{"id":29449,"date":"2021-04-15T08:59:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T12:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=29449"},"modified":"2021-04-15T08:59:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T12:59:52","slug":"letter-avondale-council-needs-to-offer-virtual-option-for-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=29449","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Avondale Council needs to offer virtual option for meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To The Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/a>We\u2019ve all just been through a year that we never imagined possible. In addition to the pandemic, citizen participation in democracy and voter turnout are at record levels. The message is loud and clear: We, The People, want to be heard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Unfortunately, most of the current Avondale Borough Council is not allowing that to happen.<\/p>\n

Who among us has someone in our household with asthma, COPD, another disability or is currently undergoing cancer treatment or in remission? That describes many Chester county households.<\/p>\n

The Avondale Borough Council, though, thinks that those conditions should preclude you from participating in democracy. Recently, a borough resident asked to have Zoom or call-in access for the monthly borough council meeting and was denied. The reply was curt: \u201cThe meeting is in person only.\u00a0 You will be able to social distance in our meeting room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times have changed. Technology has changed. We can now meet with people across the globe at a moment\u2019s notice. Avondale Borough Council needs to adjust to meet our changing times.<\/p>\n

The Borough can well afford the free or low-level pay options that Zoom and other services offer. If nothing else, the meetings could be held on Facebook Live, which is completely free, always.<\/p>\n

Our residents deserve nothing less. One should not have to sacrifice their personal health (or that of a beloved family member) to participate in democracy.<\/p>\n

If elected to Borough Council, I will ensure that all Council Meetings and Council Business are accessible to all borough residents and taxpayers. You deserve nothing less.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Michael Essmaker,<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Avondale<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To The Editor We\u2019ve all just been through a year that we never imagined possible. In addition to the pandemic, citizen participation in democracy and voter turnout are at record levels. The message is loud and clear: We, The People, want to be heard. Unfortunately, most of the current Avondale Borough Council is not allowing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10547,10549,10548,6393],"class_list":["post-29449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-avondale-borough","tag-council","tag-meetings","tag-zoom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29450,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29449\/revisions\/29450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}