Core values are an essential part of any organization. They are what comprise an organization’s culture, identity and what guides decision-making. At Go Ottawa, we are founded on eight guiding principles provided to us from Heritage Ohio, Ohio’s Main Street America Coordinating Program. These principles have been proven time and again in downtown revitalizations efforts, and we believe will lead us well here in Ottawa.

In the third theme from our Strategic Plan, Hospitality and Experiences, we look at how we can support our existing businesses and attract new food and beverage opportunities, boutique lodging, and multi-use event venues to Ottawa.

Our vision for our streets and trails is to build safe bicycle and pedestrian connections between our schools, the reservoir, downtown, and the river. Then, look further out and better connect to Gilboa and Glandorf. We have eight principles and objectives that are guiding that vision.

This year we organized our first ever Ottawa Light Up Contest. Local residents decorated their homes to show their holiday spirit. Our board then voted on the winner. A map was provided as well to allow the community to enjoy the displays. We truly enjoyed this contest and hope you all have too. We have already heard whisperings of ideas for next year’s displays!

The first of the four themes of Ottawa’s Strategic Plan that we will be exploring, is our public spaces. During our surveying of residents, investment in Ottawa’s trails and recreation was the most popular type of public investment residents would like to see. Our vision is to reconnect our existing parks and river, fill in gaps in our public realm, and redesign Main Street and other priority streets as interconnected, active parts of our public space system. To begin exploring this, let’s first start with digging a bit into what we mean by ‘public space.’

The alley between Always Blessed (232 Main St) and RMS of Ohio (224 Main St) holds immense potential as an underutilized space that can be transformed into a vibrant and welcoming place for our residents. We envision this alley as a place where you can sip on your morning coffee or take your lunch outside. A quiet escape in the middle of our downtown. Our vision has a few tables and chairs, overhead lights, and an inviting atmosphere surrounding throughout. We see opportunity to host small events to highlight community artists and projects. We envision this space being dynamic and changing over time to continue to draw your eye to what was just a gap and now will be a celebrated space in our public realm.

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” Another way to look at it is as Rosie Verhoff states in the below video, “We create our own history.” We shape our future with the decisions we make today, and form our history with how we tell that story afterwards.

Go Ottawa names Executive Director