WINTER HAVEN -- About 80 members of the group Our Future By Design -- A Greater Winter Haven Community, met Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church to finalize the city's long-range vision plan.

The 41-page plan includes six subject areas that "stakeholders" envision for the city over the next 20 years: community, economic development, education, growth and development, health, and lake preservation.

The plan includes key performance areas for each subject area. Each area is broken down into a vision, objective, rationale, action steps, resources needed, and a time line.

WUnder the topic of "community," the group decided to address four areas: Bringing neighbors together; Creating recreational opportunities; Taking pride in our image -- the city beautiful; and Promoting tolerance.

WEconomic development: Adapting for the future; Building on the past; Show me the money!; Capitalizing on our assets; and Our favorite pastime?

WEducation: Starting from scratch; Quality control; Placing a value on our teachers; Exceeding expectations; The wired community; and Educating each other.

WGrowth and development: The downtown core; Our historic heritage; Getting around; Intelligent growth; The sum of its parts; and Making Winter Haven our home.

WHealth: The greater Winter Haven health community coalition; and Defining our priorities.

WLake preservation: Our gift -- our legacy; Accessibilty to lakes; Improving water quality and wildlife habitat of our lakes; Designating urban lakefront development areas; Lakes public education program; Ecotourism -- sharing our lakes with the world; Lakes project selection policy; and Proposed projects/programs.

Having already undergone several planning sessions over the past year, the group gathered one last time before the final draft of recommendations is presented to an implementation committee.

"This basically culminates much of the work that we've done over the last several months," said Dan Costello, co-chair of the group. "Now, we move on to the actual implementation stage where we take the input to the public."

State Farm Insurance agent Cheryl Beckert and ophthalmologist Dr. Frank J. Fischer will lead the implementation committee. Involved in the concept since its beginning, the two are charged with advocating, coordinating, disseminating and monitoring information to the public about the project.

Beckert said subcommittees will probably be formed in an effort to better inform people of document contents.

Costello said that in order to meet a mid-March deadline, carrying out the visioning message will include working with city and county governments and the Polk County School Board.

"That's probably the fastest way to reach a large number of people within a short period of time," he said. "We want everyone to understand and be involved in this whole process."

Bob Gernert, executive director of the Greater Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the group's outreach committee, will make recommended corrections to each subject area of the document, which has generated more than $45,000 in donations and pledges, organizers said.

Growth and redevelopment member Frank Chichetto said he hopes the project will receive as much attention and review as other projects happening around the city.

"This is something that people need to know about and believe in," he said. "I'm all for what this document stands for, but we have to get it to the point where people get behind it in great numbers."