Increasing Civic Engagement
One of the things that I love most about living in Truro is that our small population makes it easy to know so many of the people who elected me. I’m originally from a small town and despite having moved to the Cape after ten years in the Nation’s Capitol, I’m a small town boy at heart.
I enjoy chatting at the Post Office and seeing familiar faces at the Transfer Station and the Farmer’s Market. However, even in our small town, I know that keeping abreast of the issues facing Town government can be a significant challenge. We have just one weekly paper covering the Town, and seventy percent of our property owners live here part-time. Add to this that many of our working citizens are employed in seasonal work for long hours in the summer, so keeping up with the news from Town Hall is difficult.
Since I was elected Chair, one of the Board of Selectmen’s top priorities has been to strengthen outreach and communication efforts to engage more effectively all residents in the affairs of Town government. We have taken a number of steps to achieve this objective:
New Website - www.truro-ma.gov
Last winter we launched a new website that contains much more information. One of the great new features on the site is your ability to subscribe to receive alerts, meeting agendas, and meeting minutes via email. You can sign up to receive information from specific Boards or Committees directly to your email box by clicking here: http://www.truro-ma.gov/subscribe.
On-line access to Board of Selectmen’s Packets
We have gone green and electronic! Now all the packets for the Board of Selectmen’s meetings are available electronically in a .pdf file. Gone are the piles of paper for each meeting of the Board of Selectmen. Instead, we are using our own iPads (each Board member purchased these with personal funds, not the Town's) to view the meeting packets. And now they are available to you as well. Simply go to the Board of Selectmen’s webpage by clicking here http://www.truro-ma.gov/board-of-selectmen and look for the link on the left “Board of Selectmen Packets”
Board of Selectmen’s Office Hours
Thanks to the efforts of Select Board Members, Jan Worthington and Paul Wisotzky, we are taking our office hours out of Town Hall and into the community. Look for us at the Transfer Station, the Truro Farmer’s Market, and the Community Center. A schedule is posted on the Town’s website. Thanks to DPW Director Paul Morris and his crew for creating a “mobile office” for us.
My thanks to Brian Boyle for getting the ball rolling by starting this eNewsletter. Look for more initiatives in the future, such as using social media and moving our official public and legal notices to the Provincetown Banner. And as always, your ideas about how we can improve communication are most welcome.
Jay Coburn
Chair, Board of Selectmen
jcoburn@truro-ma.gov
(508) 349-7004