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City Manager Malone called for consideration of and actio -n on Mayor Fisher's request that the staff be directed to implement a Summer Youth Work Program. Mayor Fisher said he requested the Manager to place this item on the agenda for discussion and action from the Council the reason being is that in the next couple of months there will be approximately four to five hundred youth that will be coming out of high school with no means of employment during the summer months, or even kids that are from 16 to the year of graduation will have no opportunity to go to work, so since they say the City's Fathers should be the lead in the roll models in the City of Paris, I have asked the City Manager to look at our budget and see if we can come up with funds that we could start the program, may be even as a pilot program for this year. - Mayor Fisher said this has never been done from the City's point of view before. There are a lot of kids out there that needs employments, and he felt that it would help relief some of the problems if we can hire some of them. Mayor Fisher said what he proposed to the City Manager was that we would try to employee 40 kids this summer on the city work program, let 20 of they work morning shifts, and 20 work the afternoon shift, that it would be 4 hours per shift, and pay them minimum wage. Mayor Fisher said that we were also in the process of drafting a letter to all of the employers of Paris like Campbell Soup, Kimberly Clark, and some of the grocery stores asking them to be a part of the program. Also, Mayor Fisher stated that he would like the churches to become involved in this program. Mayor Fisher said this could possibly be tied in with the school system, and if the kids were making passing grades, but does not have any means of getting summer work, or supporting themselves during the summer, thought it would be a great opportunity for the City to implement this type program, and ask the Texas Employment Commission to work in conjunction with us. Mayor Fisher advised that the City Manager had additional information from the Ark -Tex Council of Governments, and may be through the efforts of the City Council, if they are willing to do this, that we can set an example and a tone for the other industry in Paris to follow, because we are interested in the youth of the City, and would like to see something positive happen to our community. City Manager Malone said that at the request of the Mayor, he had made some investigation into what actions we might take to benefit the youth that will be getting out of school shortly, as you know, it will be difficult to implement a new program, and having worked in job - training program with Ark -Tex Council of Governments in the past, he thought it would be a good thing to contact them, and discuss cooperative efforts. I talked to Peggy S. White who is in charge of the program for the Ark -Tex COG, they have a job training partnership act, a program for the employment of youth in the summer. City Manager Malone advised that the City of Paris does employee youth through this program. It is federally funded, administrated through the Ark -Tex COG, and we have employed kids in the past to work in several different parts of the City, and in addition, we have hired some other youth, temporary help outside of that program. City Manager Malone said that the Ark -Tex COG usually fund employment for about six weeks for approximately one hundred youth, these are age 14 to 17. Ms: White stated that she sees no problem with referring some of those.student that they are not able to assist through any type of program that we implement and fund. City Manager Malone said we needed to determine how many youth that can be supervised, and why type of implement that we will need. Ray Banks of the Texas Employment Commission was present voicing his support and help with the program, and stating his willingness to help in placing applicants.