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Saline County Study Members Present: Wayne McReynolds, LeAnn Haling, Richard Clemens, Mark Belwood
Saline County Study Members Absent: Vince Buck, Ruthie Cramer, Marc Harris, Roy Hunter, Kathy Borgman, Becky Plattner
Saline County Commissioners Present: Mike Dillon, Richard Pemberton
Saline County Commissioners Absent: John Stouffer
Saline County Extension Staff Present: Cynthia Crawford, Darin Starr
University Partners Present: Dr. Ron Powers, Anna Cox
Media Present: Bob Stewart, Democrat-News

The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. It was announced that Kathy Borgman would not be present as she was attending a conference in Costa Rica.

The County Commission was thanked for appropriating the full $10,000 requested for the final year of the Study. With full funding in place Cynthia was given approval to spend the remaining $250 appropriated for the L.I.F.E. library. Mike Dillon mentioned a book containing all of the U.S. Presidential inauguration speeches that he would like to see in the library.

Richard Clemens moved and Mike Dillon seconded that the minutes of the January 10 meeting be approved as mailed/e-mailed. Motion passed.

The first two days of the first L.I.F.E. Class were reported on by L.I.F.E. attendees. Everyone seemed to be very pleased with the way things were working out—especially with the first land use public issue forum and the accompanying preference ranking process. Cynthia reported that Wendy Pettersen (a February L.I.F.E. fellow) has been doing substantial volunteer work to support the LIFE fellowship and PIF town hall meetings, and we are providing her with a very modest volunteer stipend. Richard Clemens mentioned that Brent Sandidge had encouraged members of the Saline County cattlemen’s association to become L.I.F.E. fellows. It was reported that signup was good for the March class, but openings were still available for the rest of the classes.

Dr. Powers reported that due to another commitment he will not be able to facilitate the March L.I.F.E. class public issue forum; he will ask a colleague to lead the March forum. Dr. Powers distributed a brochure about Public Policy Institutes that are scheduled for Kansas City and St. Louis in April. According to the brochure these workshops will "further develop the capacity of people to use the National Issues Forums developed by The Kettering Foundation to help citizens learn to deal with their critical local issues." Dr. Powers said that registration fees and lodging fees could be arranged for at least five Study members, but travel expenses would be the responsibility of the attendee.

Anna Cox and Dr. Powers reported that they planned to give the entire preference ranking survey to at least the first several non-L.I.F.E. forums. They would reevaluate after those forums.

We next discussed the PIF forums to be held outside of the L.I.F.E. classes. It would decided to try to schedule the forums in a relatively tight time period so that the survey results would be less likely to skewed by any land use related events that might transpire. Forums will be limited to 15 to 25 people so that everyone would have ample time to speak and to be heard. Dr. Powers said that a wide diversity for each forum is not critical as we plan to have a total of about ten forums. It was suggested that copies of the LUPIF booklet be distributed to all of the libraries in the county.

Anna mentioned a paper on Community Reinvestment by the KC Federal Reserve’s Community Development group. This paper has some grants listed that the county might be able to apply for.

Cynthia suggested that video copies of the Heart of Saline County be distributed to all fourth grade classes in the county as the fourth grade studies county government. It was agreed that this was a good idea. LeAnn volunteered to distribute the video to Sweet Springs and Richard Clemens to Orearville and Hardeman schools.

Meeting adjourned 8:42 p.m.

Submitted by,

Mark Belwood

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Last updated: October 13, 2000