Chatham's Inbox Is Now Your Inbox

The town takes a stab at transparency, let’s see how they tackle accountability.

Is democracy alive? Sometimes I wonder, but in Chatham, this month, a pulse.

The action is on the town website, of all places. Transparency has arrived, and my well placed sources tell me the delivery was not painless. Not everyone in Town Hall enjoys having the curtains pulled back. Some people decorate better in the dark.

Still. Progress is progress.

The new gambit: every letter to the board, posted online for all to see. Per Beth Anne, “This change is intended to provide residents with greater access to information reviewed by Town Board members. Correspondence may include letters, emails, petitions, comments, and other written communications received by the Town relating to municipal business.”

So far only June is up, which makes sense because that's the start of Projet Transparence. The coming months are listed, which counts as a promise. There are four letters. Let’s open them together.

Letter one: a new grandfather thanking Donal and Tammy for connecting him with a gently used three…