Published: February 08, 2006 04:05 pm      

Williams joins Community Development

Land Use Coordinator sees challenge in county's growth

As countywide growth is imminent, someone has to be there to plan accordingly, making sure that Butts’ big step is forward, not backward.

That someone is Butts County’s new Land Use Coordinator, Moniqua Williams, and she’s got enough education, awards and drive to ease the county’s growing pains.

“I started looking at planning jobs when I was finishing up my Masters Degree in Community and Rural Development at Cornell University,” said Williams from her office in the Hawkes Building. “Butts’ rural quality was one of the deciding factors for me. The potential growth here was a big lure; I thought, ‘I can be here to create change.’”

Being the catalyst for change is nothing new for Williams, who has even had an award named for her – the Moniqua L. Williams Social Change Award – by her undergraduate alma mater, Clarion University in Pennsylvania.

Williams majored in Communications and minored in Speech Communications and Women’s Studies at Clarion, working well outside the confines of classroom walls.

“I was interested in bridging the university with the community,” said Williams. “Through the Women’s Studies program I was able to reach out to the community in various ways: I spearheaded the V-Day campaign, which raises money for victims of sexual assault; we also had a men’s health day, and “Soup for the Soup,” where faculty members would serve soup and raise money for different projects within the university.”

One of those projects was co-founded by Williams, “Women United,” which provided a forum for women where they could come together and discuss issues important to them.

“After I had graduated from Clarion, I wanted to use my gift of communication to build a bridge between government and people, and that’s what I pursued at Cornell,” said Williams. “I was always a student that was concerned, and graduation didn’t change that. This job is very important: I’ve got to make sure that the communities are livable for people of all genders, races and incomes. Roads, buffers, greenspace – these are the things I’m concerned with; not just putting up homes to generate tax dollars.

“You can only do this once,” said Williams. “And I work for the people here; they are always on my mind. Growth is going to happen – it’s to the north of us, and it’s up to Community Development to make it positive growth.”