Laserfiche WebLink
BOOK is ; i6E. <br />meeting and he will distribute some materials he had received to the others and also make <br />them available to the public. He will make a more fulsome report on this matter at the next <br />meeting, because there is an interesting "follow-up" to it. He asked the Commission to give <br />some direction since the upshot of the meeting is they wish to form a 7 -county coalition or <br />task force to "promote a very high level industrial park think tank" research project for,400 <br />acres of the KSC. They have asked for the counties' support with the Legislature and with <br />the Congress. Subsequent to the meeting, he received a communication from Mel Martinez, <br />Chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, who wants to convene a meeting <br />in Washington at the time of the NATOA Conference with a Commissioner/representative <br />from each county. They are also tentatively setting up a series of meetings to be held locally <br />and perhaps also in Tallahassee. This is really the bailiwick of Commissioner Tippin, but <br />whatever the Board would like to do, he would be glad to participate or be happy to turn over <br />what he has to Commissioner Tippin. <br />Commissioner Tippin commented that it was an awesome tour; there is a potential for <br />the development of international space stations and so forth. He felt Commissioner Macht's <br />experience would render him more capable and he would like to see Commissioner Macht <br />designated as the representative from Indian River County. <br />Commissioner Macht found it shocking that here we are on the largest thrust into the <br />future that you can imagine and our colleges and universities are not even in the top -50 in <br />getting research funds and research grants. That is one of the ills they wish to cure. Another <br />interesting note came up in talking with the Deputy Director of the KSC who asked <br />Commissioner Macht his interest and county and remarked that Indian River County was a <br />"big agricultural community" and he supposed our county "would be affected less". <br />Commissioner Macht replied that the Deputy Director might think so until he thinks <br />in terms of Piper and XL Vision. The Deputy Director was surprised as he was well aware <br />February 1, 2000 <br />72 <br />• • <br />