On August 4th, several hundred visitors enjoyed a social event at the Eastside Shoreline and Riverside Social. They reviewed information about surplus land along the Apple Capital Loop Trail, and talked face-to-face with political leaders and public staff about the future of that surplus land. Few people noticed one man standing alone, and even fewer suspected he was an enemy.
    Contrast that atmosphere with the Town Hall meetings broadcast on CSPAN. In the two I watched, people are angry, and many grandstanded on issues from health care to conservatism to wars. They wanted their representatives to take their message back to Washington D.C. For most citizens, the enemy was clear: Obama and Obamacare.
    The Eastside Shoreline Social worked better to strengthen our community for several reasons. First it began with a request from Senator Linda Evans Parlette for a factual report from Washington's Department of Transportation (WSDOT) on the issues of surplus land along the Loop Trail. WSDOT's draft report comprehensively covers property ownership, legal requirements for disposal to public or private parties, and comprehensive local planning necessary to acquire surplus property. The City of East Wenatchee and Douglas County are collaborating with a local architectural firm to use traditional media, webpage, Facebook, email, and open houses to generate public involvement in eastside shoreline planning.
   The man at the social was Mitch Reister, who collaboratively prepared the report that serves as an excellent foundation for the process. He is also Project Manager for surplusing the property.
Mitch lives in the valley. He's a local neighbor who loves that trail and happens to be the son of WSDOT's materials engineer in the original project development for the riverfront highway along the eastside shoreline. The highway was never built because seven people formed the Save the Riverfront Committee that blocked it through public testimony and lawsuits.
    Listening to committee organizers reveals one of the secrets of their success. They appointed Cliff Bates to be the spokesman, causing he and his wife Mary to take a lot of verbal abuse from people. Cliff said, "I would do all the public speaking. Everybody else would do their thing. There was no grandstanding. I became the figurehead and everybody's attention was directed at [me]. All these other people in the background, never got much credit."
    That quote is from a project called Gathering Our Voice underway by IRIS, the Initiative for Rural Innovation and Stewardship. Nancy Warner, Executive Director, gathered people involved with Save the Riverfront to record their voices, portions of which are online (irisncw.org). Nancy jokingly told Mitch he wouldn't be interviewed because he was the enemy.
    Nancy wanted to capture the committee's members to emphasize their civility while opposing WSDOT and local agencies that had issued permits for construction. As Nancy abhors, and we can see in Town Hall meetings, angry grandstanding divides and builds enemies.
    People who do their jobs well with accurate information and collaborative dialogue are the ones who build communities. Fortunately we have voices like Mitch, the son of a perceived enemy, and Cliff, the spokesman for silent opposition.