Today's General Membership meeting featured the always fascinating Kent Dagg of the Shasta Builder's Exchange. Kent appeared none the worse for wear, despite having survived a harrowing accident that left him comatose for weeks, and recovering for a long while. Luckily, his droll sense of humor was unharmed, and he kept us all smiling throughout his presentation. Times are tough for builders, as anyone can imagine. Their membership is down a bit, as contractors and construction firms downsize, consolidate, and in some cases migrate in search of greener pastures. Of interest was his belief that as much as $20 million in federal stimulus dollars may hit the Shasta County area to be used primarily for infrastructure. As he pointed out, those jobs are good, but temporary, as the projects are completed. He offered a positive outlook, and his general approval of the the City of Redding's intent to funnel $4 million toward the Oasis Interchange, since completion of that project would enable a larger development that would result in long term jobs for our area. The money would go only so far though, as the Overpass part of the exchange would a cost at least $30 million more, and the developers would have to find a way to come up with that additional investment. He noted there is no shortage of commercial and retail square footage available in our area currently, and so anticipates nothing much happening in that construction sector. There is some work coming in the form of School Bonds that were passed for renovation and improvements to local educational facilities. He mentioned that we have reduced residential housing inventory for newly constructed homes in our area, and that applications for permits may be looking up a bit. Thanks for coming Kent, our membership always genuinely appeciates your knowlege and your candor.

Mortgage minute was the always active Becky Isner of Amerigroup (221 2626).

 Thanks muchly to Linda Hydes of US Bank (cell 339 0719) for the refreshments We obviously enjoyed them!  Skip Murphy