In their regular meeting Tuesday, the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors approved using Wixted and Company Communications as their communications manager for the upcoming ballot measure.

The Board discussed with Wixted and Company Representative Eileen Wixted on how the group would help them in bringing information to the residents of Guthrie County on the emergency medical services ballot measure that will be coming up in November. Wixted said that the company uses communication to build trust, confidence and understanding, to help people know, feel and do something.

The first steps of the plan would include a discovery phase, which Wixted shared would focus on finding out what’s important to know, and why it’s important. She mentioned that they would then step to an analysis phase, which would try to find out if people thought that having the proposed EMS system in place is important. The next step would be to find out what the message should be, then move into the action plan.

Wixted explained that in this case, using TV to spread the message wasn’t the best idea, based on how rural the county is. She added that word of mouth, local radio and social media should be more effective for the county though. Wixted and Company does have a preliminary budget plan available to the Board, but should things move more smoothly and efficiently, and less time is taken, then the county would only be billed for the time spent on the project.

Wixted did mention that they would want to meet with members of the EMS Advisory Council, and the members of the Board to find out their thoughts on it to help get the preliminary message shaped and ready. She also shared that should the Board want to do Town Hall Meetings to share information and answer questions, their company could also help prepare the Supervisors for that.

After their meeting with Wixted, Supervisors Steve Smith, Maggie Armstrong and Mike Dickson all said that they liked the proposal from the company, and that they heard a lot of things they wanted to hear. Smith also mentioned that the base deal was less expensive than he originally thought it would be, though Dickson reminded the rest of the Board there was a possibility for more expenses in the second phase.