Two of Carter County's elected officials were among about 35 who represented the state of Missouri at a series of recent meetings in Washington, D.C., to discuss county-level issues with the president's staff.
"The Trump administration has a special group of people who are part of his staff; their job is to really reach out to the men and women on the ground in the counties and cities," explained Sheriff Rick Stephens. " ... They describe it as important to the president to speak with the people out there doing all the work."
This is the first presidential administration to reach out to local governments with an interest in "hearing what they have to say," said Leona Stephens, Carter County clerk.
Missouri, Rick Stephens said, became the fifth state to have its officials invited to the White House to attend a "series of meetings with the president's staff (and) a lot of the department heads from different organizations."
The Stephenses arrived in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Oct. 15, he said, and the meetings began the following evening with the National Association of Counties.
"Then, basically all day Tuesday, we were in meetings with the White House staff at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building ... after a tour of the White House," the sheriff said.
The officials, he said, met with Kellyanne Conway, the president's chief counsel, for quite a while.
Rick Stephens said they then met with representatives from such departments as Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Education, Transportation and Interior.
Officials, he said, also sat down with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Drug Administration, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Small Business Administration, Veterans Affairs and several others.
"On Tuesday, it was eight hours of meetings with people, no breaks, no lunch, straight through," the sheriff said.
The president's staff, he said, indicated "in this situation, they were not interested in talking with the national organizations or state organizations.
"They were interested in speaking with government officials in the counties themselves ... about how the federal government can minimize regulations and we can effectively govern our areas ... which I thought was very refreshing, that the administration was interested in that."
Leona Stephens agreed.
"They did not want the national association; they did not know what their agenda was," she said. "They wanted to know what our agenda was. ... They wanted to hear from the little guys."
Stephens said he and his wife talked a lot about "some of the things we deal with down here as far as tourism, environmental issues, as well as we deal a lot with the Department of Interior/(National) Park Service."
The meetings, according to Leona Stephens, went really well.
"We made a lot of contacts with a lot of different agencies that work with the president," said Leona Stephens, who indicated they were given a lot of good information, but it was "very overwhelming."
"There was a lot of information (regarding) what their particular departments do" and who to contact, she said.
The biggest take away, the sheriff said, was the networking possibilities for the future.
"They made it very plain to us (and) gave us the contact information for all the speakers and department heads," he explained. "They really asked us, as we experience problems, to call them because, as they said, the president would rather hear from us as issues arise rather than wait and hear from congressmen or governors."
According to Leona Stephens, it was one of the president's aid who told them Trump doesn't want to hear "the first time" from senators or governors, but "he wants to hear from local government, which I think is very exciting."
Having that network and ability to "contact these people when we experience issues is going to be a great benefit for our county," Rick Stephens said. " ... I feel very confident now if we run into a problem, where we feel like we're butting our heads against the wall, now, I have contacts where we can maybe actually get some resolutions."
Leona Stephens said she has a list of departments of contact, and she will be "making phone calls and writing letters" to see what help is available "for our government because of the flood."
Historic flooding in late April inundated downtown Van Buren, including many homes and businesses, as well as the county's courthouse, sheriff's department and jail, when Current River crested at 37.2 feet on Sunday, April 30.
Since that time, the county has been renting a building at 101 Highway W and using multiple trailers to house county offices and its sheriff's department.
Carter County, she said, still is struggling.
"Our local government was completely wiped out," Leona Stephens said. "There are definitely things I need to discuss with these people.
"I will be contacting a large majority of them to see if we can get our local government in recovery and stimulate our economy since we lost so many businesses and homes."
Rick Stephens described the trip as a "phenomenal series of events."
"I feel very blessed to have been chosen to go," said Stephens. "I'm very excited about the future networking opportunities we have now."
While in Washington, Stephens said, he and Leona had the opportunity before the first series of meetings to do a bit of sightseeing.
"It was enjoyable for us to see some of the historic monuments," he said.