“Process won’t help you if you suck. It will just make you suck more repeatedly.” -Eric Hancock

Lane/Tommy: We have some serious questions about the agendas for the Windham Town Council workshops and formal meetings. What seems absent is how agenda items are prioritized and scheduled. The frustration is obvious because some councilors feel they are doing nothing but spinning their wheels instead of solving problems and moving Windham into the future. Do other towns do the same?

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Lane: One of the items discussed in Tuesday’s workshop is an Eagle Scout project that was presented to the town council during the council meeting of Sept. 25. Please, this is not about the Boy Scouts and the fine work that they do to earn the honor of becoming an Eagle Scout. My question revolves around whether the town council needs to spend time during a workshop or should it go right onto an agenda item to be voted on. Unfortunately, I believe this was a prime example of someone with political intentions seizing upon an opportunity to advance a personal political agenda. Why did it get on the workshop schedule so quickly?

Tommy: How many studies and council discussions does it take before a particular item dies and never returns? A couple of examples are expanding the area around the Windham Skate Park into a community park and the conservation easement for the Chute Road South Subdivision. It’s time that the council votes on these items instead of jumping from workshop to workshop hoping that some kind of miracle will happen causing the council to pass these projects. Rather than discussing the fantasies of the director of parks and recreation and town manager over and over again, let’s have a council vote and get it over with. Rather than creating a giant park wouldn’t it make sense to create smaller residential neighborhood parks to be built at the developer’s cost?

Lane: These types of neighborhood parks do not have to be elaborate. A few sets of swings and jungle gyms along with a place to sit down should be enough to entice neighbors to gather and shouldn’t be extensive enough to waive impact fees if the subdivision roads will become publicly owned. Also, these recreation areas should become immediately available for residents instead of sitting incomplete and idle like the one off of Route 115 near the junction of Route 202.

Lane/Tommy: While we are on the subject of the council’s agenda and scheduling, what should or should not be discussed by the councilors? In other words, what constitutes town business? Recent prime examples include the approval of liquor license renewals where one or more councilor has stated their personal preference for eating at a particular establishment. As a council, the business at hand is to approve a liquor license renewal, not express opinions about whether or not an establishment provides good food. This a good example of giving another business a great opportunity to sue the council and town. Unfortunately, the council leadership has lost its way and must return to the business at hand. What is the next discussion going to be? Windham’s best mechanic, barber or what ever? At the same time, it is not TOWN business to have councilors discuss their personal fund raisers during council discussion at formal meetings. They need to do that like others do and contact papers and pay for advertisements as needed, which is the way we do it.

Lane and Tommy are sponsoring a new contest, Where’s the Bridge?, to find the new bridge on the Sweat Road in Windham being constructed by Windham Public Works. We are looking for concrete and steel girders instead of a plastic culvert and piles of dirt and rocks.