Email List:

Page County Watch started out as an email list of people who were hyperventilating about the proposed changes to the Flood Plain Ordinance.    If you would like to receive notices directly to your email about Page County Watch activities, send an email to:  NewsList@PageCountyWatch.org

Include in your email:  Your name, your Page County property address, what issue most interests you, and your email address. 

Blogs:

Click here for our Blog.   The Blog is OPINION, not news.  Take it with a grain of salt.  Page County Watch is not responsible for the opinions of citizens who comment. 

Who is Page County Watch?
 
Where it all started
In early December, 2006, a Page County citizen, JimTurner,  noticed an eensy, teensy announcement in the local paper about changes being made to the Flood Plain ordinance.  He realized this action would bludgeon his chances of building a cabin on the river, so he wrote a Letter to the Editor.    Another citizen, Donna Eames, saw his letter and became alarmed.  She called everyone she knew to come to the Board meeting on a Winter weeknight right before Christmas.  The people were appalled at what they saw.  The Board was seriously about to pass a proposal that would decimate their property values!
 
A Worry Became an Outrage
People were flabbergasted to learn that those who they thought were elected to serve their interests were actually harming them.   The citizens thought, “The Board must not have read that proposal.  We better educate them so they understand what they are doing.”  The citizens began researching laws, analyzing documents, and writing letters.  They began showing up at the Planning Commission Work Sessions, just to see what could possibly be in the heads of people who would do such a thing.  The Commission’s response to the citizen interest was to move the flood plain issue to the end of the agenda, so that people who drove in from out of town and took a day off work would have to wait two hours before the relevant conversation started.  When the Flood Plain issue started, the County Administrator got up and left the room.
 
The Light Dawned
While sitting in the hallway for two hours, waiting for the meeting to start, the people realized there was no appeal for decisions of the County Supervisors.   There is no state authority over them.  If, by chance, someone on the Board had a personal agenda, or was carrying on a vendetta, or was just plain ignorant, they could get a law passed to serve their own interests, rather than those of the citizens.   There would be nothing the citizens could do except wait for the next election.   Individuals who were harmed would have no recourse except to pay fruitless lawyer bills and ruin their own lives.   The Supervisors were all powerful, with no overseeing authority.  That’s when we knew something had to be done.

Page County Watch was born.  Page County Watch is a group of about 55 citizens who just can't take it any more.

We have a Board of Directors, and we have charter members.  The charter members are the original Flood Plain People.  But you, the citizens of Page County, are automatically "associates."  This website is a service and a vehicle for you to "get the word out". 

Views:

If you would like to post your own Blog views on this website, and start a debate, just pick an issue.  Do some background research, check your facts, and send your View to research@pagecountywatch.org

Don't worry about spelling and grammar.  I'll fix that before I post it. 

If you attend a meeting, know information that is going on with county or town government, sit on a subcommittee, whatever it is that you know, or have a question about, send your information or your question to that email address, and we will do what we can to get the information posted.

There are no actual physical meetings of Page County Watch.  This is entirely an Internet activity.

Think of it as a Virtual Town Hall.  Blogging and virtual sites are a "new media".  Imagine how much time it would take to talk to everybody on the phone, one by one.  By using the Internet, we can reach people efficiently.  Even those who don't have Internet in the home can use the library to communicate with Page County Watch.

For those who use the library:  You can set up a free web-based email account for yourself.  Just go to Yahoo.com   Follow the directions to set up  your own email account.  It's free!  You can do it from the library!  You can access it from anywhere!