Community Betterment judges will tour area

SIKESTON - Sikeston is among the cities and neighborhoods who have entered the 2001 Missouri Community Betterment Award competition. Also entering this year's MCB Awards competition are Howardville, East Prairie, Charleston, Portageville and Dexter.

Judges and escorts will tour each community from Sept. 17-21, spending one hour in each city or neighborhood to judge the quality of its community betterment efforts over the past year (Aug. 1, 2000 to July 31, 2001). The program is administered by the Department of Economic Development and cosponsored by the Missouri Community Betterment Educational Fund Inc.

After completing the on-site visits, the judges will select the top five communities or neighborhoods and rank them in order of first through fifth place. The judges may recommend that a community or neighborhood receive a certificate of merit for a special effort, project or program. They will also select the two best youth programs in the assigned population categories.

Each community or neighborhood will be evaluated equally by three criteria: Community development environment, community development process and accomplishments.

Two judges have been assigned in each population category. They are qualified, impartial persons who can be from within or outside the state of Missouri. Kathy Walters of Charleston will be a judge in the category covering Allendale and Caledonia.

The 38th Annual Missouri Community Betterment Conference is set for Oct. 21-23 at the Holiday Inn Select in Columbia with the awards banquet starting at 6 p.m. Oct. 22.

For more information about the MCB program or the conference, contact the Missouri Community Betterment Program at (573) 751-5096.