TOWN MEETING PLANNED FOR GAMBLING ISSUE

A town meeting on the riverboat gambling issue will be held Tuesday.

The meeting, to start at 7 p.m. at the Show Me Center, is being co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Cape Girardeau County and KZIM Radio.

Audience members will be provided index cards and pencils for submitting written questions. The riverboat gambling question will be presented to voters in Cape Girardeau June 8.

Audience questions will be screened by league members Kay Braasch and Kim Bowers; the purpose of the screening is to assure that questions are not duplicated and that they are worded in such general terms that they can be addressed to all four panel members, two of whom will be on each side of the issue.

Appearing on the pro-con panel will be: Aleece Vogt, marketing director for the Alton Belle Casino, Alton, Ill.; Craig Nessan, St. Mark Lutheran Church, Cape Girardeau; Chuck Ruthe, president of the Boyd Group, Las Vegas, Nev.; and Dr. Richard Martin, Cape Girardeau, member of "Citizens Against Riverboat Gambling."

LWV Voters Service Director Sandy Bonner will act as moderator and will address questions to the panel members in a prescribed order. She will intersperse audience questions with those from three media representatives who will take part in the meeting.

Representing local media will be: Carol Keller of KZIM; Jennifer Johnson of KFVS-TV; and Jay Eastlick of the Southeast Missourian.

KZIM will broadcast the town meeting live, and the event will be video-taped for later broadcast on the local public access television.

Prior to the questioning, LWV Legislative Action Director Yvonne Ketcham will explain the state legislation that authorized the ballot issue to be voted on locally.

To assure that equal time will be afforded both sides on the panel to answer, league members Martha Vandivort and Shannon Anders, equipped with a stop watch and signal cards, will assist the moderator as timers.

Neither the league nor KZIM has taken a position on the riverboat gambling issue; the public meeting is being offered as a public service, according to spokesmen.

Frances Harris, LWV president, has announced that league members Glenda Quinn, Kelle Lane, and Judith Crow will act as greeters at the door, handing out flyers describing the procedures to be used in conducting the meeting along with the materials for audience questions.

Harris stresses that the meeting will be conducted in strict adherence to LWV non-partisan guidelines; no literature, buttons, or other paraphernalia promoting either side of the gaming issue will be permitted inside the meeting room. Name boards for panel members and media representatives will be provided by Ketcham.