FENWICK ISLAND – Town officials say opportunities are now available to participate on committee and volunteer teams.
In a recent meeting of the Fenwick Island Town Council, Mayor Natalie Magdeburger announced applications were open for residents interested in serving on a town committee.
She said the forms are available on the town’s website and are due back by Sept. 15.
“If you are currently on a committee, please fill it out again so that we have an accurate recitation of who wants to do what,” she added. “Hopefully everybody will come back and participate on the committees they were serving. I think we are doing some good things, and I would like to see that continue.”
Magdeburger told the public this year’s committee application included some changes.
She pointed out that the form included a description of what each committee does and what its stated goals are. She said that addition was a result of the town’s comprehensive planning process.
“So for all of these committees, they can draw from the comprehensive plan and interact with that plan to sort of give them their mission for the year and their mission for three years and their mission for a 10-year period of time,” she said. “And we’re going to try to work that into the committees themselves.”
For example, some of the stated goals for the environmental committee include developing a new park and keeping the town informed on offshore wind developments. And on the infrastructure committee, members are tasked with overseeing street maintenance and resiliency planning.
“We’re trying to create a more protocol-driven council, a more protocol-driven committee and town,” she said, “and I think that will go a long way.”
Another new addition to the committee application, Magdeburger said, is a checkbox that will allow residents to volunteer for certain projects.
“There’s a box that’s new that says I can’t put the time in to serve on a committee but I’d love to be on the volunteer list if we have discrete projects,” she said. “I know one of the ideas coming out of one of the committees is to have a volunteer group of public works people that can come in and put sandbags up if we need to.”
Magdeburger said the town made it easy to participate on committees, as members could participate in person, online or over the phone. However, she encouraged those who couldn’t commit to a committee to sign up as a volunteer.
“If you can’t put that time in, please consider at least joining the volunteer list because we’d like to get as many people involved as we can,” she said.
