Al Chione is right on the money. An example of the
PR effort that Al mentions, would be as follows:
1. One might assume that indications early on would have shown some level of controversy among
Creede residents concerning the railroad. At that
point, a smart manager would have thought.."I know
that I must have community support to make this
project go. I will muster my volunteers to take
a petition to the registered votes of Creede to
gauge my support. 2. When I have gathered the info
on public attitudes in Creede I will summarize the
information." If there are 600 voters in Creede and
500 support the project, I will know that I have the community behind me. 3. If the support is really there,(as Mr. Cutter
suggests) I will use this information when the Valley Courier shows up
to prove community support. Having had this info
can turn the tide of public and press opinion and be a key
factor in getting the newspapers on your side.This
is just common sense....not rocket science. Stop
removing rocks from the right-of-way, and start
to get hard evidence of community support. Starting a petition drive may not be a fun as playing trains, but it IS good PR
management..which seems to be in short supply down
there. They key question seems to be: Does
Shank & Co. have local community support for the project. You need to have that question answered.
If you can't prove the community is behind you, it
will appear that an outside developer is trying to
steam-roll the locals, and public support will side with the residents of Creede. One wonders why
Shank & Co. didn't see this approaching headlight
down the track, earlier on...thus avoiding being
run over by press accounts raising questions about the locals being 'with ya, er again ya'.
