Category: Berlin NH

Council Cracks

Tonight’s city council meeting was awesome. Great. Phenomenal.
Councilor Dick Lafleur made it clear he was unhappy with the other councilors for not making the meeting last Monday.
“The greatest responsibility of every public official is to be here,” he said.
Councilor Lafleur was appointed to fill the mayor’s role for that meeting, but only Councilors Ron Goudreau, Tom McCue and Mark Evans joined him for that meeting. Councilor Lucie Remillard called in sick and Mayor David Bertrand was on vacation, but the other councilors were unaccounted for.
I’m not sure what protocol is in that situation, but Councilor Lafleur was clearly not happy with the outcome. He said he was angry then and now, and that he was embarrassed by the situation councilors put him in.
Mayor Bertrand tried to reel him, asking what the remarks had to do with the budget, but Councilor Lafleur said the budget was of utmost importance and councilors had neglected their responsibility to it last week. He then continued with his comments.
Councilor David Poulin asked the mayor if he was going to bang the gavel or if he should hit Councilor Lafleur with it. He said he was not going to be lectured to about his decisions, that he had good reasons for missing the meeting, and that it was disrespectful for Councilor Lafleur to speak to his fellow councilors that way.

I pulled out my camera right at the end and missed getting it on tape. As someone who enjoys political theater, this was rich stuff. I’m sorry I don’t have a visual record of it to share. I might know someone who has audio of it, however, and I’ll see if I can’t get it up here. This was the second YouTube worthy display by Councilor Poulin—I’m going to have to keep my camera ready when he’s around.

This group has worked well together in the time I’ve been covering them. Councilors Lafleur and Poulin seem to taunt each other every once in a while, but this was the most hostile tone I’ve seen between sitting councilors. Up until now they saved it for opposition candidates.

The atmosphere of city council seemed to change about the time the election got heated, and I’m not sure it has settled since. I’m also not sure it will settle any time soon. Councilor Poulin ended the meeting by saying he wanted to buy all the stationary featuring the stack in the seal to get rid of it as soon as possible. Since Mayor-elect Paul Grenier has made it clear he wants to reinstate the old seal it is hard not to see this as a slight to the incoming administration.

After such a hard-fought election, where both sides clung to visions of Berlin’s future that are in many ways irreconcilable, it will be interesting to see how things move forward. Mr. Grenier told me he expects everything will smooth over rather quickly; I’m not so sure. If Councilor Poulin’s statement about the paper is any indication, some of the remaining councilors are preparing for a fight.

Facepage

Just so you know, the official Berlin Reporter Facebook page is now up, and I’ve been handed the reins. Because it’s a weird week with the holiday, there won’t be any council in this Tuesday’s paper. (See, it is a weird week—normally the paper comes out on Wednesday.) So I’ll be giving a brief summary and wrap up on the Facebook page.

That digital revolution in media is still supported by the wobbling knees of the print edition. Berlin is holding its own for now, but hopefully someone will come up with the next model before the knees buckle. For now, however, the BR facepage will have to do.

J–Time

I went to a presentation by the New Hampshire Press Association on Thursday where presenters talked to high school students about what it means to be a reporter. There were representatives from a number of northern New Hampshire papers, including both Berlin papers, and people from the southern part of the state.
The reporters from the southern part of the state talked about a newsroom with three full-time photographers, and assignment editors, copy editors, firewalls between the advertising side of the industry and tens of thousands of subscribers.
Berlin isn’t like that. Northern New Hampshire isn’t like that. The owner of the News and Sentinel spoke; she is both the editor and the publisher of that paper. At the Reporter I am the only full-time person—the sports reporter is part-time and the editor and other reporters are shared with the Democrat. At the daily the managing editor is a part-time position.
Whatever the role of journalism in a society, its capacity is only so great as its infrastructure. At every city meeting I wonder what would happen if there was no press there. Most members of the public don’t attend council meetings, much less the sub-committees and various boards. I certainly can’t cover all of them, but between the two papers in Berlin someone is usually at every meeting.
What happens if that falls apart? Every paper seems to be struggling. Even the Conway version of the daily is down from six days a week to five. The public is protected by a broken business model, and there is nothing on the horizon to fix or replace it.
If you think most public officials are crooks, this may be a problem for you. If, however, you’re generally a trusting person then this isn’t a big deal. But with scandals being broken daily (or even monthly or yearly on a local basis) it might be disastrous to do without.
I have to admit, the solution isn’t easy. It is like engaging residents of Berlin to civic participation. My job would be less important if every Monday the aisles were full in city hall. Instead of my translation people would have heard it for themselves.
But at the same time those people would need a fact-checker. The public system currently in place was meant to be run with a vigorous press, but in Berlin now there are already strains on that system. It seems absurd that some day that press may dissolve completely, but without a business model what have you got?
I was talking to a friend at the program on Thursday who said he’d like to start a North Country non-profit dedicated to reporting on the region’s issues. I wonder how that would work, be received, or survive. I wonder if people see enough value in journalism to give to it. I cherish NHPR News, which is a big reason why I give to that organization, but their commitment to reporting is limited in scope. Would another venue have a longer reach?
There are a lot of issues in Berlin right now, many of them quite important. But there is also a distinct lack of resources. Three reporters for a city, working for different publications, is a small crew for a place with as much going on as Berlin. I also wonder if most citizens would call themselves engaged, or if they are simply letting Berlin run itself.
It’s one more strain on an already strained city. This one, however, I don’t see the path out from.

Laidlaw Stuff

The transcript is here. The LLEG press release is here. The discussion has already been going on under comment sections for other posts. Again, I don’t feel this is the most important issue for Berlin, but I know others disagree and they are welcome to comment here.

My original post, which got tons of comments, said, “what I’m hearing is that PSNH told the PUC they have no deal with Laidlaw. None. Zero.”
A direct quote from Mr. Bersak, PSNH’s representative at the PUC: “The status of PSNH’s relationship with Laidlaw: We have no contract with Laidlaw.” (Page 77)

My sources were reliable. What Mr. Bersak’s comment means in terms of future agreements is certainly debatable (as people are proving on here), but I’m happy to report I wasn’t spreading vicious lies and rumors.

Enjoy the discussion and try to keep it civil.

Just Grand

Roger Brooks has been in town talking about what Coös County needs to do to become a destination community. I sat in on the meeting at WMCC and was entertained and impressed. I did get the impression if he told some members of the community to jump off the Tondreau Peninsula, they would, but his ideas had merit.
One I liked in particular was the idea of a recessed piazza with sprinklers. In the summer it would be an attraction for families, and therefore businesses. It could also double as a performance venue or a space for art shows. And in the winter you could flood it and make a skating rink, he said, a la Rockefeller Center.
It could take the space of one of the vacant spaces in town. It could be a great addition to the community.
I was sitting right in front of several members of Berlin city staff at the meeting, and they were skeptical of some of the ideas floated by people. The encouraging thing was that Mr. Brooks shot down those ideas. His experience paralleled the experience of Berlin city staff. It seems everyone who knows how to run a city is on the same page.
He talked about making Berlin the urban center of Coös County. Other communities have their niches, he said, but none has the ability to be an urban center like Berlin.
So what would you like to see there? A music venue? Coffee shop? Performance space? I liked Robbie Munce’s wireless downtown.
It takes five years, at least, to transform a downtown, Mr. Brooks said. Good thing Berlin has already started.

By the way, I assume everyone knows, the wall is coming down brick by brick at 92 Main St. The city is on the rise.

No Council

Not enough councilors showed up for quorum tonight, so there was no meeting. There was some interesting discussion to be had, regarding the city deciding to borrow from Laconia Savings Bank instead of with the municipal bond bank, and priorities for the next budget cycle. Unfortunately no decisions could be made.
Tomorrow is the BIDPA meeting, and WREN is on the agenda. I’m interested to hear what the members who visited last week have to say to the rest of the board. I talked to one member who said they’d like to see WREN move in immediately, but they also don’t want to lose money on the building. It was an investment, after all.
But inviting WREN would also be an investment.

I spent the weekend going back and forth between Berlin and North Conway, much more so than I usually do. Normally I travel between Berlin and Glen and never make it down to the more sprawl-covered section of town. But this weekend, for some reason, I had to travel south, and what I noticed surprised me.
The distance from Boston or New York to North Conway in many ways is less than the distance from Glen to Berlin. It makes me laugh that all these people want to escape the city, and Conway and Bartlett are where they go. The area certainly has appeal for me, but it has nothing to do with escaping the rat-race. Car after car comes north, and they stop in Conway instead of continuing north.

Someone at the WREN meeting used the word traffic combined with Berlin and I couldn’t hold in the laugh. There are seldom more than a dozen cars stopped at any light, and sometimes that’s in all directions. It is something out of a different era, and even the people living in it don’t realize it.
Even from Gorham to Berlin, the change is evident. Personally, while I love Libby’s, the White Mountain Cafe and some of the other stores and restaurants, the Burger King, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s leave a bit to be desired. Berlin is largely free of the McCulture spreading around the country, and it is better off for it.
I know a few people who bounce in and out of Berlin, spending both a significant amount of their time in the city and away. All of them have a positive perspective on the city. They look and see the things they are happy to see missing, not just the things they wish were there. And they see the new businesses on Main Street and they have hope that the parts they want can come without the parts they don’t.
People who never leave or never visit, however, are the ones who need convincing. Numerous people have said the attitude has to change in Berlin before it can change afar. But the people from afar need only to spend some time in Berlin to see how much of a treasure it is. They will be far easier to convince. It is the people that never leave and have grown accustomed to deriding the city that need the a reorientation.

It’s Just An Election…

A lot of people looking for a progressive Berlin are upset about the outcome of the election. I have to ask: Why?
Perhaps the candidate you wanted to win didn’t, but does that really matter? The city still has $4.3 million to take down or fix up dilapidated properties. It still has funky new stores opening on Main Street. It still has a brand new ATV trail, which people for years have been fighting for. The roof is still going up on Fagin’s Pub, and Tony’s Pizza is still newly opened. There is more good than bad going on in Berlin, and protesting effective democracy doesn’t seem to behoove people calling themselves “forward thinking.”
People came out to vote on the seventh: 40 percent of registered voters cast ballots. Paul Grenier’s message about jobs connected; many people have struggled in the last two years, more for reasons affecting the nation than what is going on in Berlin. I’ve heard numerous people say Berlin is turning around, and I don’t think changing a few councilors matters.
Honestly, I’m excited to see some of the faces that got elected to council get to work. Both Ryan Landry and Tim Cayer were appointed to their seats, and now they have the people’s support to back up their positions. Mr. Landry has a passion for Berlin, and I agree with Paul Grenier’s comment that he is a “rising star.” It was several months ago Mr. Landry was talking about being proactive with the property BIDPA acquired on Main Street, and here it is November and BIDPA is considering similar steps.
David Poulin is another person who I’m interested to see get to work. His speech at the debate was fiery and sharp, and he may come into city hall looking to push the progressive policies he espoused.
These people will be fighting for a progressive Berlin, and it’s likely it will continue to improve.

The council will be an interesting mix this session. Councilor Tom McCue will join the three councilors listed above to make a pretty united front. Councilors Lucie Remillard and Mark Evans will be swing voters on some issues, but the fact is I don’t know that Councilors-elect Bob Danderson and Mike Rozak are going to create a united front with Mayor-elect Grenier. On Laidlaw they have a consensus, but the fact is the city does not have much to do with that process for the foreseeable future. As everyone says, the ball is in Laidlaw’s court. The big issue before the council is keeping taxes down, which, quite frankly, every councilor seems committed to do. There are differences on how infrastructure spending will proceed, but in some ways the $4.5 million will already be spent by January. Capital improvements are going to move forward. If the $7 million TIGER grant comes through it will be even more sweeping improvements than residents imagine.

The election was a wake up call to progressively minded people. Berlin cannot afford to leave the laid-off mill worker behind. It can’t even afford to give the impression it is leaving the mill worker behind. “Vote Jobs” may be a hard promise to deliver, but over a two week campaign season it’s enticing rhetoric that finds support among people without jobs.
Mr. Grenier is in favor of both biomass projects, though he is more enthusiastic about Laidlaw than CPD. But neither plant will be operational before November 2011, when he will be up for reelection. The federal prison will open next fall and do good things for the economy, but many of the jobs won’t be for Berlin residents.
There is no easy answer. The long range view or the short range view—neither helps an unemployed worker tomorrow. But people and organizations within the city are taking steps to do something about the challenges Berlin faces, and they aren’t affected by council.
The Roger Brooks initiative, the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the RSA 155-B process, the new role BIDPA is developing for itself, the district heating plans, the 21/21 project—all of these are moving forward regardless of the electorate’s choices. Many of these have been supported by several councils, and they will continue to be supported in the future.
It is important for people who feel under-represented on the council to have a voice. Paul Grenier connected with people who are looking for short term gain. If he is able to deliver a substantial number of jobs by 2011 he will deserve reelection. If he can’t he will leave out-of-work voters feeling alienated, but that’s better than disregarding their votes today. Mr. Grenier clings to the city’s heritage, and he used it to rally support. And no one can deny on some topics he is right: the city can’t afford any more laid-off high school educated 50 year olds. What would they do for work next?
The current council didn’t disregard these voters, but they were unable to make them understand how the council’s long range plans benefited them.
David Bertrand had a hard time connecting with those voters, with his Ivy League education and his good job. I don’t know the demographics of Berlin, but it is likely there are more people who share Mr. Grenier’s background than Mr. Bertrand’s. Mr. Bertrand has great ideas for the city, but he needed to make better connections with the people he is trying to help to win. In the meantime, Mr. Grenier’s experience and rhetoric may have propelled him through this election, but his ability to deliver will likely make it a challenge to replicate his success in 2011.

Or, if things change fast enough in Berlin, he may be fine. The economy was bad in 2007, when Mr. Bertrand defeated Mr. Danderson resoundingly. It was still bad in 2009 when Mr. Grenier defeated Mr. Bertrand with similar numbers. If the economy rebounds before the next election Mr. Grenier will likely keep the seat. If not, the urge to toss the bastards out will probably sweep him aside, assuming someone decides to run against him. Regardless, however, Berlin’s fortune is changing.
Councilor Ron Goudreau said at Monday’s council meeting he’d like the city to have authority to fine property owners who don’t clean up after a fire. It would give them added incentive to get to work sooner, he said, and stop the problem so clearly illustrated on lower Main Street.
But fines don’t work, City Manager Pat MacQueen and Councilor McCue said, because all to often they are levied upon people who can’t pay. The city, in effect, is powerless in this case.
But at the same time it isn’t. When that $4.3 million makes its way through the city in the next two years it will change the face of Berlin. It will remove many of the buildings that stain city streets. It will push up the property values and make the city more inviting.
All the sudden, when a building burns down, the plot of land it used to sit on will be worth more than the cleanup. Land owners will have incentive to clean the property up, even if just to sell it. It won’t be worth it to walk away anymore, and the cleanups will take weeks or months instead of years.
And all this is because of the city, regardless of the council. Berlin is changing, no matter who wins office. Don’t worry about the direction of city because it’s already moving, and there is nothing that can get in its way.

WREN Migration

Members of Berlin Industrial Development and Park Authority met with the Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network last night. It was AWESOME!
Why? Because it was a group of beer-drinking men with wine-drinking women. Confident, capable, smart, funny, energetic, creative entrepreneurial wine-drinking women. Just the kind of women (and people) Berlin needs to kick start the next version of the city’s economy.
Berlin has those people now. I’ve said before, people like Andre Caron and Pam Laflamme fit into that category. So does Stacia Roberge, Sylvia Poulin, and Tim Cayer. David Poulin and Ryan Landry, along with Mr. Cayer and others are trying to bring this creativity to city government. There are people looking to create their own success in Berlin, thinking beyond the “mill mentality” and making things happen. But the fact is the city needs more people like them; it needs to figure out how to support and produce them.
WREN has amazing resources, which they said helped transform Bethlehem. They are resources that would give Berlin residents the tools to move into the 21st century, and help shake it lose from its industrial past.
(There will be an in depth report of the discussion that went on at WREN headquarters in next week’s Berlin Reporter.)
The members of BIDPA were receptive to a partnership with WREN, if unsure what they bring to the table. What I see BIDPA brings to the table is property. They could give WREN a building so they could open an operation in town, and the long term effects would far outweigh the monetary value of a property. There are problems with that, because then every non-profit in the city would approach BIDPA to give them a building, but few if any could do what WREN can for the Berlin’s economic future.
The discussion between these two groups was awkward and halting, but it was moving toward a shared goal—to bring entrepreneurialism to Berlin. The discussion lasted about an hour, but it was clear it could have gone on for days. Berlin is aching for this type of resource, and WREN needs to understand the challenge it’s looking at.
People who were trained to work in a mill can be trained to work for themselves, but they need to learn what it is they don’t know. This partnership would give people the tools to look outside the box, something they have never had to do.
Last week I heard a commentary on Marketplace from Charles Handy, the founder of the London Business School, about the new economy, and how people have to learn how to make their own work. They need to learn skills they can offer people that people will pay for, he said, because the time of employers taking care of everything is over. Berlin understands this better than most places, but its isolation keeps people from gaining the tools to reinvent themselves. The community college is a great resource, but if you can’t afford it what good is it?
Enter this new model, where training cost $40 instead of $4,000. There is opportunity here to build the 21st century workforce and mindset in Berlin, without abandoning those already there.
Mr. Handy learned these new skills at 49. He said you are never too old to reinvent yourself, which is something Berlin is hoping to prove. But it needs the energy, the creativity WREN can bring. It needs to figure out how to get WREN there, and sooner rather than later.

Berlin, Berlin and Istanbul

A lot of my time in Berlin is spent in the car since the Reporter has no dedicated office here. As a result I listen to a lot of NHPR. Today the news was consistently about Berlin, Germany, and the fall of the Berlin wall. The wall fell twenty years ago today (I was eight), but it still affects the people who lived through the transition.
I can’t remember the exact quote, but the NPR newscaster paraphrased Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying Berlin has to remember its past while pursuing a new future.
The debates that have raged lately in Berlin, N.H., have carried the same rhetoric. I spoke to Paul Grenier last night about the election, and he said one of the things motivated him most was the council’s decision to change the city seal. He said in the past that the seal was a tie to the city’s heritage, and the council disrespected that heritage when they voted to change it.
David Bertrand argued the council was not disrespecting the city’s past but instead was looking to the city’s future. The stack on the city seal was a reminder of the old Berlin, and this administration is one looking to create the new Berlin.
Remember your past while pursuing a new future. What does that mean? How carefully do you have to tread on the past to keep from desecrating it? What should be the litmus test for “progress,” and how much of a loss of heritage is acceptable?
There is bound to be change. On another program today, I heard a story about in Istanbul how middle class people are displacing the poor. They are moving into the city and taking over neighborhoods, pushing out people who have lived there all their lives. The picture of progress is good for some, but for others represents the loss of the community they knew.
Berlin is launching into a balancing act. It needs to embrace change, because the economic base the city relied on for a century isn’t coming back, and it also needs to remember its heritage to a sufficient degree that residents don’t get offended. History can become a problem when too much pride is attached to it, but at the same time it shouldn’t be dropped without consideration. Add to this that many residents are reluctant to face the challenging times they live in, as evidenced by the recent election, and elected officials will have to tread carefully.
Mr. Grenier drew an ominous picture of the Berlin economy, one that I think ignores many positives, but the picture connected with many residents. They, like him, may pine for when the mill was spewing yellow dust on the city and there were more jobs that there were working adults. Those residents may be tough to bring into a discussion about the changing economy, and they may not be open to changing the image of a city they grew up in.
How do you preserve a community that is wasting away? What changes do you make? The people who stay behind might be the most stubborn ones; how do you get them on board with those changes?
These questions, I think, are why the election went the way it did. The current council was proactive, and they worked with a long-range plan in mind. There isn’t much they could do about the world economy, but they suffered the consequences nonetheless.
They got caught off kilter on this tenuous path of heritage, future and change, at least according to the voters. I’m not sure what sticking to the path looks like, because my heritage is much different than Berlin’s. I am interested to see what the new council brings to the table, and how the electorate responds to their attempt to walk the line. They gave Mr. Bertrand two years to fulfill his promises, and when they weren’t to voters’ expectations they tossed him out. Mr. Grenier needs to deliver jobs in his two years, or he’ll face the same fate. Two years is not a lot of time to affect change in municipal government; I’ll be interested the see how he does.

Berlin is like a thousand communities around the country and around the world, all trying to find the right path forward. I hear fiery election rhetoric and read the online mudslinging and I get pessimistic, but then I take a ride into the city. I talk to people on the streets and in the businesses, and I watch the progress every day. It brings back my confidence for the future. Berlin too alive to pin down. It has too much passion and too many people who care to continue to wane. I realize the debates online and in city hall are between people for whom the city drives them. They will continue to boil over, and in so doing they will restore life to Berlin. That ride into the city is a rejuvenating experience for me, a validating one. It reminds me of why I love to report from Berlin, and what I know its future can be. I know not everyone sees it, but its there. Just walk downtown and you’ll see.

Good Press

I was driving around today and heard the newscast on NHPR mention the ATV trail opening tomorrow. In fact, I heard them mention it two different times. Residents of Berlin notice when statewide media report the fires that happen all too often in town. It’s worth pointing out when they are covering the good things as well. While it is usually WMUR people mention when they talk about this phenomenon, they aren’t the only media outlet in the state. Berlin needs to fight the image battle in whatever way they can.

Weather looks good for tomorrow. I’ll be up to cover the opening ceremonies. Hopefully some other media outlets will as well.

Update: I just took a look online, it looks like the story made it out on the AP wire. That’s a good sign people will show up. Heck with statewide media, that’s nationwide.

And I’ve noticed the war has broken out on here about CPD, PSNH and Laidlaw. Wow. Impressive. I’m still waiting to get the official transcript to get a clearer picture of what happened on Tuesday, but I’ve had a few good conversations about the issue. I don’t really worry, however about what people think any of it means. In the end the PUC will likely decide exactly what it means.
I received some vitriolic responses to my posting the report I got. As I’ve said before LPJ isn’t the news outlet I work for. I don’t print rumors in the paper. (I did, however, put Rumorz in the paper.) On LPJ I post whatever I like, including things I haven’t researched. In any such post I’ll point that out, but if you go through and read my posts and think its all news it’s you who has experienced a failure in judgment. In fact I’ve never claimed this site to be a replacement for the paper; it’s something I do for fun people interested in Berlin frequent to supplement their experience with the city. If you don’t like it feel free to direct your browser elsewhere. If you enjoy the discussion, feel free to contribute.
The debate about this one issue is so funny to me. The same day I posted the PUC comments I posted about a building collapsing on Mason Street. I thought it might have been part of the housing initiative effort. I tweeted congratulations to Andre Caron for taking down another one. I was wrong. The building collapsed due to a clogged roof drain, and it was torn down unexpectedly on the fire chiefs orders. I updated the information as I learned it, and no one complained I was shirking my journalistic duties.
Then I post a report I got about the hearings, clearly including the fact that the report is unsubstantiated in the post. Almost immediately get a comment from Laidlaw CEO Michael Bartoszek commenting about my “bad journalism.”
Bad journalism? Really? Which one of my stories in the Reporter was biased? I once was accused of bias because of the questions I asked someone I was interviewing. Really? Bias? Which one of my stories in the Reporter was biased? I don’t think people making these accusations understand what they are talking about when it comes to bias and bad journalism—I’d have to put it in the paper for those terms to apply.

I imagine Mr. Bartoszek is trying to protect his company’s reputation among investors, which commonly check out LPJ. I fully encourage him to tell his side of the story, either on here or anywhere else. And maybe if everyone understands the roll of this site it will relieve me of having to address accusations of bias or bad journalism. If you are coming to LPJ for the news you’re in the wrong spot—check out the Berlin Reporter if that’s what you’re looking for. If you are interested in hearing one more perspective on a dynamic city in the midst of change, that’s what this site is about. I have never billed it as a news site, or as a replacement for either the Reporter or the daily paper. If you want to add to the conversation, I’d love to hear your view. If you want to bitch about my trust fund (Huge. Really.) grow up and learn to read a newspaper.

By the way, I do have an opinion about events in Berlin. It would be impossible to spend as much time there as I do and not. I am not convinced biomass in the center of the city would kill it’s viability as a recreation destination. In fact, I think Berlin could cash in on green energy to improve its image, whether that is on the fringe of the city or in the center.
I don’t know if there is enough wood to support the two plants, but I don’t know there isn’t. Many experts aren’t sure, so I don’t write off the project because of that.
I think CPD does a good job of holding the city’s hand through a process that is often confusing and complex. Bill Gabler comes to Berlin almost daily and is happy to explain what CPD is doing every step of the way. Laidlaw could learn a lot from CPD’s approach. In northern New Hampshire having a face attached to a company goes a long way. Lou Bravakis seems like a great guy, and if he were in the community to the same extent as Mr. Gabler it would alleviate a lot of residents’ concerns.
Laidlaw could remove many of the hurdles in front of them if it wished. They could remove them because they erected them.
I am not, like many people who post comments here, dead set against the project. I think if Laidlaw were to approach Berlin with a bit more transparency, with a better recognition that this is a serious issue for a small city used to getting screwed by industrial interests, they could bring many opponents to their side.
It’s like Laidlaw doesn’t recognize Berlin has been scarred in the past. The city is like an abused child, both angry and scared by people approaching it and likely to lash out. It takes deliberate, cautious movements to move forward in Berlin and not raise the ire of residents. CPD has done that well. Laidlaw could follow suit.
They could easily fix their PR problem with a little heavy hand-holding, instead of another press release. Explain what happened in Ellicottville. Show up to city council meetings. Agree to provide a small percentage each year for community giving (it will likely reduce your taxes anyway). Talk about wood and workers and location like they are something other than statistics. In Berlin that mill site is precious. Some people hate it, others love it, but for everyone it is central to their identity. The people of Berlin, as Councilor Ryan Landry said, are more comfortable when that stack is puffing smoke. Don’t try to elbow your way in, Laidlaw; show people what you’re doing so they have confidence in you.
I don’t think Laidlaw recognizes how closely their project treads to the soul of the city. If they did maybe from the start they would have taken a different approach. Of course they want to make money, but I imagine they also want to be part of the community they are located in. They haven’t done a good job integrating thus far, but I believe that can change. All it would take is a little effort.