To the editor:
Team Haverhill was honored by an editorial in last week's Eagle-Tribune that highlighted our mission of making Haverhill a better place to live, learn, work and play. We regard it as a compliment that the editorial board would advocate for our involvement in two issues — expanding the single-stream recycling pilot to the whole city, and advancing coherent development along the river, including the Woolworth corner. Perhaps this reflects the track record of goal achievement we have established over the last three years, including this summer's successful Soles of Haverhill celebration and booming Farmers Market expansion.
While we appreciate the newspaper's vote of confidence, the editorial may have left readers with several false impressions. The first has to do with the Woolworth building. Anyone who attended the Possible Dreams community event on Jan. 25 (including the Eagle-Tribune's own reporter) can verify that improvement of the Woolworth corner was one among dozens of different hopes voiced from the floor during a plenary discussion. Since more than 120 people — ranging from our newest residents, to the mayor, to members of City Council — took part in the evening program, it is quite misleading to suggest that any particular comment from the floor constituted a statement of Team Haverhill's policy or goals for 2010. Team Haverhill's own goal-setting for the year occurs at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Feb. 8, to which the public is always invited. The location is the Community Room of Pentucket Bank, 1 Merrimack St.
The second false impression has to do with recycling. The Eagle-Tribune editorial encouraged Team Haverhill to get involved with promoting recycling in 2010 — implying, perhaps, that the project is not advancing for lack of effort from Team Haverhill. After the first Possible Dreams event in 2008, Team Haverhill reviewed the community feedback, assessed the energy for particular projects, and embraced expanded recycling as an organizational goal. Investing many hundreds of volunteer hours since then, our project team has conducted in-depth research, collaborated extensively with city officials and community groups, educated the public about issues and options, and advocated persistently for city-wide, single-stream, curbside recycling.
The third false impression involves the nature and purpose of Team Haverhill. The Team has been consistent in pursuit of its officially-stated mission, which identifies four ways we work to improve the city's life: fostering civic dialogue (Possible Dreams, for example); organizing hands-on projects (like playground renovation); creating a more informed public (as we do through candidate forums); and advocating for positive change (as we have done by taking a position on recycling). Team Haverhill never endorses candidates for election, but expects — without apology — to remain an independent voice in public dialogue about issues of importance to the city's life.
The final misimpression has to do with individual member commitments and activities. We know of no volunteer group in this city that forbids individual support of a party or candidate — so we are puzzled by the implied criticism that Team Haverhill doesn't forbid this either. Our members tend to be independent thinkers with a variety of opinions about candidates and issues. We conduct our business in an open forum, and welcome partners of any stripe who are oriented toward getting positive things done. More information is available at teamhaverhill.org.
Alice Mann
Chairwoman
Team Haverhill
