250 Petitions Submitted and Status

[Posted by Moderator]

Friends,

We want to thank all of you who went out of your way to return the petition to our mailboxes over the last few weeks.  This effort—which  followed on several other efforts since last fall—was very successful.  

Earlier this week, we delivered a binder with 250 petitions to Theresa DellaSanta, the Interim Town Manager.  In addition, because we had the support of so many wanting a town-wide vote, the council finally took steps to place our primary demand onto its July council agenda—something the majority has staunchly refused to do up until now. 

We had lucky timing, as the council was slated to approve ballot matters for the November elections at the July Council meeting, so it conceded to the inevitable and did the right thing!  We credit Mayor Widmer, who was willing to meet with us about our issues, and Theresa, who helped to get our Library agenda item onto the June 29th special meeting agenda that would ensure its placement on the July Council's special agenda.

The July 25th Council special meeting will be an important meeting.  FIrst of all, the council is scheduled to review the Final Environmental Impact Report for the Library and probably certify it.  You can read the responses provided by the consultants to the comments submitted, which are posted on the Town Website (lower right column).  If you are not happy with those responses and the plans to address environmental impacts, this meeting is the only hearing scheduled for you to register your concerns so that they matter.  You should attend and make a statement or you can also write up comments to be read at the meeting.

Second, the council will be voting to definitely approve both whether or not residents will have a chance to approve the library project as described in the EIR, and it will be reviewing the City Attorney's draft language for that ballot measure.  The outcome of both of these issues are critical to our effort to have the library project done properly.  We want to show strong demand for the council's approval of that vote, so please plan to attend or send in your comments on this matter to the full council as well! 

A few issues remain to be determined at this meeting.  One is whether or not the majority will attempt to pack the November ballot with a slew of additional measures on other projects that have not been progressing in the hasty and controversial way that the library project has been pushed through.  At the moment, the council's thinking on this remains vague but they've discussed adding the Little League grandstand project, the Town Center project and possibly other unspecified projects.  We don't see how any of those projects are timely or necessary to be added to the ballot at this time.  We also will hear the language written by City Attorney Bill Conners for the ballot measure.  As he is a professional and experienced, we expect this language to be factual and fair but we also recognize that how this measure is written could be a possible avenue for undue influence that we need to be alert to.

We understand that Theresa is trying to schedule our Special Council Meeting in August although we don't have a date yet. That may be the time to discuss the what the pathway would be to launch a Master Planning process that integrates planning of the library with the town center, which many still think is critical to being able to determine what the best location for the library should be.

We welcome your thoughts, concerns and ideas on any of these issues however we will not be permitted to use the email list for more  messages on this topic.  So, please don't reply to the email group. Rather we want to host a virtual discussion about this on the blog.  So please do post your message as a comment under the post with this same title on the Athertonian's blog, where those who wish can read it.  We have provided directions for doing that below.  Thank you!

Yours,

Didi, Sherman, Charles, Peter, Rose, Janet, Valerie, et al

Directions for commenting on the Athertonians blog:
Go to: athertonians.blogspot.com.  At the bottom of our post (a copy of this message) will be a highlighted link to comments. Click that link. Write your comment in the box that comes up.  Beneath the box, there is a drop-down menu that gives you options for your signature. Click in the "comment as" drop-down menu, and scroll down to Name/URL line.  Type in your name.  You do not need a URL.  Click on the  "Publish" button to publish your comment.