Allen Public Input
Saturday, February 4 – Thursday, February 9, 2006
We decided that since so many of the people who came to the open house were from Oberlin we needed to do more. So we set up mini versions of the open houses in the four other communities. Two on Tuesday night and two on Thursday.
On Tuesday night some 20 folks attended the Reeves Public meeting. Now this is quite impressive given that the total population of Reeves is about 350. On the other hand, in the largest city in the Parish (Oakdale) only a handful of people attended. We discussed this at our Capacity Working Group on Wednesday evening. The Oakdale Mayor, cited an over all lack of public interest, but it is also the case that he had forgotten about it until the last minute. In contrast, the Mayor of Reeves actively promoted the meeting and arranged for Pizza and drinks to be served.
A very interesting thing happened. This inspired the Mayor of Kinder – population 2,000. He arranged for Faustoe’s Restaurant to donate a buffet of traditional Cajun foods (including alligator) and had city staff actively recruiting people to attend. As a result over 35 people attended the meeting in Kinder. Including the moderate turn-out in little Elizabeth, approximately 70 people attended the four meetings bringing our total up to around 150 and significantly improving the geographic distribution.
One of the planners in the last group to arrive has been of great help in all of this. I had her coordinate the Open house, these public meetings and be the Plan Production deputy. In that capacity she is also assisting the Plan Production Deputy for Jeff Davis. She is great at seeing the big picture and juggling multiple tasks. She also has very good leadership skill. That makes splitting my time possible.
We decided that since so many of the people who came to the open house were from Oberlin we needed to do more. So we set up mini versions of the open houses in the four other communities. Two on Tuesday night and two on Thursday.
On Tuesday night some 20 folks attended the Reeves Public meeting. Now this is quite impressive given that the total population of Reeves is about 350. On the other hand, in the largest city in the Parish (Oakdale) only a handful of people attended. We discussed this at our Capacity Working Group on Wednesday evening. The Oakdale Mayor, cited an over all lack of public interest, but it is also the case that he had forgotten about it until the last minute. In contrast, the Mayor of Reeves actively promoted the meeting and arranged for Pizza and drinks to be served.
A very interesting thing happened. This inspired the Mayor of Kinder – population 2,000. He arranged for Faustoe’s Restaurant to donate a buffet of traditional Cajun foods (including alligator) and had city staff actively recruiting people to attend. As a result over 35 people attended the meeting in Kinder. Including the moderate turn-out in little Elizabeth, approximately 70 people attended the four meetings bringing our total up to around 150 and significantly improving the geographic distribution.
One of the planners in the last group to arrive has been of great help in all of this. I had her coordinate the Open house, these public meetings and be the Plan Production deputy. In that capacity she is also assisting the Plan Production Deputy for Jeff Davis. She is great at seeing the big picture and juggling multiple tasks. She also has very good leadership skill. That makes splitting my time possible.
posted by J Corlss at 3:01 PM
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