MUNCIE — Mayor Sharon McShurley recalls that when she took office nearly two years ago, “No one handed me a book and said, ‘Here’s the plan.’”

The local economic development alliance, Ball State University and other organizations have long-term plans, “but the city of Muncie didn’t have one when I took office,” McShurley said during a recent orientation meeting for the three dozen members of the steering committee for the Muncie Action Plan.

With no direction on how to spend limited city resources, “we are holding ourselves back,” the mayor said.

Besides not knowing where the city is going or what it wants to become in the future, the lack of a comprehensive plan hurts the city’s chances of receiving its full share of federal funding for community development, transportation and other improvements, McShurley said.

She said she has been asked several times by federal agencies from which the city seeks funding, “How does this fit into your comprehensive plan?”

The city has awarded a $125,000 contract to ACP Visioning+Planning, a Columbus, Ohio, consultant, to help create the plan or vision for Muncie’s future. ACP is a firm that focuses on creating better places and on “action-oriented” plans.

The plan is supposed to give clear direction to developers and citizens, establish a blueprint for coordinated development/redevelopment, serve as a foundation for grant-seeking and improve quality of life.

Virginia Nilles, director of the Muncie Public Library, and George Branam, president of East Central Indiana Pathologists, co-chair the steering committee.

“There has got to be a vision of where we want to go,” Nilles has said.