As letters get longer, Select Board decides to limit reading aloud at meetings
Editor’s note: After this story was posted, Select Board Clerk Peter Carlson read the letters into the record, since the writers were not aware of the change when they submitted them. They remain attached.
For the past few weeks, Select Board meetings have started with a reading of the board’s correspondence by its clerk, Peter Carlson. As the weeks of Zoom went forward, these letters from the public became lengthier and at times combative.
“I think some of the things that have happened in a Zoom session are very different from what we would have done in a regular meeting,” Select Board member Donna Stock said Tuesday night.
Last week, for example, there was a letter from Colleen Roy expressing her dismay about the handling of her Super Park-related citizens petitions and a second letter, from Mark Johnson, lambasting Select Board member Ed Prisby’s Facebook comments.
“Obviously, we’re having this discussion a week later than I would have liked to,” Prisby said wryly. He suggested that communications should be acknowledged, but that Carlson should not have to take up two hours of the meeting to read letters.
“This isn’t letter to the editor,” Prisby said.
“Please note that this is a time when Ed and I agree,” Stock said.
The letters will now be added into the minutes for each meeting so they may be available to the public. Grafton Common has also requested copies of the letters.
In the attachment above: letters from Beth and Darren Foley (override), Jeremy C. Graves (override), John and Maria Murdock (override), Lydia Bogar (Silver Lake Beach), Elizabeth Anderson Spinney (override), Michael McCann (citizens petition), Brook Padgett (override), Teri Turgeon (override), Colleen Roy (town budget).
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