Those interested in Salem town government will soon again be able to receive email notifications from the town.
On Monday, the Town Board unanimously voted to bring back an email list for notifications.
The town used to have a list of people it emailed notices to. However, that was suspended after former town Chairman Linda Valentine made a public information request last summer to obtain the email addresses. She received 189 email addresses.
About how she intended to use the addresses, Valentine said in a statement at the time “perhaps to add to my extensive distribution lists…” that she uses for distributing various pieces of information of local interest.
The town using the list was suspended because of concern that people who had signed up for the list were not aware that their email address would be public information. Town Chairman Diann said in a statement at the time:
I am going to cease this current means of communication with you and all the others on the list for now. I feel that Linda Valentine has taken advantage of you and your privacy and does not care that you might not want to share your personal e-mail address with her.”
The new list will be available for people to sign up for at townofsalem.net after town Clerk Cindi Ernest puts a system into place, said town administrator Patrick Casey.
Part of signing up will be agreeing to terms that include spelling out that by “signing up that the email used becomes a public record that is available to anyone who requests it,” Casey said.
The email system will be used “for basic information such as agendas, meeting notices, and special events,” Casey said.
