MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – On Friday morning at the Presque Isle Pavilion, the Marquette City Commission worked together to discuss its Strategic Plan for the 2026-28 fiscal years.
This comes after the previous strategic planning process was postponed following the 2021-23 strategic plan, as the commission worked through an extensive Community Masterplan into the end of 2024.
“The community master planning process that was taking a little bit longer, and was completed just last year before it was adopted,” said City Manager, Karen Kovacs. “The intent is to build upon this community master plan and utilize the feedback from the community, and the priorities that were identified through that process and update them into a shorter frame.”
Kovacs says this strategic plan will touch on common topics seen throughout previous years.
“Some of those objectives may seem similar, because some of them are continuing, some of them are in process, and so there might be some similar themes to previous years,” said Kovacs. “This is meant to be a little bit more of a robust process, because we are kind of getting it done with a new master plan.”
This time around will focus on six main categories: Governmental Excellence, Economic Development, Community Engagement, ‘Health, Recreation, and Environment,’ Mobility Management, and Public Safety.
The goal is to pinpoint potential solutions to these direct needs from the community, based on their current outlooks.
“This is meant for the commission to talk amongst themselves, identify what they think they would like to see the city accomplished in the next two years, and categorize them or include them in these six priority areas,” said Kovacs.
Outcomes of Friday’s conversations will be documented and discussed upon more formally before the end of the fiscal year, before public comments and implementations in 2026.
