Voices lifted in opposition of selling local center

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Girl Scout leaders and volunteers from throughout the region gathered Monday evening for a 3-hour meeting where no decisions were made, but a lot of voices were heard.

As a direct result of grassroots petition drives, the regional Girl Scout council -- Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland -- held a special called meeting of its membership to ask its board of directors to reconsider selling its facility in Dexter. The meeting was held in the Bess Activity Center at Three Rivers Community College.

The council board met in June and voted to sell its offices in both Cape Girardeau and Dexter and merge operations on the eastern side of its jurisdiction. Following the petition drives in the area, the board held a special meeting in July and instructed council CEO Jennifer Orban to place the sale of both the facilities "on hold".

More than 200 adult members and interested community members participated in Monday's meeting. Those attending included many from Dexter and Stoddard County, including volunteers and troop leaders and several members of the Dexter Altrusa Club.

However, a quorum of voting delegates in the council was not present at the Poplar Bluff meeting or at sites connected to the Southeast Missouri meeting via the Internet. Board members did not vote on reconsidering the previous decision. However, Board Chair Tina Stillwell of Springfield led an open and oftentimes frank discussion on the board's decision to sell the local center.

Speakers at the meeting included Myra Knight, Poplar Bluff; Kay Stevenson, Dexter; Annabeth Miller, Dexter; Greg Mathis, Dexter; Donna Stack, Charleston; Lee Ann Dean of Charleston; Wende Pruden, Sikeston; Anna Whiteman, Dexter; Senior Girl Scout Harley Durall, Bloomfield; Harryette Campbell, Sikeston; and Eky Combs, Kennett. Former Cotton Boll Council CEO and former Dexter resident Cindy Weber spoke to the group from the council office in Springfield.

Board members Valerie Richardson, Poplar Bluff, and Michael Wolfe, Springfield, attended the Poplar Bluff meeting and addressed the group; board members Marla Moody and Lindsey Godfrey, both spoke from the Springfield facility.

One of the first speakers from the audience was Stoddard County Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis, who earlier this summer informed CEO Jennifer Orban the council would have to repay $122,000 from a Missouri Community Development Block Grant. The Stoddard County Commission sponsored the grant from the state.

Mathis, who is officially now an adult member of the Girl Scout organization, told the group he only learned of the council's intention to sell the Dexter facility thanks to second-hand information. Mathis' son, Aaron, is a member of the board of the Missouri Healthcare Foundation. The younger Mathis informed his father of the news following a Foundation meeting when it learned of the Girl Scout's decision. The Foundation donated the land for the Dexter service center to the Cotton Boll Girl Scouts.

"The concerns of the people from the Bootheel and from Southeast Missouri were gotten across to the Board," Mathis said following the meeting. He said one thing that "jumped out" was a matter of mathematics.

Council leaders informed the membership that the Dexter facility was appraised at $358,000. Mathis explained that with current real estate prices, if the health care foundation were to purchase the building, there would be a deduction for the price of the land (since it was a donation to the Girl Scouts in the beginning), and a deduction for the money that has to be paid back for the grant.

"If would be practically giving that property away," Mathis said.

"Open communication has really been a big part of this," Mathis said. He noted he not only learned of the potential sale second-hand, but many in the region did, too. "People didn't know what was going on, and they were scared. When you don't have information you're scared. I think the Girl Scout council will be a lot better job now in communicating."

Council board chair Tina Stillwell of Springfield said she was pleased with the meeting and with the open dialog with the members.

"I am very grateful for all the people who took the time to be here," Stillwell said. "I think the board gained a better understanding of what the volunteers and donors and girls from this area think."

Stillwell said the information would be distributed to those board members who were either not at the Poplar Bluff meeting or listening through Internet connection in Springfield and Jefferson City. The board is scheduled to meet in September and will reconsider the issue of selling the Dexter and Cape Girardeau centers.

The council includes more than 60 counties in Missouri, as well as a handful of counties in Oklahoma and Kansas. The new council was created with the merger of five Missouri councils, including the Cotton Boll Council that served Southeast Missouri for 60 years.

The merger of the five councils into one large organization was mandated by Girl Scouts of the USA as a part of a larger effort by the national group to consolidate local councils. The merger in southern Missouri officially occurred in October 2008.