I write to you as an individual who has been newly appointed as a member of the Task Force on the Roeder Home by County Executive Pete Kremen. We hope to have a joint letter from the whole task force ready to send you within a couple of days. The task force had its second meeting today and sorted out enough to begin to move forward.
Let me begin by giving you some good news. Pete Kremen opened our first meeting by announcing that County Parks will NOT be moving offices into the Roeder Home! Not now, and not later. He had previously put this in writing in the invitation letter for the task force, but it we appreciated that he renewed that decision. Many of us will heave a huge sigh of relief and it makes our task easier since we don't have to work on solving the problem of the office location!
The current budget crunch is real. We will need to find alternate sources of funding to the keep the Roeder Home open. That's not something the Task Force can do by itself. We need YOU!
The Task Force will only function for a few months. We aren't going to be able to work out all of the details by then, and the task force is not the group that will administer and implement the plan. Our agenda is to have recommendations for the County Executive by the end of March.
We need your ideas, and even more, we need your energy. What are you able to dream, and what are you willing to DO - to fill the Roeder Home with life and energy, and to bring in enough money to support that life? What organizations can you help us partner with?
Please contact me or any of the other members of the Task Force, by email, phone and letter. I'll give you contact information at the end of this message. We'd all love to hear from people. What you send to me I will share with the rest of the task force unless you specifically ask me not to. I suspect I may get buried in responses, so I may not be able to respond to everyone personally. Please sure to put Roeder Home in your subject line.
You're also welcome to come to our meetings which will be at the Roeder Home from 11:00 - 1:00 on Mondays. We've reserved public comment periods at the beginning and end of our meetings. Since our time is limited, I'd recommend talking with individual members outside of meetings for detailed discussions. I'm pleased that this is a group that WANTS input! We also plan at least one Open House at the Roeder Home to welcome in ideas, energy, and the people who bear them. We'll need ongoing community energy to keep the Roeder Home alive.
It's time to get the word out far and wide. We'll get the Friends of The Roeder Home website up to date so you can share it. http://www.openaccess.org/~flipandzeke/rodrfrnd/ County Parks hopes to have an open comment area for the Roeder Home on its website by next week. Please feel free to pass this email on.
Thank you for your support, your caring, and your participation in our community!
The Roeder Home Task Force Contact Info