Notes on Friday’s Stakeholder Teleconference Call

Saturday, July 17, 2010 — We just received this account of yesterday’s Stakeholder Teleconference Call (held in lieu of what had been a scheduled Stakeholders Meeting) from Stephen Kosacz, by way of Ben Porter. — The Ed] Despite last minute meeting cancellation, there were a significant number of people who logged into the conference call indicating (to me) that the Stake Holders are still committed to their part in the process. Jon Carter (Kittery Town Manager), Ben Porter (SeacoastBridges.com, Stephen Kosacz (Autoworks, Inc.) and Gary Beers (Kittery Town Councilman) met at the Kittery Town Offices NH DOT rep Bob Landry took a day off from …

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New on This Site: Bridge News

Friday, July 16, 2010 — Today’s Gazette — the physical, newsprint-based lifeform, not this silicon-dependent appendage — includes a note directing people here for news about the Memorial and Sarah Mildred Long bridges, explaining that the topic has become so volatile we can’t do it justice in print. For example, the Maine – New Hampshire Connections Study, on whose recommendations the fates of the bridges rest, had scheduled a Stakeholders Meeting for today. Then at the last minute the Study’s staff decided to skip the meeting and hold a conference call instead. We could hardly wash our hands of the issue — few things could …

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B. Porter replies re: strategy for/after this Friday’s Stakeholders’ Meeting

Subject: Re: strategy for/after this Friday’s Stakeholders’ Meeting Date: Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:01 PM From: Benjamin S. Porter To: Stephen Kozak All I have never done this before either. What I do know is that we need a single voice. In theory, the teleconference tomorrow is limited to members of the Stakeholders and Steering Committees. I think we need to be respectful of the NH and ME officials that will be in the meeting, and not introduce new participants to them by phone. We can probably do this by limiting the conversation to people who they are already familiar with. To make sure everyone …

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Strategy for/after this Friday’s Stakeholders’ Meeting

Subject: strategy for/after this Friday’s Stakeholders’ Meeting Date: Thursday, July 15, 2010 5:34 PM From: Stephen Kosacz To: [Deleted for privacy. — The Ed.] Conversation: strategy for/after this Friday’s Stakeholders’ Meeting This Friday’s Connection Study sounds like it will be a non-event but at least we’ll be continuing the dialogue and showing that the Community is not taking every possible opportunity to be heard. I think that Ben Porter has offered some rational dialog to the babble by pointing out that the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge has enough life left to it that decisions on that could be tabled for the present connections study since …

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Profile in Courage: RiverRun’s Tom Holbrook

Above — Tom Holbrook, being carried into RiverRun, his bookstore, by grateful customers. Thursday, July 15, 2010 — The Christian Science Monitor’s Marjorie Kehe interviews one of our local heroes today: Tom Holbrook, owner of RiverRun Bookstore. On September 8th, 2006, the bookstore moved from Commercial Alley (where Tom’s used book shop, SecondRun Books, is now) to its present location on Congress Street, several blocks away. Tom asked his customers if they would form a box brigade to help him move. We didn’t count, but so many people said “Yes” that they were able to form a nearly unbroken chain six hundred feet long. Part …

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Ben Porter Replies re: Stakeholder Meeting Cancellation

[Again, this is being posted Friday afternoon, but we have edited the posting time and date to place it in the correct chronological order.] From: “Benjamin S. Porter” Date: July 14, 2010 3:06:54 PM EDT To: carol morris Subject: Re: Connections Study: Potential Meeting Change Carol There are several reasons that we should meet, even with the announcement of the remaining 5 alternatives. 1 – What are the respective positions for the two DOTs? It is a good guess on the first and last two, but the middle alternative is anybody’s guess. I would hate to say that one alternative or another is favored by …

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