OTTUMWA — Strategic planning for the city’s future has several common threads no matter if you’re talking about neighborhood vitality, quality of life, diversity or downtown Ottumwa.

Communication and getting to know your neighbor, community pride, common areas for play and cleaning up your yard or business (front and back) are just a few of those threads.

Sixty-three people of the citizens advisory committee participated in the third session of the city’s strategic planning sessions.

Jeff Schott of the University of Iowa’s Institute of Public Affairs guided the groups in preparing goal statements for the top categories. Last time he helped the advisory committee designate categories for the city’s top concerns.

At this session, Schott asked the participants to identify one or more goals for each category they named at the last meeting and write a goal statement.

Each table had a card bearing a category theme, which included neighborhood vitality, quality of life, diversity, government and infrastructure, downtown, education/health, economic development, housing, environmental issues and public safety.

Schott also asked the groups to identify issues, problems, concerns for each goal statement; and, he asked them to identify strategies to achieve each goal.

Neighborhood vitality could involve a program like Neighborhood Watch. People can adopt a block and get to know who the neighbors are, pick up trash, watch for criminal activity and call city officials if a street light is out.

Jody Gates served as the secretary for the “Neighborhood Vitality” table. She said one of the big goals was “pride in ownership.” One of the citizens at her table said perhaps a resident who won’t take care of his property should receive a citation from the city.

Goals at the neighborhood table included areas to meet in the neighborhood, common areas for play, tidy yards, eliminating graffiti and tearing down derelict houses.

If a derelict house is torn down, the vacant lot could be seeded and used as a common area for the neighborhood.

Goals at the “Diversity” table included promoting tolerance and acceptance and improving communication among subgroups (racial, cultural, socioeconomic, disability, ethnic, sexual orientation or religion).

Steve Hanson said one of the diversity issues is how to get people together when there are multiple languages.

“When a [message] is in English or Spanish, do the Bosnians feel left out?” he said.

Ed Ball said Ottumwa has 17 groups who speak a different language.