Apalachicola to host ACF stakeholders meeting

On Feb. 25 and 26, Apalachicola will host the second meeting of the Governing Board of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) Stakeholders, Inc.

ACFS, Inc was founded last year by consensus charter to seek common ground and grassroots stakeholder solutions among ACF interests basin-wide. As before, the Apalachicola meeting, open to public observers, will be facilitated by a representative of the Environmental Conflict Resolution agency of the US Department of the Interior.

The ACFS mission is to change the operation and management of the ACF Basin to achieve equitable solutions among stakeholders that balance economic, ecological, and social values, as well as viable solutions that ensure the entire ACF Basin is a sustainable resource for current and future generations.

The ACFS’s first governing board meeting was held in Albany, Ga. on Dec. 10, 2009. Over 50 representatives from diverse water users of the ACF watershed attended, from Lake Lanier and Atlanta in the north, through downstream communities in Georgia and Alabama, and the rural and coastal communities of Florida. The governing board is comprised of 14 Stakeholder representatives from each of the sub-basins of the ACF – the Upper Chattahoochee, the Middle/Lower Chattahoochee, the Flint and the Apalachicola – for a total of 56 board members.

As called for in the charter, the governing board at its first meeting formed five standing committees – Intergovernmental Relations, Finance, Education and Outreach, Issues Development, and Membership – to organize and conduct the ACFS’s ongoing business.  Over the upcoming two-day meeting, each of these committees will propose a functional-area workplan for Governing Board discussion and approval for the way ahead.

Dan Tonsmeire, Apalachicola Riverkeeper and one of the four-member executive committee, is busily organizing the schedule and logistics to host the upstream visitors over the two-day period.  He has had the active help of local merchants, to include Ward Seafood, Waterstreet Seafood, and the Tourist Development Council to make all Stakeholders welcome.

Reflecting on the results of the first ever meeting of ACFS,Inc in Albany, Betty Webb, city administrator for Apalachicola and a governing board member said “My expectation of the ACF Stakeholders effort is simple: A group of intelligent, hard working, dedicated individuals working in harmony toward a common goal for the betterment of the ACF systems.  The members appointed can make this a winning organization with a multitude of positive outcomes.”

For more information on the ACFS and its goals and membership, please go to: WWW.ACFstakeholders.org.