GREENFIELD — Looking to provide residents with a new platform to ask questions or offer comments they may not be able to share elsewhere, the Community Relations and Education Committee, a subcommittee of City Council, plans to host a public forum on Monday evening.
“What we’ve done mostly in the past couple years is have the Recreation Department and the School Department come out and give us reports on how they’re doing and what’s going on,” said Community Relations and Education Committee Chair Penny Ricketts, who also serves as an at-large city councilor. “We’ll probably go back to doing that, but I felt like right now people have questions that are all over the place on different topics, so maybe this will help us hear what people really want to talk about.”
She clarified in a statement that the forum isn’t meant for topics such as the environmental cleanup of the former Lunt Silversmiths property on Federal Street; Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. and related litigation; or the proposed rezoning of the French King Highway for industrial use. All of those issues are being addressed by other relevant committees.
“I think it’s also trying to educate people that we do have a School Committee, we do have a Public Safety Commission, we do have a Human Rights Commission,” Ricketts said.
Monday’s forum will be more of a dialogue than is allowed at City Council meetings, she said, where councilors aren’t allowed to respond to public comment.
“I hope it’s a respectful back and forth,” Ricketts said.
She recalled a committee meeting last year during which police officers were invited to talk about speeding on Greenfield streets — a topic several residents had emailed councilors about.
“If I see some type of trend, we could have a department come to CRE,” Ricketts said. “Not every committee (or department) … has a monthly meeting where the community can come.”
She likened the forum to meetings that former At-Large City Councilor Christine Forgey organized for individual precincts when she was mayor.
Ricketts added that the forum also serves as an opportunity for attendees to learn how they can get more involved in the community. She noted there are vacancies on the Youth Commission.
“This will be a time when we can hopefully point you in the right direction or at least take notes to get useful information back to people,” Ricketts said.
Monday’s forum will take place via Zoom at 6 p.m.
“We would like people to come with not only ideas of things they want to know more about, but what solutions they have,” she said. “I’m hoping this will be a respectful listening and sharing evening, so we can determine if it should and/or could be monthly.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.