Mike,

I want to compliment you on your efforts to offer modern day communication
alternatives for Newporters. Along those same lines I offer the website of
Blacksburg, VA (http://www.bev.net/ecommunity/index.php) as an example of
the kind of useful information that a community can share electronically. I
don't know how widely used the website is but Blacksburg has been doing this
for many years now. I know there are many other examples across the country
but Blacksburg was among the first.

In an effort to collect email addresses, the city could promote the benefit
of immediacy of notification to residents. Future notifications would occur
using a list server (as with KnowingNewport) to broadcast any appropriate
notifications.

Fred Faerber