I would like to extend a sincere thank you to all those residents that sought to and applied for the Charter Review and The Downtown Ad-Hoc committees. We had 52 applicants to fill nine voting member slots on each committee, a true testament to the volunteer spirit of our community. The committee members will be contacted for a start date and introduction meeting in near future. Each committee meeting will be livestreamed and recorded for any resident that would like to follow the progress of the work done in these efforts. The Communications Committee will be reporting periodic status on the website and the E-News letter. When the committee work has been completed the public input process will begin in Town Council format.

For those that would like to investigate other opportunities to serve on one of 19 available committees please visit the Town website>Government>Boards-and-Committees and read the purpose for each committee to find interest. The Appointments Committee of the Town Council is responsible for reviewing applications from interested residents and making recommendations to the full Town Council for appointments to the various committees. Please consider volunteering! Serving on a committee is a wonderful way to learn more about our community, meet our neighbors, and contribute to our town’s success.

There are ways to contribute to the community other than committee involvement. Neighbors helping neighbors with Project Grace can be found on website Residents>Project Grace where you can contribute to the Feeding our Neighbors Fund, Keeping our Neighbors Warm Fuel Assistance Fund, Camp & School Needs Fund and several other opportunities to be involved.

The simple way to be involved in the community is to ‘Be Informed’ on what’s happening in Scarborough! We send out an e-newsletter on the 1st and 15th of every month. Sign up today at the Town website Stay Connected >Town Newsletter for news on upcoming programs, deadlines, town meetings, holiday schedule changes, and Council Corner. You can now get ‘Alerts’ on upcoming Board and Committee meetings sent to your email on the Town website Stay Connected >Alerts & Notifications. The town manager has his own Blog containing information you may find of interest at scarboroughtownmanager.blogspot.com. The Leader edition of the Council Corner is usually published on the first Friday of the month and will contain information on the ‘topic of the day’ or updates to existing items before the Town Council. The January edition will have an update on the growth policy review that has been proceeding for the last 6 months .

So as you can see, there are many ways to ‘Be informed’ of happenings in our community. Like most communication it takes effort to present the information as well as the desire to consume the information. When we all are aware of the same set of facts related to any topic the conversation is more productive. Please take the time to ‘Be informed. Thank you: Councilor Ken Johnson

Disclaimer : “The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Scarborough Town Council”