Meeker County’s Strategic Plan

Meeker County recently put together a strategic plan with a mission statement of “United to Lead, Driven to Serve.” The vision statement for the strategic plan is “Meeker County serves with integrity and purpose – building trust and partnerships to support the health, safety and well-being of communities where people choose to live, work and grow.”

Meeker County Administrator Andrew Letson says the plan was conceived with input from staff, department heads and the County Commissioners. He says the plan helps to develop goals which will be checked along the way, over the three years of the plan.

Letson says the strategic plan has four priorities – financial stewardship, assets & amenities, quality economic growth and organizational excellence – and there are strategies and goals within each of those areas. He says they want to make Meeker County a place where people want to live, work and thrive.

Letson says he’s been presenting budget information to the County Board as they get ready to develop a levy for 2026 and it’s the most challenging budget he’s had to work on as there are a lot of unfunded mandates being handed down from the state and federal governments. He says the levy increase is likely to be more than 9% as they proactively try to anticipate changes to SNAP, Medicaid, child protection processes and paid family medical leave – resulting in $1.5-million in new costs for 2026, 2027 and 2028.