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<DIV>I like Dwights idea of putting the info in simple text</DIV>
<DIV>on town talk. I would at least got to see it & read it.</DIV>
<DIV>Em</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 4/13/2009 10:46:06 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
dwightrholmes@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Melissa
-<BR>There is a town email list called "Town Announce" that sends
out<BR>announcements of meetings, agendas, and (thanks to a recent, new
town<BR>ordinance) copies of resolutions and ordinances. You can sign up
for<BR>it
here:<BR>http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info/TownCrier.cfm<BR><BR>Personally, I
think it would be better to send that info out via<BR>TownTalk. I don't know
how many folks are subscribed to TownAnnounce<BR>(or to TownTalk for that
matter) but I'm guessing there are quite a<BR>few people who aren't even aware
of it.<BR><BR>I don't think that the amount of traffic on TownTalk is such
that the<BR>addition of one or two emails a week to announce town events would
be<BR>burdensome to our readership. One issue might be that all of the
Town<BR>Announce info is sent out as PDF attachments. I don't know if
that's<BR>a requirement - there doesn't seem to be any reason I can see that
the<BR>same info couldn't be sent as simple text in a post to
TownTalk.<BR><BR>I agree with you & Don that it's too bad there isn't more
of a roll up<BR>your sleeves democratic process that takes place with all of
these<BR>many important decisions. I don't think I point a finger at
our<BR>council or mayor for that though. I am just so grateful
that these<BR>folks have given of their time to run. It's dismaying that we
have 7<BR>seats up for election and every one of them is unopposed. And
as<BR>Brian said, we who squeak should bring with us some WD40. (Of
course<BR>some of us squeakers could use a little WD40 ourselves ;-) )
I'm sure<BR>all of our representatives would appreciate any and all input
and<BR>participation. I've certainly always felt welcome when I've
attended<BR>town meetings and have always been given an opportunity to
speak.<BR><BR>It may be that in this day and age, and in particular in this
present<BR>day economy, that our particular small town/inner ring suburb with
its<BR>particular demographic makeup, just doesn't quite have critical
mass<BR>for heavy duty democratic decision making.<BR><BR>Just my
thoughts...<BR><BR>Dwight<BR><BR>On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 10:20 AM, Melissa
Avery <m.avery@rocketmail.com> wrote:<BR>> Sarah,<BR>> thank you
for the information. I think the point that Don was trying to
make<BR>> was, that it is the job of an elected council member to make
decisions<BR>> through a consensus of their ward members. When you can only
get information<BR>> about what is happening in your ward or the town
AFTER the council has met<BR>> and discussed the issues and made decisions
, that is not following the<BR>> democratic process. Why should you have to
go to a council meeting to find<BR>> out what is happening in your
ward? How can your opinion be heard when you<BR>> do not know what is
going to be discussed? Some issues need research, a<BR>> person can't be
expected to offer inteligent rebuttle on the spur of the<BR>> moment with
out the oppertunity to do research. Don was trying to
describe<BR>> a democratic process. Also we know that ward
2 has had ward meetings, the<BR>> only ward as far as we
know.<BR>> This town is too small to not make an effort to reach out to all
of it's<BR>> citizens. Especially in this election where essentially
everyone in the town<BR>> government is being
appointed.<BR>_______________________________________________<BR>TownTalk
mailing list<BR>To post to the list, send mail to
TownTalk@riverdale-park.org<BR>TownTalk-request@riverdale-park.org is for
automated subscription processing
only<BR>http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk<BR><BR>For more
information about Riverdale Park, visit
http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/>Access 350+ FREE radio stations anytime from anywhere on the web. <a href="http://toolbar.aol.com/aolradio/download.html?ncid=emlweusdown00000035&ncid=emlcntusdown00000002">Get the Radio Toolbar</a>!</font></DIV></BODY></HTML>