[November 25, 2009] Manchester asks for input on town report Tweet MANCHESTER, Nov 25, 2009 (Bennington Banner - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Through a poll on the town's Web site, the Manchester Select Board is asking for input on how the 2010 Town Report should be distributed -- either though the mail or by posting the report online and making copies available at select locations. In the few weeks the poll has been open, Town Manager John O'Keefe said 50 residents have cast a vote, 42 of them supporting posting the town report on the Web site and distributing approximately 1,000 copies to three locations. O'Keefe said the poll, which the Select Board decided to do at an October meeting, is meant as a gauge board members can use when making a final decision on how the report will be distributed. If the method changedfrom dropping a report in every mailbox in town, the savings would be approximately $6,000. The town usually prints about 3,300 copies of the report at a cost of $10,000, O'Keefe said. "The majority of the cost is in printing, then mailing, and a small amount comes from advertising," he said. O'Keefe said copies are wasted every year because they are distributed in every mailbox, even when the corresponding residence is vacant. He also said many people throw the reports out without giving them a look -- proven by stacks of the reports filling recycle bins at the post office after they are distributed. Select Board has final say Although the large majority of online voters are siding with posting the report online, O'Keefe said that because the results are only from a group of people who have been on the town's Web site, the general view of all residents may differ. "It's not a perfect system, and the Select Board acknowledges that," he said. O'Keefe said he was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have voted on the issue. He said there are valid arguments to be made on both sides. "Even people here (at Town Hall) have differences of opinion (on whether the distribution method should be changed)," O'Keefe said. The poll will continue through the end of November, and afterward the Select Board will review the results and make a decision. Contact Dawson Raspuzzi at [email protected] To see more of the Bennington Banner or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.benningtonbanner.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Bennington Banner, Vt. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]