(MAY 7, 1997 - Baltimore) - The Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) and Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) have invited area business, civic, nonprofit, academic, philanthropic and religious leaders to help chart new solutions to pressing issues facing our region. Economic development and public safety will be the focus of the first Regional Forum, which will be held from 8:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. on Monday, May 19, at the Maritime Institute of Technology in Linthicum.

The goal of the Forum, which is slated to be a continuing event, is to develop concrete regional actions and forge partnerships to implement them. "The Regional Forum is a significant undertaking," said Harford County Executive Eileen Rehrmann, who serves as BMC Chair. "Our futures, wherever we live and work in the greater Baltimore area, are connected and interdependent. It is important that we work together to solve those problems and face the challenges that confront us as a region."

At the Forum, facilitators from the University of Baltimore's Schaefer Center for Public Policy will focus the group's attention on the complex issues surrounding economic development and public safety. These issues were recently identified by specially convened focus groups as two of the concerns most affecting the quality of life in the Baltimore area.

"If we are to remain competitive and to enhance our quality of life, we must use all available resources to find solutions to the economic and social problems we face today," added GBC Chair Frank Bramble.

Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, will present the keynote address. For more information on the Forum, please call Mr. Paul Farragut, Executive Director of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, at 410-333-1730.