SILOAM SPRINGS, ARK–
A three-minute video that has gone viral in Siloam Springs a city previously named as one of the best small towns in America.
The video has more than 24-thousand views and aims to describe Siloam Spring’s master plan with humor and simplicity.
Zach Wisniewski, is a former resident of Siloam Springs and after the national recognition, he says his hometown felt a sense of pride and community.
“People are wanting to stay here and help the development further along and grow quicker,” said Wisniewski.
In 2014, that’s when the change began. Meredith Bergstrom is the executive director of main street Siloam Springs. And she says they started developing a master plan and the video provided a way to communicate and engage the residents.
“We had a huge response,” said Bergstrom. “The video is essentially a three minute tour of what are the projects in the master plan and where we are at with these things.”
Part of the master plan is to add a road diet on Mount Olive where the roads gets a little smaller, but the sidewalks get a little larger allowing pedestrians more room. Behind the new public library will be a splash pad for the summers and it turns into an ice rink for the winters. Wisnieski says this will make Siloam more attractive and bring others like himself, back home.
Bergstrom says they hope the responses from the video will impact the sales tax expansion vote, because if the sales tax expansion passes, then they know over the next ten years they can fund those improvements.