Kudos, plauditsto councilor

Friday, December 9, 2011

Last Saturday, Town Councilor Bill Boyd held the first of four morning coffees to which he invited anyone and everyone.

If you had a question, he was there to answer it. If you had a concern, he was there to hear it.

And good for him.

Boyd has been a councilor for only six months, but in that time, we suspect, he has learned a thing or two or three, perhaps even four, so we have no doubt he was prepared to share a good deal of information with his constituents. Why, even state Rep. Richard Barry, a former member of the town’s Planning Board, dropped by and he had this to say, according to a story in last week’s Merrimack Journal by our Jake Berry:

“It was great to see people come out. You don’t often get a chance to be invited to sit down one on one with the town councilors. It’s much more inviting than trying to talk to a whole crew.”

Aha. He’s absolutely right. Going before the Town Council, if you are a mere private citizen, can be disconcerting at best and intimidating at times, so we would suspect that there are a lot of people in Merrimack who have questions or opinions but don’t air them because they don’t want to get up in public and deal with a group.

Now that is not to suggest that the Merrimack councilors are intimidating or unwelcoming. Not in the slightest. It’s just that people have a hard time getting up in public. We have seen surveys that found that fear of public speaking and fear of death are the top two things that frighten folks and even though asking the Town Council a question isn’t the same as making a speech, it still requires people to get up in public and say … something.

And we are all afraid that that “something” is going to sound dorky. So generally, we just stay home and grouse to our spouse.

But thanks to this concept by Boyd, we can now have “Coffee and Conversation with a Councilor” on a few Saturdays. The Dec. 10 session, from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., is set for Swan Chocolates at 436 Daniel Webster Highway, and the Dec. 17 session at Out of the Woods Cafe at 515 Daniel Webster Highway.

Now’s your chance: Got a question or a concern? Councilor Boyd is setting aside a few hours of his time to hear them. So? Go.