Mayors from around the Jackson Purchase are spending the day in Benton as part of a regional leadership initiative.
The Purchase Area Development District (PADD) each quarter hosts a regional alliance meeting among city mayors to discuss issues each community faces, ways to overcome those issues and share insights on how to manage them. PADD Executive Director Jennifer Walker said those meetings have proven helpful to city officials, and in August, new alliance board chairman and Mayfield Mayor Teresa Rochetti-Cantrell, expressed a desire to see that effort “kicked up a notch.”
“Instead of just coming to the PADD office and having lunch and sharing about programs, she wanted to do more of developing leadership amongst the mayors and going into each others’ communities and highlighting what is going on in that community,” Walker said. “So, the mayors were interested in doing that, so she hosted the first one last month, and then Mayor Dotson offered to host the second one this month.”
Walker said the alliance hopes to hold a meeting among mayors in a different community in the Purchase each month, giving mayors the opportunity to meet city leadership, visit various highlights within each community – such as points of tourism and industry – and then conclude with a dinner and meeting at which participants will engage in discussion about common issues, challenges and opportunities.
“We’re looking forward to seeing what’s going by the end of the fiscal year in each city in the Purchase, or at least as many cities as we can get through in 10 months,” Walker said. “… What we’re hoping to accomplish, and what I said last month is what we learned – because we had with us the mayor of Mayfield, the mayor of Barlow, the mayor of Paducah, the mayor of Benton, the mayor of Clinton – and what we learned was that it doesn’t matter if you have a city with city employees of 100 people, 50 people or four people, the challenges are the same because people are the same. It was remarkable to see them share those common challenges and, ‘OK, well here’s how I did that,’ or ‘Have you thought about …?’ So, it’s about sharing experiences and challenges and solutions.”
Dotson on Friday said she was looking forward to the meeting and intended to visit and toure the new memory care unit at The Stilley House Assisted Living Community, FLW and CFSB. Dotson said she also planned to drive the group by other points of interest in Benton, such as Champion Homes and Purchase Youth Village. Dotson said she would likely host another meeting in the next fiscal year, and would focus on other areas of Benton for the next tour.
In addition to Walker, Dotson said mayors from Murray, Mayfield, Clinton, Barlow and Paducah had expressed intent to attend the event as of Friday.
“Danny Ham has let me borrow a large van, and Teresa (Manley) at the (4-Little) Pigs is going to cater, because we’re ending at the (Children’s) Art Center,” Dotson said. “The Art Center is one-of-a-kind in the state. So, we’re ending down there, and George (Milam) is just going to set us up one table. … And that will give us privacy to talk. Like, if I have an employee issue, and I’m not sure how to handle it, I can say, ‘Teresa, how did you or have you ever had this?’ ‘Well, yeah, I have and this is what we did.’ So, it’s sharing, exchanging ideas and things that other mayors have been through that I might not have.”
Dotson said it was important to work together on a regional level and felt the meetings could help build that regional network. Dotson said new Paducah Mayor Brandi Harless had made a point on which she agreed.
“She said, ‘If you get an industry in Benton, Paducah and Mayfield and Barlow and Clinton and Calloway County are all going to benefit from it,’” Dotson said. “And you do, because they come from every where to work.”
Tuesday’s meeting in Benton will be the second since the initiative began last month. Harless will host another meeting next month in Paducah.
Walker said PADD hoped to start small but continue to grow the initiative should it work out well. In particular, Walker said in the next fiscal year, the group hoped to expand to include county judges-executive in the effort, as well.