Committee outlines five-town-hall approach for courthouse visioning

Committee members emphasized early, broad community engagement as a core element of the courthouse restoration RFQ. Members proposed holding five public meetings across Sumner County—locations named in discussion included Gallatin, Hendersonville and Portland—and using the meetings plus online surveys to gather community preferences before assigning dollar amounts.

One member summarized the requirement for proposers: "We want a firm that has the capacity, the ability to be able to facilitate our 5 meetings that we want." Committee discussion stressed prescheduled site walk-throughs and that the architect team should lead community sessions while county staff and elected officials provide context but not lead meetings (to avoid prohibited deliberation). Members said robust outreach is needed so the public both knows how to engage and can be counted on to support future funding requests.