Letters to the Editor

River Festival a family-friendly effort

To the Editor:
    The volunteers, sponsors, and participants who made Guilford’s recent River Festival celebration a reality deserve congratulations and appreciation for an event that represents community effort at its finest. It was an honor to participate — not to mention it was also a whole lot of fun.

    One important characteristic of this annual event is the family focus. The organizers make the event affordable and the number of free activities and items for kids make for a happy day for all.
    There are almost too many to list, but a sample would include the water slide and fire department’s “sprinkler.” There were things like free face painting, balloons, water, snow cones — many provided by vendors. And, of course, the fun day was capped by a fireworks display.
    We often tend to measure summer events by their “economic benefit,” but I leave that calculation to others.
    River Festival provides a community benefit that’s best measured by the number of friends and neighbors you see that day and the smiles on the faces of the kids. You might even make some new friends. I met a young girl from South Carolina who announced she was “freezing to death” and probably wouldn’t be going on the water slide even though it looked like fun. She seemed quite sure there were plenty of other things she could do that would be warmer.
    If you missed it, mark your calendar for next year. If you want to build community spirit and put smiles on the faces of many, consider becoming a volunteer. You won’t regret it.

Walter Boomsma
Abbot

Let the judicial system do its work in Sangerville

To the Editor:
    In last week’s Observer various allegations were made about how Sangerville conducted its 2014 Town Meeting election for Selectman. A claim was made, that the vote was a plurality and not a majority, which would invalidate the election. There were charges of voter intimidation, and accusations that the Sangerville Select Board “is willing to pay to get the candidate they want in office.” And finally, there was a suggestion that the Town should pay for Mr. Irving McNaughton’s legal bills because “people won’t want to run for town office if they can’t be sure that the election is fair.”
    Having first-hand knowledge of the contents of the complaint against my wife, I know there are six people accused of ballot tampering, intimidation, and improperly handling the election. At the time of the Town Meeting, Mr. McNaughton was in Florida, where he had been all winter. The “facts” that he alleges in his complaint are merely hearsay to him. Mr. McNaughton has no direct knowledge of anything that happened that day. My wife’s only transgression was that she ran for office. The real victims here are the six people who were unfairly maligned by Irving McNaughton in his suit — our conscientious Town Clerk, and the honest, civic minded individuals who agreed to count votes, serve as election clerks, and moderate our Town Meeting.
    At the Town Meeting the issue of plurality was discussed, and the election clerk explained that the pink slips did not count toward the total number of votes because they were never counted. Robert’s Rules does not discuss “spoiled ballots,” which is what the pink slips were.
    State election law takes precedence over Robert’s Rules. The people who used the pink slips got a fresh white slip and voted again. If you make a mistake on your ballot, according to State law, you get a “do-over.” And it couldn’t be more obvious which ballots were “spoiled” — they were pink!
    The Sangerville Select Board has no legal power to either undo the election or call another election. The legal opinion stating that fact from the municipal lawyers at Maine Municipal Association, who are well respected and in good standing with the Maine Bar, was printed in this paper.
    The lawyers at MMA stated that my wife is the legal winner and is fully vested in her position, so to sue her for her position is to sue a seated Selectman. The Sangerville Select Board, when they are acting as a municipal board, has been advised by legal counsel not to make any public statements about the case.
    The accusation that my wife, “spoke strongly to the issue,” and potentially “intimidated” the other two Selectmen when they voted to pay her legal fees is just plain wrong.
    A local videographer digitally recorded that meeting, and while my wife did sit with the Board, she did not speak. Also, the Town Manager recorded the meeting with a digital voice recorder. Again, more proof that she did not speak.
    As for my wife resigning and “allowing” another election, that is out of the question. When a person runs for office they agree that, if elected, they will serve. My wife feels she has a responsibility to the people who voted for her at Town Meeting to stand up and represent them to the best of her ability. And to allow the accusations against the clerks, ballot counters and moderator to go unanswered is unthinkable. Who will run for Selectman in Sangerville, if they know that some unscrupulous individual just needs to claim that they “saw something,” and the election can be overturned and the winner can be dragged into court? Who will count ballots or serve the town as election clerks when you can be named in a lawsuit afterwards?
    It will be interesting to see who is willing to stand up in court under oath and point out the ballot counter who pulled a ballot from the box. I have it on good authority that we in Sangerville will be paying for a moderator in the future.
    The only “Big Mess” we have in Sangerville right now is people practicing law without a license.
    The rumor mill has been running overtime since Town Meeting. The charges of criminal acts, and allegations of dirty politics have reached new lows — even for Sangerville.
    The only way that this will ever be resolved is to allow the judicial system to do its work. Then maybe we can get some peace in Sangerville.

Brent Randall
Sangerville

Last beachhead is insurmountable

To the Editor:
    We have all watched with awe the old war footage of our great American heroes. Our hearts have broken, yet swelled again with pride, at the courage displayed by our veterans, who charged beachheads straight into withering gunfire, forging through jungles with an enemy lurking behind every frond and tree, surviving the stifling desert heat in the midst of great tank battles, and sloughing through rain and mud to liberate millions around the world.
    What has made our military the greatest in the world is the ability of its soldiers to adapt in the field of war to every obstacle, terrain, and tactic the enemy presents, then overcome and move on to victory.
    These stories are the legacy of our greatest generation, such as the taking of metal barricades off the beaches of Normandy and welding them to the front of tanks to plow through the giant hedges of France or the Red Ball Express, which became the lifeline to our troops who were pushing into Germany. Soldiers from sleepy Midwest towns, who probably never dreamed of a jungle, found themselves deep inside the jungle islands of the South Pacific. No matter the situation, these brave men and women found a way to adapt, survive, and win.
    Oftentimes, when fighting on foreign soil in a terrain familiar only to their enemy, the challenge was compounded by the miscalculations of their commanding officers. Yet, they did not quit. They never gave up. They found a way to win. There was no challenge, no beachhead, no cliff, and no bulwark that they could not scale and defeat.
    The great pride in which we speak of their feats of courage is now shadowed by the grief and knowledge that these veterans of indomitable fortitude have met an obstacle they cannot overcome, a beachhead insurmountable. This wall impenetrable is the very government they fought to defend. This jungle of deafening silence is the very administration that was formed to provide for their quality of life; the Veterans Administration.
    The ranking Democrat on the VA is Mike Michaud. Yes, the Mike Michaud that wants to be governor of this great State. He somehow wants us to ignore the deaths of these stalwart veterans, who have died in waiting rooms waiting for a doctor. This happened on his watch. He did nothing.
    Mike Michaud expects us to accept his weak explanation of the incompetence of his leadership in the VA and then hand him the reins to our state, which is just beginning to show signs of economic recovery, due to the strong leadership of Governor LePage. A man voted the most obscure politician in the United States, whose mute leadership in the one bureaucracy to which he was given authority resulting in the deaths and mistreatment of so many of our country’s finest, is flaunting his negligence in the face of the Maine people, demanding that we somehow turn a blind eye. This is at best preposterous and at worst reprehensible.
    These men and women that we revere sacrificed and overcame so much under such duress only to come home and face that beachhead insurmountable, a bureaucracy under Mike Michaud’s leadership, that no amount of adaptability, bravery, and tenacity could overcome. They gave so much to defend our freedom that we enjoy.
    I think it’s time we defend our veterans and utilize that freedom by voting against Mike Michaud.
    Let’s make him keenly aware that you can’t treat our veterans in such a deplorable manner and hope to get away with it. Maine needs a strong, principled leader. Maine needs Paul LePage!

Andy Torbett
Atkinson