Aiken City Council talks future goals, priorities during discussion session

Landon Stamper, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·2 min read

Jan. 29—The air in the Rye Patch house was filled with ideas and objectives Thursday morning as Aiken City Council members met for an hours-long conference, focused around the future of Aiken.

Each council member was given the chance to speak about bold ideas they might have, consider what makes the city special and discuss where they see Aiken in three years.

The session was held as city staff begins to prepare a budget for the fiscal year 2022-23.

The discussion was facilitated by Irene Dumas Tyson of the Boudreaux Group. Tyson started by going around the room and asking each council member and city staff member who attended to say the first word that comes to mind when they think about Aiken.

The answers painted a diverse picture, with words including historic, active, charming and welcoming all being vocalized. Tyson said she's led these types of discussions before, and this was the first time all the words thrown out were positive.

From there, the topic shifted to council members listing what they thought was the most impactful accomplishment in the last few years before Tyson challenged each of them to give a "big and bold" idea.

The bold ideas covered a variety of topics, including connecting the city through multi-use paths allowing people to "get everywhere from anywhere," building and supporting a homeless shelter, starting an annual two-week "celebration of the horse" and creating a nature park to be a regional destination.

Tyson pushed members to be specific about their goals, not allowing them to be vague and thus leading to more discussion between attendees on how these goals could potentially be accomplished.

In closing, each person in the room completed the sentence, "In three years, Aiken..." Responses ranged from "in three years, Aiken will be a premier city" to "In three years, the north, south, east and west will be better connected."

Overall, those who attended felt the discourse was positive and forecasted a good year ahead.

"You're all here to transmit Aiken better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to each of you," Tyson said. "I do believe that these big, bold ideas that you have come up with are going to do that and you've got the right team."

"This has been extremely enjoyable personally for me," said Council member Lessie Price. "This (was) one of our better sessions and discussions."

Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon thanked city staff and thevleadership team for all they do and for helping to put this event together. Osbon then spoke about how he found the session to be "energizing."

″(2022) is going to be a year of action for the city of Aiken," Osbon said. "I think with our momentum and the ideas that council came up with, I feel very confident."