Fire Training Center - Second Meeting

Press Release dated 10/19/07 – Workgroups Formed at October 18th Town Services Conversation

On October 18th the Town Council, Staff and Residents continued the community conversation begun one month ago. The gathering heard a presentation by the Town Manager who explained that community-wide conversations are intended to embody democratic principles of equality, inclusiveness and collaboration. The conversations are based on the ideas that:

• People care about the communities they live in and want to make them better
• When everybody is included in public life, everybody benefits
• When all kinds of people develop trust and relationships through face-to-face dialogue, new ideas and approaches emerge
• Community change is more likely to last and deepen when individual and collective actions are tied together

Following the presentation, two smaller work groups were established to begin to address five issues. The issues are:

• Develop a Vision, Policy or Results statement for Town Services
• Review and comment on the major activity centers and their cost as identified by Town Staff
• Review and comment on Town Revenue data
• Provide suggestions on cost efficiencies for Town Services
• Provide suggestions on methods for communicating information to the general public

Each group will work on all of these issues independently through mid-January at which time it is planned to convene another townwide community conversation forum to hear the groups report on their results and to reach a consensus amongst all participants on a response to the issues identified.

It is our hope that we can establish additional small work groups so that we can receive as much feedback as possible from Tolland residents regarding the future direction of Town Services. If you are interested in being involved in this process please contact the Town Manager, Steve Werbner as soon as possible.

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