By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Citizens from 19 counties across northwest Missouri will travel to Jefferson City next week as part of Great Northwest Days at the state Capitol.
St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce President Natalie Hawn says there will be a big event on Tuesday with each county setting up a booth representing their county.
“And we have department heads that will come around, like the Head of Economic Development Michelle (Hataway), the Head of Agriculture Chris (Chinn), they’ll come around to get a chance to meet them,” Hawn tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. “And then you also get a chance to meet with legislators, not only from the 19 counties in northwest Missouri, but from across the state.”
“So, it’s a great way to kind of let them know what the priorities are, not just here in Buchanan County, but for the region.”
Hawn says there’s typically always a great turnout during the event, largely because of so many counties being in the same place, at the same time
“When you come together with a collective voice, you get more attention,” Hawn explains. “And we tend to become kind of the role model across the state, where the legislators will say man I wish the northeast would do this, or I wish more communities would do this, because it allows them to hit all of us at one time, so it moves us up on the priority list.”
Hawn says many of the priorities of northwest Missouri align with Buchanan County
“They have some priorities like broadband, making sure they have internet access for all, but then they also have similar priorities that we would like childcare,” Hawn says. “Our representative Brenda Shields has a childcare bill where she’s working on childcare tax credits to help with the childcare deserts in the state, and rural communities are hit hard by childcare, so that is one of the things we will be advocating for.”
Hawn says another priority will be representative Bill Falkner’s housing bill. There will also be discussions on rural healthcare.
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