Fresh Air

Nice to see our Town Council conducting business in an open and respectful way. A great start for Chair Jim Hendricks and Vice Chair Kristina Egan. Here's hoping the trend continues.

Sons of

your sons
And sons passing by
Children we lost in lullabys
Sons of true love and sons of regret
All of your sons you can not forget
Some built the roads, some wrote the poems
Some went to war, some never came home

Sons of your sons or sons passing by

Children we lost in lullabys

Longtemps aprés....Longtemps aprés

Send in the clowns

So the Chamber of Commerce's return to the public on the investment of $36k in tax money is supposed to be a public clown show. I can't wait.

He's shocked. Shocked!

to find that public business must be conducted publicly.

A few weeks ago the Town received a request from a citizen and member of this distribution list for a copy of all of the email addresses used in a particular email.  Upon receiving the request the Council sought a legal opinion as to whether the release of email addresses was required under the FOAA or whether the addresses were protected as personal information.  The legal opinion stated that the FOAA did not protect the address distribution list and that if requested the Town was obligated to release any address information used to convey information related to Town business.  The Council subsequently sought a second opinion which confirmed the original finding.

<snip>

I can not help being disappointed with the legal requirements related to this matter.  Many of you have asked to be included on the distribution list with an understanding that your personal information will remain private and I wish that I could have honored that request.  I have found these email distributions to be an excellent forum for getting information out to the public and for receiving public feedback and sincerely hope that each of you will choose to remain on the distribution list.  That being said I can not prevent this type of request from happening in the future so if any of you feel that remaining on the list is not in your best interest please let me know and I will remove you from the distribution list. 

-Jim Cassida, Freeport Town Council Chairman

FOAA is Maine's Freedom of Access Act that requires public business be conducted publicly. I would like to like Jim personally, but I also think he does misunderstand the obligations he took on when he ran for and accepted his post as a Councilor. He mistakes the role he has assumed as one he controls and entirely inhabits, not one constrained by law, both written and common. Rather than acknowledging that in transacting public business people should be aware that they should be held accountable for their words, he suggests to his readership that they may secure themselves from direct contact by using the good offices of Facebook. This may be fine for a political campaign, but in governing, it stills open discussion and leads to bitter divisiveness.

In my opinion, people should be encouraged to be involved in their government openly, without fear or shame, except such that they might bring upon themselves.

It really makes me sad that apparently Jim would rather bemoan the minimum legal requirements of openness in governance than enthusiastically comply with them, and provide some leadership by example.

Why I love this community

This will no longer be the nor southeast corner of a 62,000 square foot commercial structure thanks to the very hard work and dedication of hundreds of Freeport residents who believe our town's rural character needn't be sacrificed while striving to be accommodating to Maine's most dynamic businesses. Our Council did the right thing last night in keeping their eye on the future.We are a growing community, with room for growth in areas that have the needed services that the commercial sector requires for their development. I am hopeful that Coastal Soccer will find a suitable place to site their business in our town, and confident that we can find a place for them as good neighbors.

Rules Seminar

Wikipedia:

A direct free kick is a method of restarting play in a game of association football following a foul. Unlike an indirect free kick, a goal may be scored directly against the opposing side without the ball having first touched another player. 

A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team when a player commits a penalty foul, for example, pushing or tripping an opponent.[1] However, if the offence was committed by the defending team within their own penalty area, the kick becomes a penalty kick.

Steve Twombley, Paul Willis, and Mike Healy of Seacoast United Maine have complained in their recent letter to Freeporters that  "The anonymous people that claim we are getting 'a Free Kick' are making an intentional misrepresentation." Perhaps they don't understand that it's the Referees that award a Free Kick, and that the "anonymous people" on this Facebook page, 373 of whom have signed either this online petition or a hard copy of it,  are complaining about the award, not their taking advantage of it. Seacoast wants to site their 62,000 square foot industrial building that will serve as an indoor soccer stadium in a Rural Residential District where the use is not allowed.

The "anonymous people", unlike Seacoast in their mailer, have published their e-mail address and telephone number on every flyer they have distributed. In two separate votes by the Freeport Planning Board, Seacoast's request to change the zoning of the site in two different ways was turned down. Now they'd like the refs (the Town Council) to award them a third shot. The residents of Freeport have committed no penalty foul, yet are forced once again to ask the Town Council and Planning board to enforce our zoning ordinances. They do not allow Seacoast's project to be built as Seacoast likes where Seacoast likes it. Who, exactly, is misrepresenting what?

Musical Interlude