Committees offer ideas to county board
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 19, 2000
Wednesday, January 19, 2000
Hire six new family facilitators for every elementary school in Mower County … merge the city of Austin and Mower County housing and redevelopment authorities … build a new planned community in Pleasant Valley Township … maintain or improve the quality of life for elderly residents … establish a mandatory program for parents of dysfunctional families to learn parenting skills.
And, Mower County Board of Commissioners, do these things and others by July 1 … this year.
Never before has such creative thinking been exercised in Mower County. Some may call it wishful thinking, to be sure and say the far-ranging recommendations are just that: beyond belief.
But, the county commissioners said from the start of the process that they want the public’s input.
Last night, that’s what they got from a blue-ribbon panel of citizen volunteers who assessed the assets and liabilities of Mower County and dared to propose drastic changes.
The results of a nearly yearlong effort of private citizens to vision the county’s future were announced Tuesday night.
Five long-range strategic planning committees made their recommendations to the Mower County Board of Commissioners at a public meeting in the Ellis Middle School auditorium.
Youth and family, land use and economic development, elderly, infrastructure and public health and safety were the broad-based areas of study.
Ray Tucker, Second District county commissioner and chair of the county board, was impressed with the results. Tucker praised the individual committee members for their efforts.
The recommendations heard Tuesday night first will be reviewed by the long-range strategic planning committee’s steering committee comprised of representatives from each of the five committees as well as Tucker and Len Miller, Fourth District county commissioner. Tucker and Miller are the county board’s designated representatives to the steering committee.
"We will put the recommendations into some kind of condensed form and present those recommendations to the entire county board to weigh the information and adopt whatever the board thinks is necessary and affordable at this time," Tucker said.
None of the county commissioners was disappointed that only a handful of citizens attended. More than 100 copies of the recommendations were printed and many remain for promulgation among the citizenry via County Coordinator Craig Oscarson’s office.
The purpose of Tuesday night’s meeting was to give each committee a forum to speak to all the county commissioners.
The Rev. Paul Nelson, chair of the youth and family committee, was the first to speak. Nelson, senior pastor at St. Augustine Catholic Church, called the process an "excellent exercise in citizenship."
The longest presentation came from Nancy Adams and Janet Anderson, co-chairs of the land use/planning economic development committee. Individual speakers reviewed specific areas and used visual displays to make their multitude of points.
Bruce Klaehn used humor to discuss elderly issues. "My definition of elderly is changing as the years go by," he quipped.
The commissioners listened attentively, took notes and conferred among themselves as the presentations were paid.
A few audience members asked questions or made points of their own.
What lies ahead?
As Nelson called it, Tuesday night’s culmination of months of study and review was an exercise in citizenship and his and Klaehn’s roles were evidence of that.
They also underlined how so many of the citizen volunteers believe family issues need attention by government.
At the outset, Nelson said the committee members "met as citizens and not lawyers" and that "people spoke their minds as well as their hearts."
Nelson pointedly said youth and family were critical issues and that county government’s role was absolutely necessary. "At this point, children and families are more vulnerable than our roads and bridges," he noted.
But that prompted a response from Klaehn, which illustrates the dilemma facing the county board about what to do and how far to go to accomplish those tasks.
Responding to Nelson’s comments on the need for government intervention in families, Klaehn said, "If the information as presented tonight about teen pregnancies, drug use and alcohol use and incidences are true, I think the people of Mower County would be truly appalled to hear that."
"But," Klaehn added, "this should not be problems that we ask five people to solve in our society."