MENDOTA – The City of Mendota recognized and honored community partners whose dedication will advance the city’s work toward a more walkable and bikeable town at the Sept. 3 Mendota City Council meeting.
Over the summer, Mendota community partners took part in the “The Active People, Healthy Nation Illinois Walkability Virtual Academy.” The academy is available to communities to learn and create an action plan to promote movability, activity, and economic vitality in a community.
The program was made possible by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors and the Illinois Public Health Institute. This summer, four teams from across Illinois, including Mendota, came together virtually to learn from the nation’s top equity, inclusion, and community and transportation design experts, develop a team action plan to promote walkability, and then receive ongoing support to implement the plan.
There were 17 Mendota community partners who made this Action Plan possible: Shasta Hladovcak, Jani Kidd, Amy Brewer, Sam Setchell, Alexia Gross, Denise Aughenbaugh, Moises Carlos, Stephen Donnell, Sarah Henkel, Maria J. Arteaga, Aliza Salinas-Cervantes, Vicki Johnson, Nick Stremlau, Emily McConville, Annie Short, Tim Kimrey, and Ali Braboy.
Members took part in 10 two-hour courses spanning the months of June through August 2024 where they talked about current challenges and goals for the future when it comes to walking and biking across the community. The group created an 8-goal Action Plan that identifies how to make Mendota accessible. One of the goals includes creating a bicycle path from downtown to Lake Kakusha and near the high school.
The program linked Mendota with transportation experts from Illinois and nationwide who advised participants about how to make the community more walkable and bikeable.
“The networking and information provided are invaluable. The Action Plan will open the door to more successful future grant applications,” said Emily McConville, Mendota’s City Clerk and Economic Development Director.
The Walkability Academy uses a policy, system, and environmental change approach to designing communities to support safe and accessible physical activity opportunities for all residents. This opportunity is made possible via the Illinois State Physical Activity and Nutrition program, a five-year initiative funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that works, in part, to increase policies, plans, or community design changes that increase access to physical activity.
The finished Mendota Action Plan can be found at: www.mendota.il.us/
To learn more about the Walkability Academy, visit chronicdisease.org/cahc/wai/
