More than 100 ideas for improving Danville submitted during city councilmen's "idea raiser"

Councilmen James Buckner, Lee Vogler have selected the top 100 ideas

DANVILLE, Va. – Last September, Danville city councilmen James Buckner and Lee Vogler began their "100 ways in 100 days" campaign.

The goal was to collect at least 100 suggestions from the community about ways to improve the Southside city.

They ended up with around 110.

Buckner said the submissions were eye-opening.

"It was a bit overwhelming to go through all of them and figure out which ones (were the best). There were some tough choices that had to be made, but there were a lot of really good ideas," Buckner said.

One of Buckner's favorites is adding benches and covered shelters at city bus stops.

Some stops do not have either.

"It's the simple things that we can do for our citizens that will impact them the most," Buckner explained.

"One of them that popped up was covered shelters for bus stops, improved sidewalks, in different areas, adding sidewalks in different areas. All of which will help; it'll do wonders for our community," he continued.

One idea Vogler likes is allowing city employees to have one hour a week to tutor students.

"That's a way to get the city partnering with the school system even more and it's also going to help young people and I think it's a great way to get our city employees actively involved in the community in a good way and have a great positive impact," Vogler said.

The councilmen are now working to categorize the ideas.

"We'll put them in front of council, we'll put them in front of the right people and try to make as many of them happen as we can," Vogler said.

After that, the ideas will be put into a document that is easy for the public to access and understand.

He also encourages people to continue to submit ideas to the online account set up for the initial submissions.