Today's Events:  Thursday August 16, 2001

Ron Thomas, Steering Committee Leader, greeted the participants at the reception by challenging everyone to participate fully in this democratic process. Ron citied the pioneering works of some historic Charlotte County residents such as Sally Jones.  Ron cited a quote, "Give me a platform and I will rise to the occasion." and charged the group stating that "Here is an occasion to create a platform that Charlotte County can be proud of!"

Dr. Lance deHaven-Smith, FSU Professor and Assembly Facilitator, prepared the group for their 3 day adventure and stated that during his vast 25 years of working with and studying Florida governments, "Charlotte County is by far one of the most advanced county governments" that he has seen.  

After the orientation the assembly members formed 5 smaller groups and began the awesome responsibility of discussing the issues.  The first topic to be discussed was Meeting Human Needs which allowed for some lively discussions.  A few quotes included:

• "Don't ignore the children of this county just because our population has a high median age, Childcare is a real issue."

• "Growth is upon us, it can not be ignored."   

•  "We have 3 animal shelters and no people shelters."  

• "100% of the people in Charlotte County need Healthcare, no matter what their age, income, or race, Healthcare is an important issue for us to tackle today"

• "With G. Pierce Wood closing, Mental Healthcare will become an important issue for this county."

• "Human Services needs, ( Childcare, Healthcare, Mental Services) are directly tied to economic development."

• "Human Service needs should be a partnership between County, Local Businesses, and the Community."

• "We need a better way to assess human service needs in our community."

• "Should government be a safety net for the needy, or should this burden be shared by private organizations?"

Today's Events Friday August 17, 2001

The various groups this morning discussed Building the Infrastructure.  They tackled some tough issues including Road Expansion, Speed Limits, Water Supply, and Growth Management. A few quotes include:

• "Bottleneck on Edgewater, Midway, and Peachland - must be widened to alleviate the bottleneck."

• "This is what MPO does, they take surveys, traffic counts, and make plans based upon citizen input. Read the plan."

• "[About the process]... Very diverse groups, and all only have the interest of this community at heart."

• "We have to re-evaluate our water supply and look for alternative sources of water"

• "I lived in Key West 15 years ago and we had desalinization back then, it works and the Gulf of Mexico is right next door."

Today's Events Saturday August 18, 2001

The Assembly members gathered today to review the draft document.  All members were seated in the auditorium and voted on each line of the document.

An observer stated " I think that the Assembly is an interesting process to watch." "We take this document very seriously, I'm glad to see so many members taking part in editing the document." "This is democracy at it's finest, each member votes on the verbiage." "Very interesting group, by the third day we really started to get warmed up!"

Stay tuned as we post more quotes and updates throughout the Assembly process.