Town halls and open forum working together

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Reprinted from the Chinook Observer

OCEAN PARK - The Town Hall meetings taking place around the county are sponsored and facilitated by Pacific County Sheriff John Didion and his emergency management team. These meetings are meant to allow officials to gather information from citizens, and, as Didion says, "to give us some great ideas for improvement in disaster response."

The first Town Hall meeting in North Cove/Tokeland was attended by 30 citizens, while at the meeting in the Peninsula Church Center in Seaview last week there were 60 people participating.

The Community Forum on Saturday, Jan. 26, at the Ocean Park Elementary School, organized by Nanci Main, is working in conjunction with the Town Hall meetings. This forum is a grassroots gathering in which the community creates and manages its own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme. The convening question of the open forum is "How can we as a community support emergency action planning and create networks that will serve the well-being of us all?"

This all-day open forum will feature a potluck lunch (if you're coming, be sure to sign up for the potluck at the Peninsula Senior Center 665-3999), spaghetti dinner, and stories from our youth. Participants will include many community and governmental leaders as well as individuals interested in ham radio operation, wildlife rehab, taking care of elders, turning the storm into art, emergency preparedness and a wide range of other topics. The work sessions will be generated based on the interests of the participants.

To find out more about the Town Hall meetings, call Emergency Management Coordinator, Stephanie Fritts at 642-9300, Ext.2340.

To get more information, or to help with the all-volunteer Community Forum, call Nanci Main at 665-5340 or email nanci@willapabay.org.