing where damaged," Villella said, and start to "have a conversation around look and feel -- a City of Warren brand -- what we want it to look like so it is as consistent as possible."
From a transparency perspective, the committee is looking to record council meetings and Villella said the goal is to start posting recordings of the meetings on the city website moving forward as well as expanding the information provided to the community prior to a council meeting.
Another element of that is updating the city's web presence and specifically using the site to help facilitate connections with other resources in the city.
That includes connecting with the business community and providing relevant resources Villella said that one focus will be identifying what exists currently.
"(It's) not that this information doesn't exist," he said, calling for it to be provided in one "centralized location. (There are) going to be conversations with business owners to kind of see what's missing."
Part of that objective will be identifying what information and resources new businesses had trouble finding.
"We know there are other organizations that have some of this (but there is) no centralization," Villella said.