Members of the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team [CART] spoke before city council Monday in support of the report they’ve compiled from suggestions and needs of the citizens of Joplin.

Formed at the suggestion of the FEMA Long-Term Community Recovery Task Force, CART serves as an advisory committee for the city of Joplin.  

CART’s vision, as expressed in the report, is that “Joplin will set the standard for disaster recovery by demonstrating to America its can-do attitude. We will be recognized as a city that encourages green alternatives and healthy lifestyles.”

After community leaders realized the need for a more formal group of recovery analysts, CART held two public meetings and participated in Third Thursday Downtown and Boomtown Days to gather citizen input. 

Four sectors represent the specific goals of the team. The sectors include the housing and neighborhoods sector, schools and community facilities sector, infrastructure and environment sector, and the economic development sector. Together, these sectors help to break down the input from over 1,500 responses from the public.

In an overview of the report by the CART, their say, “first and foremost, to engage residents to determine their recovery vision for Joplin and to represent their views to the community. 

“To provide a systematic way to address recovery through a planning process. To bring all segments of the community together to share information and work together.” 

After the proposal was finished, Mayor Mike Woolston said, “the community is waiting on us, we need to move forward [with the report] fairly quickly.”  When asked what the next year looks like for the city of Joplin, Jane Cage, chairman of the CART said, “It would be a really great thing to be done in a year, unfortunately there is too much work.” 

Cage believes the group is making steady progress in the recovery effort and will continue to work with the people of Joplin to make improvements. 

Council member Melodee Colbert-Kean also said, “cost is an important factor in the implementation of development.” 

This begged the question: Will taxes increase to cover the financial cost of improvements? 

Cage said that the financial side of the proposal will be the responsibility of the economic division of the Chamber of Commerce. 

Cage said that she was “really proud of all the people who volunteered their time to the project,” and thought that the city council approval of the CART report was “an important milestone” in the city’s recovery process.