BRIDGTON – Two Bridgton men recently started a website aimed at providing residents an online location to discuss and learn more about current events in the towns of Bridgton, Casco, Naples and Sebago.
Bridgton business owner Charles Renneker and website designer Peter Morrison, both members of Bridgton’s comprehensive plan committee, hatched the idea of the online community forum one night this summer on their way back from a meeting. After a few months of searching for free software that would make a user-friendly platform, the result is up and running: www.obwmc.com, which stands for “Our Beautiful Western Maine Community.”
“My background is as a CPA and owner of businesses, and so I don’t know much about managing websites,” Renneker said. “But Peter says, ‘I want to start this website,’ and I thought it was a good idea since the Internet has become a social medium. So we’re pretty excited about providing a place where people can discuss various issues.”
The site is loosely based on AsMaineGoes.com, a well-established online forum where Mainers can weigh in on all sorts of statewide political issues. Renneker and Morrison’s site will instead have a limited focus – the towns served by School Administrative District 61.
Morrison, who designed the website using free, open-source software and monitors the site daily, said this summer’s school budget referendums were the spark for creating a forum.
“It was a real disaster,” said Morrison, since there was no central clearinghouse for information on proposed amendments to the budget. “We could have used a site like this to allow people to make comments on items in the budget that they thought could be cut or to ask questions of their school board officials.”
The website, Morrison and Renneker hope, will be that clearinghouse, not only for information, but for citizen-generated ideas prior to policy or budget development as well.
The site’s intent isn’t merely political. It already boasts a community calendar and hopes to provide information on local sports.
Morrison and Renneker didn’t commence the launch of the website without input. Prior to going live in early October, they solicited feedback on their idea from local officials, who will likely be the target of many of the online posts. The response was supportive, they say, but officials were skeptical that the site would devolve into name-calling.
“They were concerned about berating of public officials,” Morrison said. “They didn’t want to see that happen, so we took that advice and adjusted our policies so that will not be tolerated. The site’s intent is to have people treat each other with respect while discussing policies that are important to townspeople.”
“Comments that demean or tear down will be deleted,” Renneker added. “With that said, this is intended to be a place to contribute, and some of those contributions will more than likely point out perceived faults, but there are respectful ways to discuss issues.”
Another goal of the site is to get direct feedback from public officials.
“We’re hoping for people in-the-know to be able to take part in the forum and maybe answer some of the questions posed. That’s what we’re really hoping for,” Morrison said.
Kathleen Beecher, superintendent for SAD 61, is open to the idea of checking the forum on a casual basis, but said her job keeps her pretty busy.
“I don’t have time to check it every day, no, but I would probably check it, say, once a week,” she said. “My concern is that it could become a complaint list. I would want something that would help us in budget season, that we could maybe look to it for good ideas and hear the community’s ideas as we build the budget.”
Beecher said there already exists a forum in which the public can share their ideas: school board budget hearings and school board meetings in general. In fact, since this year’s budget took three votes to finally receive validation, the school board is holding a roundtable Nov. 21 to solicit the public’s ideas before the process of building next year’s budget starts in earnest.
Bridgton Town Manager Mitch Berkowitz echoes Beecher’s concerns regarding the amount of time he could devote to answering concerns posed in an online forum.
“I applaud their efforts, but we’d have to be cautious since it could be a time consumer,” Berkowitz said.
And for Arthur Triglione Sr., the chairman of the Bridgton Board of Selectmen, he is unlikely to participate since he doesn’t own a computer.
“I don’t do online. I don’t have the Internet,” he said. “But I would say if people have questions or concerns that they should go to school board meetings, or to selectmen’s meetings.”
The website could prove a moneymaker, with the two men eventually wanting to sell advertising on it.
“Yes, that is a goal, but only after we have developed what we consider a quality product,” Renneker said.
“And we’re not quite there yet, but we expect to be soon.
Apparently, there is interest in the site, since Morrison reports users already registering and posting comments.
“People have started using it,” Morrison said, “and we expect the number of users to increase as people learn more about it.”
Peter Morrison, left, and Chuck Renneker, both of Bridgton, have
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