You don't know what you've got til it's gone.

Earlier today while casting about for information on the town property where Seacoast United seeks to build its supermarket sized indoor soccer palace in an area not zoned for it, I came across this little tidbit (Word 2010 doc, PDF here) relating to the administration of the land abutting its proposed fiefdom: Hedgehog Mountain. The document is entitled "Hedgehog Hill Mountain Area Trails Maintenence and Management Plan". It was presented to the Conservation Commission at its November 15th meeting. It bears no date, and its authorship is unacknowledged, so its recommendations' source is impossible to determine. Commission members say it was presented by the Town planner, who has a vision apparently not entirely at all in accord with the Conservation Commission, whose remit by ordinance it is to act as custodian of this property on behalf of the town. Here is their plan, as adopted in 2004 (Word 2003 doc, PDF here). The former document would presumably replace the current one in force as the guiding plan for Hedgehog in the future. Some excerpts:

"The acquisition of the Hunter Rd property and the development of the athletic fields in 2011 creates a new opportunity to expand the existing trails to include this new property.  A small group of residents and trail enthusiast[s] that are very familiar with the property have developed a plan to maintain and upgrade some trails and to build new trails. 

So a "small group's" privately developed plan trumps that of the body charged by ordinance with developing such a plan with public input. For property acquired by the town through public bond issues for the expressed purpose of quiet enjoyment of open spaces by its users. Right. The small group's not through yet.

"The trails are currently managed and maintain by the volunteers of the Conservation Commission.The Conservation Commission is also responsible for managing and maintaining all of the other trails and woods owned by the Town.  Given the size and number of trails on this property, it is recommended that the responsibility of the land and trails on these properties not be that of the Conservation Commission.  This would require an amendment to the Conservation Commission Ordinance.

Instead a new committee such as the “Friends of Hedgehog Mountain Area” (FOHMA) be formed.[sic]  This group should be part of or at least very closely associated with any group that is formed to oversee the management and maintenance of the athletic fields on Hunter Road. The responsibilities and budget for that group are recommended to be the following:" [snip]

Read the whole thing to see what a new committee (presumably made up of the aforementioned "small group") has in mind.

This unsigned presentation on behalf of unidentified and non-public actors staging a power grab against a duly appointed Town commission established by ordinance is disturbing, to say the least. It seems some in town disagree with the Conservation Commission's understanding of the trust it is charged with. Fine. Let them present their views to the Commission for its consideration. It's rather unseemly to suggest that the right way forward if the Commission disagrees with one special group's outlook is to remove from the Commission's charge the care of the lands it was created to preserve for all of the Town's residents, regardless of that group's self-declared familiarity with the property. What's next? "Friends of Florida Lake"? "Pals of Wolfe Neck"? "Supporters of Sandy Beach"?  We need a Town Government that balances interests and builds consensus. Not one that throws out processes and ordinances because they don't accomodate the shiniest new toy on display.

Rumor has it this may be on the Council's December 6th agenda. If you can find a moment to speak out in favor of quiet enjoyment of our public spaces, come on down and tell the Council to let the Conservation Commission conserve our public lands.

A thought

You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy does not reserve a plot for weeds.
-Dag Hammarskjöld

Grateful

To live in a beautiful small town surrounded by helpful and friendly neighbors.
To have the spirit to stay involved in my community
To have work that suits my passions
To have the chance to correct my faults
For life
For friends
For small joys
For sorrows
For family
Thanks.

Act

Stand up.

Whereas lynching in an American tragedy and a crime of racial and ethnic hatred, and
Whereas treating images of lynching as a subject of humor invites its trivialization, and
Whereas the trivialization of violence inspired by hatred invites its perpetration, and
Whereas the author of The Crows Nest has seen fit to include hateful ethnic slurs, slanderous accusations, and depictions of racially motivated killing in his recent "parody" of Freeport Politics,
Be it therefore resolved that the Freeport Town Council deplores, in the strongest possible terms, the promulgation of publications making light of murder, attacking individual Freeport citizens and Town employees with threats and ethnic slurs.
Be it further resolved that the Town Council views collaboration in the conception, design, or production of such materials as detrimental to the public interest.
Be it ordered that all Town officers and staff ensure this publication or any other such publication is not distributed on Town property.

Pass it.

Lynching is not a joke.

Please let the town know. Who thinks it's funny? Who thinks it's OK to distribute pictures of the same at Town Hall? Tell them to stop letting Town Hall be a distribution point for hatred. [edit] I will not post a copy of "The Crows Nest". It is too vile. Why are copies of a  lynch mob picture and slanderous accusations against citizens and Town employees available in the Town Hall lobby?

E-mail all Town Councilors and the Manager

Sweet little lies

Stenographer Amy Anderson of the Falmouth Forecaster dutifully copies:

Edgar Leighton, a member of the first Town Council, said the new council members will not create a major shift in the direction the town takes, but the composition of four women will change the dynamic. He also said the council may now have more productive conversations. "It's my understanding that there were a lot of 5-2 votes and while that gets the job done, it's my sense that one of things that will change is that the meetings will move a little smoother," Leighton said. "There is always room for disagreement and there is nothing wrong with that, but when it is constant, that is not good."

On the 2010-2011 Council, there were exactly two 5-2 votes where Joe Migliaccio and Eric Pandora voted the same way in the minority. The first was on November 9, 2010, when both voted against Jim Cassida as Council Chair, the second on January 25, 2011, when both voted against an unenforceable and constitutionally suspect e-mail policy for the Town Council. If two out of 78 is "constant", I am Marie of Roumania. If the Forcaster and Mr. Leighton care to gain a deeper understanding of truth as opposed to hearsay, I've compiled the votes for them here. But sweet little lies are the comforting stories we like to tell ourselves, right?

Haters

Some civic minded individual is distributing pictures of lynchings and the klan as "parody". Doesn't tickle my funnybone much. How about you?

They write back

On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 7:51 AM, Jim Cassida wrote:

There are no minutes of the gathering.  The sole purpose was to pass out the council committee assignment and goal sheets and council contact form which I had forgotten to do before we closed the meeting.  I explained to everyone what the materials were and when they needed to be returned to Sara & I.  No agenda items were discussed, I simply explained the process for the new folks and handed out the materials.

James Cassida

---

Good morning, Jim-
Thank you for your prompt response to my request for information regarding the unannounced public meeting.
Steph (emphasis mine)

I write letters

Hello Jim and Sara-

Congratulations on your election to serve as Chair and Vice Chair of the Freeport Town Council for the coming year. I wish you all the best.

I hope the minutes of the impromptu meeting that Chairman Cassida called of the newly convened Town Council following the chips and dips this evening will be made available on the Town website. As I was leaving, I heard some discussion amongst yourselves and the Town Manager of possible agenda items for your next session. I believe it might be helpful for the public to be informed as to the nature of the discussion, as is required by statute. If there are no officially written minutes, perhaps you would be kind enough to divulge the nature of the conversation.

Respectfully,
Steph

Oz

Following on the last post, the rest of Freeport's business community's contribution to town revenues, if we accept FEDC's 30 percent figure, is $647,299, or 6.7% of the total. Town spending on promotion of that sector through contributions to FEDC, the Chamber of Commerce, and Freeport USA, which are all private corporations, was $115,000, or a little less than an 18% return on that investment tax rebate. Now that's smart business, for those on the inside. Whether it's smart for the rest of the taxpayers is another question.

A company town

When discussing the contribution of the business sector to the economy of Freeport, it's nice to remember that one company owns 51 parcels of land on the tax rolls: L. L. Bean. The real estate valuation on that property totals $140,750,380.00. If taxes on Bean's property is taxed at the town mil rate of $15.10 per thousand, that amounts to $2,132,368, or 38.7% of the total collected from property taxes, which The 2011 Town budget shows as $5,514,152. Total revenues in the 2011 budget are shown as $9,265,559. Bean's share of that is 23%. Don't forget, that does not include business fixtures taxed as property, which I reckon is quite a bit, and likely quite a bit more than any other business in town. L. L. Bean is also a major employer, providing jobs and income for many residents.

Sande Updegraph, the executive Director of FEDC tells us the business contribution to town revenues is 30%. By my back of the envelope calculation, Bean's share of that 30% is 76.7%. Just thought I'd illustrate in numbers just how big that Gorilla is, in case anyone had any doubt.

Freeport is fortunate as a town of 7,869 to be home to the second largest private employer in the state. As such, we enjoy substantial revenues provided by such a successful company's property taxes. We also incur additional costs other towns not similarly blessed needn't provide for in the form of additional fire and police protection to cover the needs and contingencies millions of customers and employees require in their daily visits to town.

That L.L. Bean is such a great company and responsible neighbor is a boon to our larger economy. Other businesses and residents alike should keep in mind the key role Bean plays in making Freeport the unique small Maine town it is. I added up the valuation based on the numbers presented here, linked to from the Town web site. The property owner to look up is BEAN LL INC. The 2011 Town Budget is here.

The results are in.

Election Day

Whatever happens, we'll keep playing.

Got that hour back.

Looks like a beautiful day to do something with it.

Always true to you, darlin' in my fashion.

Kate Arno apparently doesn't know what she's the President of. Here's a clue. It is a private corporation whose core constituency is business interests with no membership and a self selected board of directors. It is not a "Commission". Freudian slip, perhaps.


Freeport Economic Development CORPORATION.  Says so here too.

I do not belong to any organized party...

I am a Democrat. I am a liberal democrat. The kind that thinks sovereignty lies with the people. The type that believes people can work together for their mutual betterment. The sort that believes that to preserve my liberty, I must work to assure yours, and you must work to assure mine. The species that holds that that work requires a conversation. The ilk that believes that conversation requires listening. The faction that credits ordinary humans with the intelligence to form contracts and laws enforced mutually out of that conversation, by an agreed upon government, whose authority derives from themselves. I am a liberal democrat. I oppose the accretion of power by unelected and unaccountable groups, political or economic. I do not believe in kings and queens, either elected or self appointed. I believe in us.

I am a liberal democrat. I believe in a $48,000 appropriation from town funds to a library clerk Public Library before even discussing a $48,000 dollar appropriation to a businessman's club.

I am a liberal democrat. I believe in affording every individual their personal dignity in address and person, even LGBT creeps like me.

I am a liberal democrat. I believe that whispering campaigns conducted in the press through innuendo and false indignation are unseemly.

I want people in government who know they have a job to do that is not tied to shiny toys, but to things of substance to a community. Some of those people are unenrolled in any political party. Others are Republicans. Others are Democrats. Since I am a liberal democrat, and a lifelong Democrat, I'm going to work hard to see that people who, in my opinion, have demonstrated that they share my view of liberal democracy, are elected to office. This year, those people are Marie Gunning for Council at Large, Joe Migliaccio for District Three Council, and Eric Pandora for District Two Council.

edited for clarity 11/4/2011

Tell us how you really feel.

Maybe this is why people feel a wee bit put off by our town government. This at a Town Council meeting October 12, 2010.Taped and broadcast that night by the Town. The reaction? Make the microphone's default position off. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Watch it...

If Marie Gunning is a plant, she is a rose among the thorniest bunch of characters this side of Mr. MacGregor's briar patch. It's not easy giving your opinion when you know an ad hominem sidebar at the dais awaits if it's one contrary to some town official's.

This is a beautiful place.

See?