 "Serving Western Legislatures" Council
of State Governments - WEST OFFICERS Melvin
R. Brown Jeannette
Hamby Timothy
Z. Jennings Manny
M. Aragon Kent
Briggs COMMITTEE CHAIRS Electrical
Industry Restructuring Future
of Western Legislatures Energy
& Minerals Western
Water Policy Southern
Boarder Smart
States Public
Land Policy Trade
& Transportation WESTRENDS Legislative
Service Agency Directors |
The Alaska State Legislature Welcomes For Immediate Release: September 18, 1998 Contacts:
Anchorage – On behalf of the Alaska State Legislature, Representative Ramona Barnes and Senator Tim Kelly, welcome to Anchorage participants of The Council of State Governments-West 51st Anniversary Meeting. Each year for the past 51 years, members of The Council of State Governments-West (CSG-West) including western legislators and key staff have gathered to discuss common challenges facing western states and worked to find potential solutions. Representative Barnes said Alaska is fortunate to be the host of this year’s annual meeting. "This meeting provides us a terrific opportunity to showcase Alaska and help other policy leaders gain an understanding of our state’s unique heritage, landscape and perspectives on state, regional and national policy matters," said Barnes. "As a group, western states will have a much better chance impacting decisions at the federal level than we do individually," said Senator Kelly. "The goal of CSG-West is to find those problem areas we can collectively work on for the good of all western states." The September 19-22 meeting is co-hosted by the Alaska Legislature and CSG-WEST at the Hotel Captain Cook. CSG-West is a non-partisan organization that serves western legislators from 13 Western states and four Pacific island governments. Saturday’s committee sessions include the Trade and Transportation Committee at 9:30 a.m. in the Endeavor room and the Western Water Policy committee at 2:00 p.m. in the Endeavor room. Other committee sessions will focus on access to Alaska’s energy and mineral resources, the Year 2000 computer problem, a western public lands round table, electrical restructuring and regional trade opportunities with Canada and Mexico. Utah House Speaker Melvin R. Brown currently chairs the Western legislative group. All sessions will take place in Anchorage’s Hotel Captain Cook located at 939 West 5th Avenue. Reporters may pick up press badges and information packets in the Resolution Room of the hotel beginning Saturday, September 19th at 10 a.m. # # # Broadcast note: After 3:00 p.m.
today radio actualities from Representative Ramona Barnes
and Senator Tim Kelly will be available at 800/478-6540. |
