VISION 2000 EXTENSION SEEKS PANEL MEMBERS

As the Vision 2000 city improvement plan winds down, its successor, Vision 2020, will be gearing up.

Cape Girardeau is seeking applications from community-minded residents to serve on the Vision 2020 Planning Committee.

The committee's purpose is to develop some basic goals for the new group, which on Jan. 1, 2000, will replace Vision 2000.

"This committee," said Vision 2000 chairwoman Kathy Swan, "will seek input to create a new strategic plan to ensure that the future of our community is planned and developed based on the hopes and dreams of the people of Cape Girardeau."

Interested residents can obtain applications at the city manager's office at City Hall, 401 Independence. Completed applications must be returned by Dec. 11.

Any city resident, regardless of background and education, is eligible to apply.

Vision 2000 was started in 1987 to develop a strategy for community improvement in the years remaining before the end of the millennium.

It started with a planning committee of 64-members. A 16-member Community Relations Council currently implements the Vision 2000 plan.

Assistant City Manager Walter Denton said Vision 2020 will follow its predecessor's example.

"We will use the planning committee as a sounding board for ideas," Denton said. "We hope to get a broad representation of people from throughout the community to get those ideas."

Denton said the number of people on the board has not been predetermined. Membership, he said, will depend on the number and quality of applications received.

In 1987, more than 200 people applied for the Vision 2000 planning committee.

"I don't know if we will get that many applications, but it would be nice if we did," Denton said.

The planning committee should be chosen and begin meeting by the end of January.

The group will come up with basic goals the city should strive to achieve over the first 10 to 20 years of the new millennium.

The community relations council, which will be appointed by the City Council and could include current members, will develop specific ways to achieve those goals.