Residents Host Meeting to Discuss PO Development

(Editor's Note: The article has been edited to more accurately reflect that the meeting will focus on the development of the Post Office site).

A group of Maplewood residents and merchants will host a meeting Thursday night at 8 p.m. at Morrow Memorial Church to discuss the future of the Maplewood Post Office site.

The meeting is being spearheaded by a group of residents and merchants "who want to influence local politics and politicians to be more transparent, forthcoming, and engaging in making local decisions," said organizer John Harvey.

Harvey, a local business owner who has been a vocal critic of the administration's handling of the plan, as well as of the plan to redevelop the Maplewood Woman's Club, said there is a lack of "clear public understanding" on how the township will move ahead on redevelopment plans for the Post Office, and on potential uses for and costs to renovate the Woman's Club property.

For more information on both projects, see this article on the Post Office Redevelopment Plan and this article for background on the Woman's Club purchase.

For a .

The other organizers are Kurt Kiley, Dave Helmkamp, William Dunsavage and Thomas Pauly, owner of The Able Baker. Pauly sent Patch the following agenda: 

Meeting Purpose:

• To promote understanding of development plans for the Post Office site
• To influence the local decision-making process and engage the citizenry

Meeting Principles: 

• accentuate the positive
• 20% looking back, 80% looking forward
• leverage dialogue

Why does this matter so much to us?

• No more than three minutes each -- Kurt, Bill, Dave, Tom, and John

The Post Office Development

• High level overview and essential questions
• Engage and educate the participants to create a high level understanding of the development project and some of the essential questions that should have broader public insight
• Focus on the forward view. 
• Provide a PO development timeline so people understand the speed that the project is moving forward

Open Dialogue Principles

• Focus on the future
• All questions may not have answers
• Limit comments to 2 minutes
• Index cards provided for unanswered questions

Next Steps

• Suggest some ways of working going forward
• Sign our petition