More HAPPENINGS Around the Area

I trust you all received the First issue of the Eddington Newsletter. They were in the mail on Monday, July 6. People receiving mail at the Eddington Post Office had the Newsletter the following day. (Thanks, Ron.) Interesting tidbits on Hunting Seasons.

I'm told the plan is to have quarterly issues so maybe we'll see columns from the Fire Chief and something from the Planning Board in the next issue. I did find it interesting to read that "municipal officers are not required by statute (my emphasis) to post an agenda or keep minutes of the meetings." Well then, perhaps we need to pass such a statute locally at the Next Town Meeting (March of 2010) because the right thing for any elected representative body of the people, by the people and for the people (to quote Abraham Lincoln) is to keep The People informed of what their elected government is doing.

After all, it is We, The People who elected those municipal officers to those seats of representation in the first place and those municipal officers do work for us. I expect any one of us who ever ran a company or had a supervisory position expected to be kept informed of what our employees were doing. Same principle in my book. And the "payment" is not the fee the municipal officers receive, it is the power and authority granted by the votes of the people, albeit very few votes in this town. Without knowledge of the business being conducted in our name (and for which we pay via our taxes whether or not we vote - or are allowed to vote - aka the people who own summer residences but are not Eddington residents) there is no accountability. Just one more reason why people need to attend and listen to the business conducted at Selectmen meetings, Planning Board meetings, and School Board meetings, and why the agendas of those meetings should be published in advance. That way anyone interested in hearing how the business of the agenda items is conducted can speak to the issues, even if only in the allocated Public Access portion of the meetings. You don't suppose that's why the agendas aren't published in advance, do you - so that no one will show up to speak (even in their allocated slots at the very beginning or the very end of the meeting but never spontaneously during the discussion of a particular agenda item).

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Karen Clark is interested in forming a Book Club in the Eddington-Clifton area. She is creating a Survey Form that will be available in various locations. People can fill out the form where the forms are available and leave the completed forms in a specially designated box for collection.

Members of the Book Club will decide on the format of the club - whether everyone will read the same book and then gather to discuss it at a group gathering (time and place to be determined by the members), and then proceed to the next book, etc. - or - for different books to be read by the members simultaneously and then discussed in the group (perhaps with a synopsis and recommendation).

Survey forms will be available at Clewley Farm Restaurant and other locations to be announced within the next two weeks.