Local Letters to the Editor
Clarifying some
misconceptions
To the Editor:
The informational session on Sept. 4, regarding the upcoming Rights Based Ordinance for the town of Sangerville, was attended by many interested citizens who held a lively conversation about the ordinance. I am writing to clarify some misconceptions held by some which may be shared by others who were not in attendance.
1. The ordinance specifically is written to prohibit the development only of a “transportation and distribution corridor.” It will have no effect on mineral extraction, water extraction, windmills, or sludge dumping.
2. Because of concerns about whether residents or small businesses would be adversely impacted under the ordinance if they wanted to extend an access road and place power lines, the Board of Selectmen intends to offer an amended ordinance at the town meeting where the vote will be held specifically excluding from the ordinance such local development such as driveways which would be for the benefit of local citizens and companies.
3. The ordinance is primarily founded on the principle that the people of Sangerville possess the right to self-government and to decide how their town is developed. This is the essence of a “Rights Based Ordinance” and is supported by the Maine State Constitution “Bill of Rights” Article 1, section 2. As such it is likely to be more defensible than appeal through a regulatory body such as the DEP or EPA.
4. CELDF was invited to the town by local citizens to assist with development of the ordinance because of their experience in writing successful ordinances. They did not approach us.
5. In the unlikely event of a legal action brought against the town as a result of this ordinance, CELDF will assist Maine lawyers in the defense of the ordinance at no charge. It should be noted that the very few communities being sued for their attempts to regulate or prohibit gas drilling and fracking are the ones that adopted non-rights-based ordinances against the advice of CELDF.
C. Diane Boretos
Sangerville
September
is Hunger Action Month
To the Editor:
September is Hunger Action Month. This means summer is ending, the fall season is beginning and holidays are coming upon us faster than we may be prepared for. For many Mainers, this is a difficult time of year, particularly where food is concerned. Regrettably, too many households have to skip meals, or take other steps to eat less because they don’t have enough money for food. Unfortunately, Maine has the third highest rate of hunger in the nation.
As an AmeriCorps VISTA member in partnership with AARP Foundation and AARP Maine, I have seen first-hand the impact hunger has on the people in this state. SNAP, otherwise known as the Food Supplement Program, is one of the country’s most effective tools to address hunger and poverty. In 2011, SNAP kept 4.7 million people out of poverty, including 2.1 million children. In Maine, every SNAP dollar that is spent brings $1.79 into the local community, which helps support local farmers and grocers. In 2012, over $376 million dollars came in to our state as a result of this critical nutrition assistance.
SNAP is an excellent resource for low-income families who struggle to put food on the table. If you think you know someone who might be eligible, go to www.maine.gov/mymaineconnection or call 1-800-442-6003 to connect to your local DHHS office. Together, we can make a difference in Maine and help leave hunger in the dust.
Brooke Libby
SNAP outreach coordinator
Portland
Central Hall update
To the Editor:
If you’ve driven by Central Hall in the past few days you may have noticed that we have begun work on the addition on the west side of the building. The extra 12 feet along the side of the building will provide emergency exits, and elevator and kitchens for both the hall upstairs and for the planned adult day service center downstairs. We plan to have the addition framed and enclosed before winter sets in.
This represents an important milestone in the project. We would be happy to discuss further at any time.
Chris Maas
Dover-Foxcroft
It’s hard work
To the Editor:
It is hard work. Thinking for yourself. That is why so few people do any of it these days. Too many people are just as happy to let a few do it for them. Until that thinking gets all of us into some deep trouble. Then you’ll hear people speaking up. “What happened?” “How can this be?” And the most common phrase: “No one told me this was going to happen.”
Tonight you get to think for yourself. You might even vote for what you are thinking. Just don’t let those few who think they are thinking for you know that you’ve woken up! Get to the Sangerville fire house and participate in some hometown democracy. That Community Bill of Rights Ordinance is up for a vote tonight during a special town meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m.
This proposed ordinance has many people discussing it. It is rather vague, clearly unenforceable and it proposes to ultimately rewrite state and federal constitutions. It loudly declares our community as a newly established “self-governing” municipality. One in which we will not recognize quite a few state and federal laws. Residents will still be allowed to sell their land, just not to anyone who might want to do certain things on it. And best of all it will begin enforcing this ordinance immediately upon adoption by the vote tonight. Did they also explain to you that “they” will go back and rewrite the present town ordinances and regulations and policies so that they will be in compliance with this new ordinance? Oh, and no grandfathering clauses either.
Here are two examples of how CELDF, from Pennsylvania, is “thinking” for the minority group in town. In a video capturing the CELDF community organizers “teaching” one Maine town’s citizenry how they can “do it” they suggested the following regarding the “hauling of toxic materials” through their region. They said to make it illegal to truck fuel oil or LP gas in tanker trucks. Allow home delivery trucking but not the eighteen-wheelers to pass through. Now you can call me crazy (thinking for myself) but if enough of us “self-governing towns” with these ordinances were to implement such a plan how would we handle the increased cost of the product being shipped? Not to mention how will neighboring towns appreciate us potentially cutting off their supplies or adding to their costs? The other “thinking” CELDF and our local ordinance group has done is insert into the proposed ordinance a clause which grants nature, rights. Essentially giving nature “legal standing” and any citizen wishing to step in and stand up for any abuses towards the environment within our community the right to do so. As the organizer explained it this means even a resident that does not own the land and is not an abutter to the land being abused “could” bring legal action before a judge … standing up for nature.
I know, it’s hard, but what do you think? These are but a few of the issues surrounding this ordinance proposal. There are far too many to address in one letter. This proposal has been thrown at us in an unrefined manner and deserves much more discussion before any final acceptable solution can be found. I urge all of you registered voters in Sangerville to get out tonight. Think for yourselves and vote.
Irving McNaughton
Sangerville
The other highway
To the Editor:
If you are a Sangerville resident then you must be aware of the Special Town Meeting tonight in which we, the residents, will be asked to cast our vote for or against a proposed Rights-Based Community Bill of Rights Ordinance.
For some of us attending the select board meetings and public hearings leading up to tonight’s vote it has been an education. Watching small town democracy play out has been painful at times. And at times it has been refreshing to participate in such a process. The down side in all of this has been the fact that so few of us have been involved in developing and shaping this proposed ordinance.
The pro-ordinance group would argue that I had my chance to join them and contribute to the writing of the ordinance. They would also argue that not joining them is an indication that I’m the “enemy,” With their mindset that it’s “their way or the highway for the rest of us” is it any wonder that alternative views, suggestions and strategies are glaringly absent from the warrant tonight?
The point here is that democracy is supposed to provide for all a voice in how our society is to be organized and allowed to prosper; for individuals, families, small groups and still larger groups. They must all be able to interact within some social context that works for the majority.
As I said above, it isn’t always pretty but for the most part it does work. It works best when many have lent their voices to provide a final solution and not relying on just the few who choose for the rest of us. This is why I, for one, would feel a great deal better if the outcome in tonight’s vote was determined not by a few who show up but by the majority of the entire town’s registered voters. After all, it really is a vote about an ordinance that defines a political highway the entire town will be traveling down for some time to come. Get out and vote.
Regan McPhetres
Sangerville
Guilford golf event helped Jimmy Fund
To the Editor:
Jimmy Fund Golf extends its sincerest thanks to the organizers and sponsors of the Bobbie Jo’s Friends Playing for Her Only Wishes held on Aug. 10 at Piscataquis County Club in Guilford. Special recognition and appreciation goes to Timothy Richardson of Sangerville and the committee who organized the sixth annual event.
The dedicated sponsors, participants, and volunteers helped raise critical funds to support life-saving research and care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The Bobbie Jo’s Friends Playing for Her Only Wishes is one of the many golf tournaments that will be held in 2013 to raise funds for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber.
Jimmy Fund Golf is the oldest and largest charity golf program in the country. Now in its 31st year, Jimmy Fund Golf has raised more than $91 million to support adult and pediatric cancer care and research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. From traditional golf tournaments and country club member events to mini golf tournaments and day-long golf marathons, golfers of all ages and skill levels can conquer cancer through Jimmy Fund Golf. www.jimmyfundgolf.org or call (866) 521-4653.
Nancy Rowe, director
Jimmy Fund Golf
Not a Raye of hope
for Kevin
To the Editor:
Our nation is a democracy, which is a representative form of government. Acknowledging that there are differences in belief systems from region to region, we have divided our states and counties up into districts to try and help elect a representative, who bests represents the needs and desires of that area. Although flawed in some respects, that is the general idea.
So, one would think that a candidate running for election in a selected district would try to best show himself a good representation of that district. Not so, for one career politician, who is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Congressional District Two. This man seems to be confusing who is representing whom?
Kevin Raye recently announced his candidacy, again, for Congress in CD 2. This will be his third attempt. In the last Republican primary for CD 2, Raye was only able to muster 51 percent of the vote against a no-name, first-time candidate. Moreover, 13 percent decided neither candidate was worth voting for, stayed home and didn’t vote. In only three counties, other than his own, was the former Senator able to garner more than 50 percent of the primary vote. Not a good omen for a candidate who claimed he could win the general election.
In the general election, Raye fared worse in his second attempt than he did in his first, losing by a larger margin. It seems name recognition did not work to the benefit of the State Senator from Washington County the second time around. The more they saw of him, the less they liked him. Kevin Raye lost every single county other than his own in the general election. Yes, even the historical Republican bastion of Piscataquis County chose perennial wallflower Mike Michaud as a stronger candidate over Kevin Raye. Many officials refused to carry Raye’s signs in parades fearing the backlash they would receive from the decidedly conservative crowds in the Second Congressional District.
Which brings up another interesting point. The Rayes have been very public about their support and promotion of Emily’s List and The Wish List; two organizations that zealously promote abortion and candidates that follow this mantra. Yet, Kevin Raye feels that somehow an overwhelmingly Pro-Life 2nd District should set aside their belief system and allow him to represent them. Who is representing whom? And this represents the 2nd District in what way? These are just few reasons why there is such tough sledding for Raye outside of Washington County.
Kevin Raye has done everything he can do to disenfranchise the voters of the CD 2. His one major political accomplishment outside of his county is to be the first Republican to lose an election in Piscataquis County, the Red County, in a very long time. It is easy to see, after a look at all the facts, that there is not a Raye of hope that this candidate represents the interests of our district.
Andy Torbett
Atkinson
Be a good ancestor
To the Editor:
The good news about the threats of the East-West Corridor is that several towns are talking about the fundamental question of community rights, or lack thereof, as they consider a rights-based ordinance (RBO) for their town on the corridor question.
State and federal laws give corporations the rights of “personhood.” For this reason regulatory approaches to preventing unwanted development such as a corridor have repeatedly been challenged in court and have failed to protect towns. Therefore, the citizens of the town of Sangerville and other surrounding towns have taken the avenue of writing an ordinance based on the civil rights of citizens of Maine.
The single question the local rights-based ordinance discussion frames is this: Who has more right to choose what is right for our towns on the question of a corridor – the people who live there, or the corporations whose decisions with regard to a corridor will be made elsewhere in the world. By adopting the RBO, the town has made a stand for its own civil authority on the corridor issue. Town meeting votes have made it clear what the people wish.
CELDF, the public interest law group, was invited to share their RBO specialty by people in Sangerville who were concerned about the threat of a high impact corridor potentially running through their community. Empowered by the state constitution to speak up for themselves, they needed a document (RBO) that would speak to their choice to not live with a corridor the width of 2-5 football fields with pavement, transmission lines, pipelines, etc., that would damage the quiet natural beauty and the small scale businesses of Sangerville forever.
Will we be sued? It seems that anybody can sue anybody under any circumstance (including the best land use ordinance), but it’s not a given just because a community adopts a bill of rights. There are many, many examples of corporations stopping a harmful project because the people successfully ran an RBO. The RBOs hold their ground because the local RBO documents are well devised. The legitimacy of our civil rights in the places where we live would be a tough concept to prosecute by a corporation. And, what corporation would want to be the one whose lawsuit against the people essentially switched on the collective memory as to who originally were meant to hold the power of democracy in this country. The old idea that all power is with the people is one we’ve snoozed on in recent decades, and with the RBO, it’s new again.
The local rights-based ordinances about the corridor threat have enjoyed pro bono legal support from the CELDF, and will continue to be supported pro bono. As civil rights cases, if contested, they are considerably shorter in duration and cost than regulatory challenges. Doing nothing at all to stop the highway/utility corridor is the choice of greatest consequence: Unfathomable loss of our priceless quality of place, loss of property values and tax base, loss of small businesses, loss of tourism, loss of our opportunity to assert self-governance for our own well being, and so on.
Of these options, the most cost effective one also inspires the greatest possibilities, such as, democracy really working as advertised. The RBO elevates The People to their original rights, what they thought were fully at work already, but know at a deeper level are not. Like the women of the early 1900’s who fought for their right to vote, our local communities now must do what it takes to assure the community’s rights in the future. Be a good ancestor. Stand with your community’s rights-based ordinance to say “no” to a highway-utility corridor.
Leigh Wiley
Sangerville