Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan's pen pal program

Those who think letter writing is a lost art should talk to Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan.

Letters, waxing poetically about all that Fall River has to offer, have seemingly become a key strategy in Flanagan?s economic development attempts, recruiting everything from giants in the computer world to a soccer team. Just take a look at the list of those to receive a Flanagan pen pal correspondence: Google, Amazon, New England Patriots and Revolution owner Robert Kraft, Hess and recently Market Basket. While it wasn?t released to the public, Flanagan said Tuesday his campaign has grown to include the Wegman?s supermarket chain in an attempt to find a new tenant for the former South End Shaw?s market.

It?s an impressive list for sure, but no one is writing back. Is Google, Amazon or the New England Revolution coming? Is the Hess property along the Taunton River any closer to redevelopment? I?ll give the Market Basket/Wegman?s attempts a pass at this time as the effort is still relatively new, though Flanagan said he has not had a response to the Market Basket inquiry.

Flanagan also noted the Demoulas family, owners of the Market Basket chain, are embroiled in an inter-family fight over the business, which may take away from expansion talks.

Flanagan said the letter writing campaign is meant to ?pique their interest,? while putting Fall River on the radar screen of these various companies. He expressed hope that these companies would have Google alerts that would notify them if the media picked up the story and referenced the company being named. He said the letters are followed up with phone calls.

But does the strategy work or is it really just for show?

Letters can easily be attached to an email and then sent en masse to the various media outlets, including The Herald News, covering Fall River. An audio file of a phone call that ends with a secretary taking down Flanagan?s name and number, however, isn?t going to lead to much hope or make it look as though Flanagan has much pull.

But while Flanagan has so far swung and missed with his letter writing attempts, don?t expect him to stop.

?You know you keep swinging and trying and hopefully it pays off,? Flanagan said.

ARE FLANAGAN?S LETTER WRITING EFFORTS WORTHWHILE? WHAT OTHER EFFORTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE FLANAGAN MAKE TO DRIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT? ?

Email Will Richmond at wrichmond@heraldnews.com

Source: http://www.heraldnews.com/newsnow/x90932646/Fall-River-Mayor-Will-Flanagans-pen-pal-program?rssfeed=true

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