Hat tip to another anonymous source who adds their take on the events of last evening at the Porstmouth Town Council hearing on zoning:

The meeting went basically as stated in your blog. However, I do believe there are a few important additions. Bob Gilstein made a slide presentation followed by another presentation by Gary Crosby. Gary Crosby asked the Council if they wanted to hear his recommendation in regards to the cap and the Council President [Dennis Canario] responded that he would first like to give the public a chance to speak.

The first speakers were Larry Fitzmorris, President of the PCC, who favored the PUD and cap and Cathy Melvin who only spoke her opinion of the PUD and stated that she would later like to speak in regards to the cap. Then a gentleman named Stephan spoke in favor of the cap. Mark Katzman also spoke but only to say that he was supportive of what the "people" of Portsmouth want. These speakers were all well composed and a few received controlled applause from the audience.

The next speakers were Bill Clark, who addressed some concerns about the PUD and Richard Talipsky of the Economic Development Committee who was not in favor of the cap. Both of these speakers felt that the committees in place were more than capable of dealing with the issues at hand while the others felt that the decision should not lie with unelected officials. Comments during this portion of the meeting were supposed to strictly address the PUD and not the building cap. As you can see, there was an equal amount of folks that spoke from both sides of the fence, not just people in support of the cap.

Allen Shers got up to the podium next. He was talking about the fact that he had served on several Portsmouth committees and had attended every meeting regarding big box development and that none of these committees voted in favor of a cap. He then said that the only meeting he did not attend was the "charade." [I believe] he meant "charette." The goof made everyone laugh and served to lighten the mood as most folks saw the humor in it. I believe Mr. Shers may have mistook the laughter [o]r he may have been annoyed by it because he was attempting to plead his case. He began speaking loudly over the chuckling, still addressing the Council. He next stated that all property owners have rights and that he has paid taxes on his parcels for over 20 years. This is not an exact sequence of events, but it gives you a clearer picture. The crowd was generally calm and collected.

I do not believe that heckling is the correct term for what occurred. However, there were a couple of folks that rudely made comments under their breath (a few comments were loud enough to hear.) At one point shortly before Mr. Shers fell, Council President Canario asked the crowd to keep their comments to themselves. Mr. Shers continued to speak and then clutched his chest and fell to the floor to the side of the podium.

I think most folks would agree that heckling is a strong word for what actually occurred. This has been a long road and a time of high anxiety for many [people]. I do not agree with how a select few behaved last night. While most of the room sat quietly, those few did make comments under their breath or just loud enough so that mumbles were heard. We all come with different opinions to these meetings but we should all get the opportunity to speak our mind. Whenever a person has something to lose, emotions run high. It is human nature. The truth is that EVERY person there last night was passionate about their beliefs — whether they were for OR against the cap.

On a good note — I believe that every person who was present when Mr. Shers became ill put their opinions away and focused their efforts on the greater good — doing everything possible to get Mr. Shers through it. Whether it was to call rescue, sit with him, or just say a prayer.

Thanks, anonymous reader!

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