‘Cape Issues’ in Need of Solutions

By Fred Coldren
A positive new approach to public participation to help identify issues and problems affecting life in Cape May County that need solutions is proposed as a result of initial meetings with the Publisher of the Herald in recent weeks.
Several friends who have been involved in public service for many years have agreed that in addition to all of the great public information, opinions, and features provided so successfully in the first 40 years of Cape May County Herald printed newspapers and Internet on-line editions, the public can now effectively use these tools and forums to help solve priority issues in the future.
First, we invite everyone to help identify the major ‘Cape issues’ that need to be addressed and solved to improve our county. Submit your topics with a brief explanation to the Herald as a Letter to the Editor, or as a Spout Off. Please mention “Cape Issues’ when submitting your input to the Herald.
We’ve enlisted an initial group of volunteer citizens to review submissions and help prioritize issues submitted by the public. Within a month or as soon as possible, issues identified by the public will be published for the second phase of this new approach.
The second phase will be to focus public attention and invite public input to find solutions and methods to address the priority topics. It may be important to gather knowledgeable people to discuss the topics and potential solutions. As critical information becomes available on each issue, it will be presented so that advocates of solutions and decision makers will have the benefit of everything.
At every step of the process, the Herald will report and monitor progress toward solutions of the issues to be identified by the public. When proposed solutions need support of our elected officials and public agencies, we will present them and report results to the public.
When we achieve a goal or solution, readers of the Herald and other participants will be fully informed. When proposed solutions or plans on ‘Cape Issues’ are rejected, revised or otherwise not implemented, the public will learn why and have the opportunity to comment.
Everyone is welcome and invited to participate in this new process to find positive and constructive solutions to ‘Cape Issues’. As soon as the Herald announces this opportunity, we urge your participation and support of the process to achieve ‘doable’ results.
We agreed on a few initial ground rules and parameters, but we welcome others:
• Keep this effort positive, avoiding personal criticisms.
• Be non-partisan to keep this program open and meaningful to everyone.
• There is no pre-conceived agenda or list of issues; Public input will create it.
• We welcome all ideas and constructive information, signed or anonymous.
• Limit this effort to local and regional topics we can reasonably do something about.
• Hold everyone involved accountable to the ultimate good of the public.
• Respect diverse opinions and proposals, keeping positive results as our goal.
Herald Publisher Art Hall initiated this idea during lunch with Tom Flud and me in March. We welcomed the opportunity to help. In subsequent meetings, we invited others to consider the process and join as volunteer advisors. These include Bob Jackson, John McCann and Bob Grace. Tom served as long time North Wildwood Administrator, Bob Jackson served as Mayor of West Cape May, and Bob Grace was Mayor of Dennis Township. John McCann is an involved civic leader and realtor in Sea Isle City and Ocean City.
I served as a newspaper reporter and first full time Editor of Cape May County Herald almost 40 years ago, and later served as non-partisan City Manager of City of Cape May for 15 years, and presently as Business Manager of Cape May–Lewes Ferry. We’ve all held other public service roles. And we welcome other volunteers to step forward to work on issues, monitor progress, and make this a meaningful, lasting effort.
All of us love Cape May County and we all are aware of many ‘Cape Issues’ that deserve attention by the public, so that solutions can be identified and implemented. But we agreed that public input must set the priorities and goals, and pros and cons of proposed solutions must be fully aired by the public in order to achieve meaningful positive results.
This newspaper has achieved a number of major improvements in the way public information is communicated in our county. First by insisting that a “free” newspaper could survive, with costs covered by community advertisers and subscriptions. It’s now one of the most successful papers in America. Other firsts that come to mind are the web offset production process, first full color images, the famous “Spout Off” feature, reader friendly supplements and features, and one of the most comprehensive and informative Internet presences of any media organization at www.capemayherald.com .
Now it’s up to you to decide whether this proposed new feature is worthwhile. If so, please begin to submit topics and brief explanations to ‘Cape Issues.’ If you desire your thoughts to run as a letter to the editor, please give your name and telephone number. Without your name and telephone number, it may run as an anonymous Spout Off. You may also submit anonymously by going to Spout Off on the Herald website or by dialing 886-8600 ext. 50.