FRIDAY JANUARY 30, 2009
1:15 PM

I was very busy yesterday. I know---that is what I get paid to do.

I started the day with my weekly staff meeting. Shortly after the meeting I went to North Little Rock for a AML Executive committee meeting. The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, but because of the weather the meeting was moved up one day. We had a very interesting meeting. The majority of the time was spent discussing bills that the Arkansas Legislature will be acting on over the next few weeks. The AML has several bills that have been or will be introduced. The staff feels good about the chances of the bills passing. We discussed a number of bills that the sponsors want the AML to support. There were a number that we agreed to support and several that we took a neutral position on an some that we oppose.

I have been involved with this committee for the past several years. I attended the meetings for the two years that I was an Advisory Committee chairman. I also attended the meeting the year that I was Vice-President. I have been a member for the past several years. Yesterday was the smallest group that I have ever seen at these meetings. The reason was the weather. There were basically no members attending from north of I 40 and west of I 30.

I had to leave the meeting early to return to Wynne to help with and then attend the Chamber of Commerce banquet. The banquet was very good and the attendance was excellent.

This morning a group of citizens from Cross County attended a breakfast meeting with the speaker from the banquet last night. He is a site consultant. Arron made a presentation for the group about the economic development possibilities in Cross County. The site consultant commented about the effort of our group. He implied that we were on the right track with the work of our group. He also offered some advice as we move forward with our economic development program. Overall a very good meeting.