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Visioning Session: Make Galesburg "Cool" By Making Jobs Available for Young Professionals
Galesburg is cool -- at least, that's one of the things that many at Thursday night's final Galesburg community visioning session feel more people need to know.

Convincing people to live here -- especially those in the "young professionals" category, was one of the topics of discussion. Young professionals already living and working in town was something some attendees felt needed to be marketed more, as a way to get more of them to live in town.

One of those, OSF Saint Mary Medical Center Marketing and Public Relations Director Shannon Jansen says, however, there's really one way to get those young professionals to stay. "There's not a lot of jobs that are attractive to, maybe, a younger professional," Jansen said. "I'm part of the Young Professioals group in Galesburg; I'm on the board there. So, we do a lot of networking with young professionals in the community. Really, there's not a lot of job opportunities for those. People are going to school for liberal arts now: public relations, media, journalism. Those jobs just aren't available here."

There were other weak spots that were discussed -- some suggested a potentially deteriorating infrastructure, or properties deteriorating, in some cases, by property owners who just don't care.

Attendees suggested ways to improve those areas, like providing incentives to property owners. And others suggested other quality of life issues, like developing neighborhood parks, and connecting bike trails.

There were also a number of other suggestions, and you can hear them all by CLICKING HERE.


(Galesburg City Manager Dane Bragg, right, holds a gift given to Carl Sandburg College by Sixth Ward Alderman Wayne Allen, left, in appreciation for their hosting the six visioning sessions. CSC Board member Gayla Pacheco, center, accepts on the college's behalf. WGIL News Story and Photo by Will Stevenson.)
04 10 09 by Newsroom
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