Search Vermont City & Town Meeting Minutes At Public Post

We just introduced a new feature that allows anyone to search Vermont city and town government meeting minutes. Check it out here at VPR's Public Post.

Public Post is a service from VPR that brings together local reporting from VPR News with government meeting minutes from Vermont cities and towns. Since the project launched last fall, we've added almost 70 Vermont towns. For each of these towns, anyone can find the latest town meeting minutes, review them, post their own comments, find information and story ideas in the minutes, and share it with VPR and the entire community.

Now, anyone - VPR staff, reporters, bloggers, citizens - can search across all the minutes. Are you wondering which towns are talking about snow removal? Are you a reporter writing a story about wastewater? Are you a resident wondering what other towns are doing about sidewalks, traffic, or playgrounds? Are you wondering how Vermont city and town governments are grappling with issues from Tropical Storm Irene? Search Public Post.

If you find something interesting in the minutiae, post it right on the site and share it with everyone who visits the site, or email it to VPR as a news tip or story idea to be produced for a broader audience.

In the coming weeks and months we will continue to add new towns and new features to Public Post, all to serve the mission of discovering what's going on and what's important in cities and towns across Vermont. We'd love your feedback and participation.

Check out Public Post today: search, browse, and share what you find.

(Reposted from the VPR News Blog, originally posted 2/13/12)

Public Post: Issues That Matter In Your Community

More than a month after many Vermont communities were torn apart by Tropical Storm Irene, a natural disaster that demonstrated the need for quality, local journalism, VPR is upgrading its new online service Public Post.

This service provides a new way to glean the inner workings of a city or town with online access to government minutes. Since Public Post launched in August, VPR’s reporting from those primary sources has unearthed a number of stories – from the dredging of a river in Middlebury to efforts in Richmond and other communities to expedite building permitting.

VPR’s Public Post presents digital versions of the latest minutes from more than 50 cities and towns, displaying them across the top of the page. While the new website surfaces those stories from the minutes, it also gives nearly equal weight to what we’re calling “Your Reports,” listener comments and announcements.

Browse the minutes, read and listen to our stories on Public Post, and join the discussion: Engage with the broader Vermont community at vpr.net/publicpost, or message us on Facebook or Twitter. Want to post the records from your council and select board? Send us an email at PublicPost@vpr.net.

Vermont Public Radio is committed to the local government beat, and we hope this new version of Public Post reflects that pledge. We hope you will participate in Public Post online or simply by reading and listening. Thank you for your civic engagement, unbridled enthusiasm and continued support.

Kirk Carapezza
Online Editor/Reporter