Community Empowerment and Access Top Accomplishments and Driving Principals

NEWTON, NJ – The Town of Newton continues to act on empowering community members by promoting and expanding upon current outreach efforts to boost public involvement, create a more favorable public interest experience, and increase access to town information.

Newton has remained steadfastly focused on refining communication efforts to advocate and energize public participation and heighten the town’s visibility despite the significant impact of COVID-19. Front-and-center to this multi-year endeavor has been a redesigned, upgraded town annual report.

The revamped annual report provides residents, businesses, and other stakeholders a more reader-friendly format and professional presentation of Newton’s major accomplishments and initiatives. The report’s improved quality attracts and hold readers’ attention and helps readers notice what information is available and important. Additionally, the upgraded glossy design makes it easy for readers to skim and find topics of personal or professional interest.

This measure is just one of a variety of upgrades made under the leadership of the Town Councilmembers Matthew Dickson, Sandra Lee Diglio and then-Councilmember Helen LeFrois with a vision toward expanded public access to government while effectively marketing and branding the town to attract more business ratables to the town.

The Town’s modernized website allows residents and business leaders to remotely access all Council and Planning Board meetings and interact with town staff in real time through live stream video conferencing capabilities. Budget meetings also are live streamed, for the public’s convenience, with all agendas and minutes easily available on the Town’s website. This hybrid feature and other convenient links are popular among residents and visitors looking to keep current with town matters around their own schedule.

Newton’s social media channels has taken on additional roles beyond keeping residents, businesses, and visitors engaged about town happenings, events, and COVID-related alerts. The social media team currently plays an active role in supporting business revitalization efforts and soliciting stakeholder feedback for a wide array of local commerce and residential initiatives. Social media team members actively support Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, directly interacting with the public on numerous town matters. The team also highlights local businesses and actively recruits public participation for town committees. This forward-thinking approach to two-way social media communications is unique considering that most municipal social media programs provide only one-way communication and are not as engaged on Instagram or TikTok particularly.

Local stakeholders can also stay in-the-know about town happenings through the Town Manager’s regular blogs and Tom Talk newsletters which contain detailed information about the town’s week-in-review, local events, meetings, and other components of town business. In addition, the informative bi-annual newsletter, self-financed through advertising sales, has been recently remodeled to be more reader-friendly and visibly appealing.

There is a commonality and cohesiveness among the graphic and display elements for all communication channels and efforts — website, social media, blog, signs, and newsletters – to maintain brand trust among local and regional stakeholders and in the interest of impactful and effective marketing.

In tandem to communication and public engagement, Council members remain constantly connected with every board, authority, and commission, along with the Board of Education, through regular interaction and coordination to identifying departmental needs. This is an open-ended, evolving exercise that produces great opportunities to branch out existing services to serve additional constituencies otherwise not directly served. One example of this is the recent collaboration among Town Councilmembers and the School Board to include high school student representation on the Town’s Economic Development Advisory and Recreation commissions. The student representation will provide the town with added and valuable perspective on town business and operations from the next generation of Newton leaders.

Newton’s commitment to public inclusion is a continuous and on-going initiative to increase the visibility and empowerment of its residents, businesses, and visitors to stay involved. For more information, visit the Town’s website at newtontownhall.com.

ABOUT NEWTON FIRST: Sandra Lee Diglio, Matthew Dickson, and Helen Le Frois are running on the “Newton First” team for Newton Town Council. The “Newton First” slate offers residents community-focused professionals with more than 50 years’ experience in various volunteer, professional and municipal positions. Diglio, Dickson, and Le Frois are the most accomplished leaders in planning, management, and decision-making to ensure continued results that will improve the quality-of-life in Newton.

Residents can follow the “Newton First” team on:
Facebook @Diglio Dickson & LeFrois for Newton Town Council
Instagram @diglio_dickson_and_lefrois
Website //newtonfirst2022wixsite.com/my-site
Email: newtonfirst2022@gmail.com