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Update (March 2008): It's been eight months since I registered DanvilleDelivery.com. 2008 was DD's first election and March
was our busiest month. A lot of people visited the site for the very first time in March. There were 342 unique visitors in the first 15 days
of March. On the twelth, we had 81 unique visitors. A week after the election, the numbers were still good -- 72 on the 18th.
That's pretty good for a site with no publishing rhythm. Well worth the pennies per day it costs me to keep this up. Thanks for visiting.
An unexpected consequence of the election was that I got more votes than anyone else for TRSD Budget Committee. This came as
a surprise to me -- I didn't even vote for me. I did not expect to be seated and did not plan to accept the position if it
was offered to me, but my kids changed my mind. My oldest thought it would be 'cool' for me to sit on the
committee. My little guy simply asked me to fix the school for him. What do you say to that? I said, "OK." So, I signed the papers
and will be a member of the TRSD budget committee for the next three years.
If you look at the 'what to expect' section below, I promised that this site would change. It has. I got some complaints when
commentary seeped into the news. Too bad. As Ronald Reagan said, "I am paying for this microphone..."
In the coming weeks, the site will be changing again. With the election in the rear view mirror, I'm going to begin morphing DD into
the newspaper I originally envisioned -- news and commentary organized as stories and columns.
The first column will be mine. I'll provide detailed notes on our Budget Committee meetings. I have two objectives for this column...
- Educate people about the role of Budget Committee member
- Affect the behavior of those who serve on and interact with the committee
Hopefully, the column will attract like minded people to public service -- people who want to make things better for the taxpayers and their
children. Public service should not be a stepping stone to a 'good job' and the people who serve should do so with the expectation of
improving our community. In the 2008 election, most candidates ran unopposed. Some positions had no candidates. I don't think this happened
because there was a lack of interest or committment on the part of the community. I think it happened because people don't know how
much time and what skills are required to serve. My column will detail what goes on in the meetings and behind the scenes. A reader
of the column should be able to figure out if they would be an effective member of the TRSD budget committee and get a feel for how
much time and effort serving will require.
I'm looking forward to 2008 and hope you are too.
Mission: The mission of this web page is to inform the people of Danville, New Hampshire. We live in a community
that is too small to have a newspaper or tv channel and too big to rely on word of mouth. Events happen that
should make us smile, groan, or rebel -- and we don't hear about them. My objective is to make the people of
Danville smile, groan, and rebel.
Background: My name is Len Mullen. I live at 39 Justin Drive. I've lived at that address since 1990. I like my house. I
like my neighbors. I like the people I've met as my kids have progressed through the school system, little league,
and scouting. For the most part, Danville has been a very pleasant place to raise a family.
Around 2000, I tried to use the government. It was hard. The government was, and is, a word of mouth operation.
I wanted to put a pool in my yard and was concerned about set backs, zoning, and electrical code.
I wanted to put a wood burning stove in my basement and wondered if I could share one of the flues in my chimney.
At a little league game, I heard I could have campfires in my yard if I got the right permit from the right person.
Fireworks are legal in New Hampshire. Can we use them in Danville? Do I need a permit? Are there rules?
Slowly I learned who I needed to talk to to find out how to do these things properly. I wondered why a taxpayer had
to 'know the right person' to use the services of the town.
Then I stumbled upon the town's official web site --
http://www.townofdanville.org.I found it attractive, but not very helpful. For the next year or so, I checked this
web site each time I had a question. When I did not find my answer, I emailed the webmaster, "I was looking for
something on your site and could not find it. I think the answer to this question might be a good thing for you to
include on your web site."
This never resulted in improvement, but, eventually, I got a response from the webmaster, "If you are so unhappy with
the web site, why don't you help us make it better." This was a reasonable request and, after much fanfare, I was appointed
to the website committee.
I learned a lot about the town of Danville as a member of the committee. We met
regularly to discuss the web site -- and the town and the government and other committees. I was surprised to learn that the
reason that the web site was so sparse was that the members of the various committees were reluctant to provide information.
We spent more time scheming to get information from the government than working on the web site. Along
the way, we posted volumes of minutes and agendas. Any attempt to post information that would be useful to residents
was squashed. The BOS was against it, the performing organization was against it, there was risk...very frustrating. Eventually,
the frustration gave birth to a second web site --
http://www.speakoutdanville.org. This web site was to be privately funded and free to serve the people. Web pages, blogs,
and forums would improve the dialog and engage the public.
Noble beginnings. The web page never got off the ground. The blogs became political soap boxes. The forums thrived, but were
quickly annexed by the government and used as a platform to promote various warrants. Instead of serving the people, this site
became a platform for politicians who had not yet been elected.
So our small town had two web sites -- one was a monument to government and the other was a platform for those who
aspired to elective office. I still could not download a permit to build a deck or the rules for installing a filter for my pool.
In 2007, I retired from the website committee and the other web site. I decided to fund and build the web site I wished the
town had. Here it is.
DanvilleDelivery.com: What's in a name? Aside from the alliterative appeal, Danville Delivery is what the school calls a folder that
comes home with the kids each day. It's a great idea -- homework in one pocket, papers and communications in another.
Check your child's folder each day to stay on top of what's going on at the school. Got a question? Put it in the folder.
This DanvilleDelivery will work just like that. Each day, I'll collect the information you need and send it home via this web
page. If you need some information or have something to share, use this folder.
What about the .com? Why not .org, .net, or .info? .com is the most popular tld (top-level domain). Most browsers will
will 'guess' www.danvilledelivery.com if you type in danvilledelivery. So, I hoped to make it easy to find the page. I'm
also open to the idea of offsetting costs with ads if the opportunity presents itself and I think it would be inappropriate
to represent my site as a nonprofit (.org) while collecting fees for ads.
What to Expect: Expect change. Right now, I'm creating a page for me. As time goes on, it will evolve into a page for us. The left
side of the page is a directory of serivices -- all kinds of services. If you know a great place to get an ice cream or the
name of an electician or plumber, send it to me. Someone is always looking for a great ice cream or to install a gfci on
their pool filter. Whenever possible, I'll provide contact information -- hours, a phone number, a menu, directions, or a URL.
The middle area is news. The top is the slide show that runs on cable tv. If you don't have cable, this is the same
community calendar. I've borrowed this from the official site. (The webmaster of Danville's Official Web has asked
that I not post Danville's Official Community Service announcements on this web. If you would like announcements posted,
please send them directly to webmaster@danvilledelivery.com)
Under that is an area for news articles about our town
and/or schools. The feed is provided by a content aggregator based on a query I submitted. Articles about Danville or
Timberlane will be linked here. This is a work in progress as well. As I find news that is missed, I'll tweak the query to include
that news. My wife has asked that I include surrounding towns, so I will. If I'm missing something or pulling in too much chaff,
let me know. In between, is information not carried on the cable channel or in the local news. I'll post
just about anything here. If I read something interesting in the minutes of a town meeting, I'll post a link in this area. If
someone sends me a birthday, event, or interesting story, I'll probably post it.
The right side is gossip -- stuff I've found on blogs or forums that I find interesting. I'll post a link to the complete
story after the piece I quote. Above the gossip is a search box. Use this to search the official site.
Hover Craft: One of my goals is to maximize the information delivered without cluttering the page. (Another goal is to keep this a single page.)
I am using a neat javascript to reveal additional information on an as needed basis. This script opens a window when you move your
mouse over an area that has supplemental details. Generally, this will be a link to something else and the supplemental data will be
the significant few details that people want to know most often -- when is the pharmacy open, what is the phone number, etc. For town
offices, I pop up contact information. For the community calendar, I pop up upcoming events.
Orphans: Some businesses are not yet on the web. For these, I'll link a scan of a flyer or menu as appropriate. If your business is represented
like this, and you DO have a web page or just don't want me to do this, let me know and I'll update or remove the link. If you're not on
the web and want to be, I can help with that too.
You Can Help: Send me links, letters, photos, menus, and videos. Let me know if you find mistakes. Submit ideas and critiques. I
have space for 300 hours of high quality video on this web site. If you video tape a concert, a baseball game, or a meeting,
I'll try to get it up on the web site. If you have cable, and can capture the meetings and/or bulletin board for me on video
tape, dvd, or vcd, that would be great.
Contact Information
Len Mullen
39 Justin Drive
Danville, NH 03819
(603) 382-4327
webmaster@danvilledelivery.com
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I ran into your site last weekend
"I ran into your site last weekend and thought it was just another offshoot of SpeakoutDanville.org. I should apologize, you must be insulted! Of course you can post a link and I'll change my Politically Correct Danville link to DanvilleDelivery right now. Now I know Danville is supposed to be the fastest growing town in Rockingham county, but three websites, that's fantastic."
Dennis Herrick Plaistow NH Town Crier
Another Danville Web Site
"Nothing original and no new information...just one person's [opinion]."
"I find the site very informative and I like the layout. "
"I think it is a good website...I particularly like seeing news articles relating to Danville...I look forward to seeing MORE MENUS!"
"At first glance...I didn't think I would be visiting that website very often if at all. Looking it over again today, I find that I like the setup and the easy access of news and other commentaries that I didn't see the first time around. Yes, I will be visiting DD often. Nice job, Len."
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Watch town meetings on your ipod! 