Minutes

Group:

Saline County Study Steering Committee in conjunction with the Saline County Study Management Team

Sunday August 24, 1997 3:30 PM to 9:00 PM CDT
Holiday Inn Select, Columbia, Missouri
Monday August 25, 1997 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM CDT
Mumford Hall, UMC Campus

Vince Buck, Richard Clemens, Wayne McReynolds, Mark Belwood, Tim Simmons, Marc Harris, David Perkins, Kathy Borgman, LeAnn Haling

Patti Carr (illness), Corey Lyon

Russell Dehn, Mike Dillon, Cynthia Crawford, Gerry Snapp, Darin Starr, Dennis DiPietre, Chris Fulcher, Tom Johnson

Richard Pemberton

Chris Barnett, Daryl Hobbs, John Lory, Ronald Powers, Mubarak Hamed

Mel Zielinski

August 24

Mel Zielinski opened the meeting by introducing Dr. Ronald Powers. Dr. Powers first recapped how the study evolved. He said the Missouri Supreme Court decision on the PSF/Lincoln Township case would not make this study moot. He said that this case points out that whereas in the past local change was instigated by people within the community, today change is often a result of outside intervention. He said that communities could choose to control their own future or let happen what may. He stressed that Extension's role in the Saline County Study is not to tell the county what its future should be, but to facilitate the decision making process by helping to provide an adequate knowledge base. He said that Extension will use the study to help learn how to work with a community as a whole rather than focusing on problems in isolation as they have traditionally done in the past.

Mel Zielinski then took charge of the meeting. He said that we are going to be getting a lot of information in the two days of this meeting and that we need to open up and listen. But he said that we couldn't retain everything, so focus on the big ideas first. He then divided the group into several teams and each team was given the task of assembling a puzzle of the state of Missouri. Because everyone was familiar with different areas of the state, the exercise showed how each person brings different knowledge to a group task. We remained in teams to then do a Lost at Sea exercise. This exercise demonstrated that although arriving at a group consensus is often messy, the consensus solution is often better than the solution arrived at by individuals. Last, each person was asked to tell one thing that they were good enough at that they could teach someone else. Mel said that it was important that we do this at one of our own meetings, so that we could ascertain what skills we have in the group for handling different phases of the project.

After a break for dinner at Alexander's Steak House, the meeting reconvened. Daryl Hobbs of the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis (OSEDA) spoke on "What--and why--is happening in Saline County?". Some of his points were as follows:

• The national trend from 1990 to 1995 has been for people to move back to rural areas. Some of the factors include globalization, the revolution in telecommunications, the cost of living and the quality of life.
• The population of northern Missouri peaked about 1900.
• Transportation and tourism is the main state business.
• Successful communities invest in themselves. This includes investments in financial capital (dollars), human capital (education, health, and attitudes), social capital (relationships of trust and exchange) and environmental capital (natural resources).
• Low income, large schools and the availability of jobs increase the dropout rate.
• Transfer payments account for nearly 30% of Saline County's total income.
• Health care accounts for 17% of Saline County's economy.
• Medicaid pays for fifty percent of all deliveries in Saline County.
• Saline County ranks 90^th in the state in the well being of children.

August 25

The day began with breakfast at 7:30 AM CDT. Presentations by UMC members of the Saline County Study Team began at 8:00 AM.

The first presentation was by Dennis DiPietre. He said that work has been underway for about a year on the concept of knowledge-based planning. He commented that we no longer live in a labor-based society and economy; that knowledge has become the premier input. He characterized labor-based inputs as those that can be mechanized. He said that the knowledge-based way creates wealth, the labor-based way does not. He said that we have plenty of capital (i.e., dollars), but we need the knowledge to put it to work.

Dr. DiPietre characterized the Saline County Study as prototype development. As such the Study is a means to test new ideas and technology, a means to learn together and a means to streamline similar future efforts in other counties.

Dr. DiPietre said that Extension and the CAFNR faculty involved in the Study intend to provide front-end guidance to facilitate knowledge-based county development. This will include inventorying resources (natural, people, education …), creating a decision-making framework, delivering impact analysis, providing process assistance (helping us understand, disseminate and use the data) and providing ongoing updates and consulting. The watershed concept may also be integrated into the study. Key tools will be GIS (Geographic Information System) technology, input-output analysis and the Show-Me model.

The initial approach will involve creating a demographic baseline and history, natural resource inventory, county resource inventory, current development baseline, analytic tool development (e.g.-odor plume model), economic baseline and economic decision tools.

The communication process will utilize Saline County Extension and monthly/quarterly updates (method still undecided). Also, it was suggested that the county could possibly design an education process for its citizens.

The next presentation was by Chris Fulcher and Chris Barnett of CARES (Center for Agricultural, Resource and Environmental Systems). Their presentation was primarily a live demonstration of the Saline County Study web site (http://www.cares.missouri.edu/salinecounty). The capabilities demonstrated for displaying and overlaying GIS data were amazing to those who were not previously aware of what was technologically available. They said they are looking for input on ideas for the web site.

John Lory, who is the Coordinator of the Natural Resource Assessment Team (NRAT) for the Study, was next. He explained that the role of NRAT is to help provide an inventory of natural resources and then to help with analysis of the data. Creating the inventory involves collecting existing digitized data, identifying and prioritizing missing layers and then creating the missing layers (if funding is available). He said the role of the Steering Committee in creating the inventory will be to define what is important, to prioritize missing layers, to identify sources of information for missing layers and to verify the results. In the analysis phase the role of the Steering Committee will be to define what is important and to verify the results. He distributed a list of available geodatasets that could be incorporated into the Study.

Tom Johnson gave the final presentation of the morning. He sees the issues confronting Saline County as falling into four broad categories: land use conflicts, growing infrastructure needs, rising environmental constraints and the changing structure of agriculture. He said that the Community Policy Analysis Center could provide decision support by means of the following tools:

• Input-Output Model--This is a static model that shows linkages among all sectors of the economy.
• Show Me Model--This is dynamic model. It shows fiscal impacts based on data from actual Missouri communities.
• Environmental Module--This provides a measure of environmental impacts.
• Trade Area Analysis--This gives information on retail opportunities.
• Preference Solicitation--This obtains information about community goals.

The lunch break occurred.

Mel Zielinski began the afternoon session by asking each person to list their top five priorities for the Study. He then went around the table asking for each person's top priority. If your top priority had already been mentioned, you gave your next priority. He repeated going around the table until all priorities had been listed. Next, Mel asked everyone to vote for their top three priorities from among the priorities that we had just listed. Based on the results of this voting and after an extended period of animated discussion, the following tentative mission statement was arrived at:

Promote a rational, predictable and stable investment environment that identifies and protects key resources, personal rights and property rights through a process that involves and educates the citizens of Saline County.

Ronald Powers introduced Dr. Don Fancher, Vice Provost for Extension on the Columbia campus, and then Dr. Powers spoke to the group briefly.

Tim Simmons assumed control of the meeting. Richard Clemens moved that we table formal adoption of the mission statement until the next meeting. The motion passed unanimously. Placed on the agenda for the next meeting were:

• Presentation by Tom Johnson of community baselines to which modifiers can be added.
• Presentation by John Lory of what is available and what might be needed in the way of natural resource geodatasets.
• Discussion of suggestions on how to best use our web site.
• Report on the Sunshine Law by Mark Belwood.
• Report on the Kettering Meeting by Mark Belwood.

The next meeting was scheduled for 7:00 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 8, 1997. The location will be announced later, but it is tentatively set for the Farm Credit Service's building on North Highway 65 in Marshall.