Community Summit

This morning, I attended the Hernando County Community Summit at Silverthorn Country Club. This Summit was sponsored, in part, by Duane Chichester, publisher of the Hernando Today and the local business group, Hernando Progress. Even though I was only able to stay at this event for several hours because of limited duty from a recent surgery, it was well worth the effort to attend this morning.

I have served on the Growth Community for the past two years with Dudley Hampton serving as chairman. Dudley's leadership is the glue that held our committee together for the past two years while investigating details of smart growth in our community. I was flattered that Dudley asked me to be one of his presenters at this morning's Summit. My task(s) were to detail the progress in affordable and workforce initiatives in our county, along with information on rural clustering. Two others members of our growth committee also gave presentations. Sindra Ridge spoke on the necessity of green space preservation and compact building design. Tommy Bronson spoke on viable uses for agricultural lands in our county.

Mr. Dix from our local MPO also gave some very interesting information for the Transportation Committee in reference to the 5 and 25 year road programs in Hernando County. Stanley Giannet gave a stirring presentation about new programs at PHCC to train future teachers in our county during the Education Committee reports.

Many leaders from Hernando County were in attendance at this Summit. It was a mixed audience of business leaders and elected officials from the city, county and school board. The regret was that I was unable to attend the entire Summit. My thanks go out to Mr. Chichester and his staff for my invitation to attend this worthwhile event!