Letters to the Editor
Oppose LD 1535
Dear Independent:LD 1535 has created a law that requires York to support a residential growth rate that is greater than the rate that the people of York have been willing to support. The voters have repeatedly voted for 84 per year plus exemptions. The new law is an attempt by the state to make York grow faster.
The selectmen and town manager have not shown aggressiveness in changing or legally opposing the impact of the new law. If not changed, it will cost taxpayers more money, with no financial relief from the state. If you have previously supported the current rate of growth and want to help preserve the character of York, you need to insist that the town take action to keep control of our residential growth rate.
On Monday, August 14, the Selectmen have invited a Maine Municipal Association Attorney to discuss this at the selectmen's meeting at the library. Hopefully there will be some ideas presented that will be helpful. However, it will remain for the selectmen and town manager to support the voters' mandates and pursue this issue by all avenues.
Clifford Estes
York
Plan needed
Dear Independent,As a citizen and NOT as a member of the Budget Committee, I have concerns and must object to the dangerous momentum developing over the Coventry Hall property.
It was all well and good to spend $750,000 for this prime Village property. And it was fine to have an ill-defined concept as to how it might become a site for a new town facility. From the outset many have said that the traffic access and egress for this site is problematic. From the outset many have said there should be town-conducted impact study.
But the spending of an additional $95,000 seems to be in the offing. And rumblings are heard putting a police facility up there ...even though the professionals are dead set against this concept.
Let's not do what we have done in the past ... let one decision flow into a series of actions, which have more and more problematic results ... and cost more and more taxpayer dollars.
I believe there is a need for a Community Service Center ... and in a location which makes sense. Maybe Berkshire Development could make the town a proposal for such a facility on the Wild Kingdom property.
The May vote was to buy the property for "some sort" of a "municipal facility" ... not to build a new Town Hall. It seems to me that spending an additional $95,000 for "site evaluation" should wait until the taxpayers see a comprehensive plan for improved town facilities.
David Lincoln
York
Seeking ideas
Dear Independent,York is growing and we have a chance to shape what York Beach might look like. We should expand the great sense of community that has existed there for more than a century.
Places to walk and to walk to, with meandering walking/biking/stroller/wheelchair paths that travel past shops, places to eat, artist studios, small businesses, a fountain, sitting area, outdoor chess tables. A performance space! The homey, well-worn feel of the York Beach movie house, soon to close, has been a place so relaxed, informal and friendly that audiences clap and cheer during the screenings and leave exchanging views with strangers about what they saw.
Street musicians and performers could have a place to perform freely. There could be places to lock bicycles, a trolley route and a nice drop-off place for the handicapped or elderly. Workforce housing apartments could be tucked away here and there with a convenience store for the workers to access by foot or bicycle.
There could be a sculpture; there could be an enclosed dog-walking park.
It goes without saying that we keep the baseball field as is.
If you can think of more ideas that would expand the sense of community at the Beach for year-round visitors and for us locals, please make sure the York Beach Revitalization Committee and developer Oscar Plotkin hear them. I'm sure an e-mail to the Chamber of Commerce would get to them at info@yorkme.org.
Patty Hymanson
York
Editorial response
Dear Independent,You know that you are close to the truth when the individual you have a disagreement with overreacts - see the August 2 York Independent editorial attempting to discredit my letter on municipal facilities at the Coventry Hall property. Positioned in the same edition, one page ahead of my letter, the editor's "preemptive" rebuttal fails a three "R" test (reading, reasoning and remembering).
Reading. Before commenting the editor is encouraged to read what he has written "…this talk of a public safety center should be squashed now before it goes any further", as well as what I wrote - "…But such a decision (Coventry Hall property use) should be made based on facts and careful analysis ...". Readers of this letter can decide which statement is more thoughtful and in their best interest.
Reasoning. I provided four factors worth considering (May 20th Referendum Article, Select Board Statements, a police station is not a fire station, and economic considerations) to support my contention that analysis and study should precede (emphasis - come before) any decision. My letter did not recommend nor preclude any specific municipal use of the land. The editor's attempt to derail a call for a reasoned approach is an emotional response to facts at odds with his position.
Remembering. In early May at the Independent's village office while discussing an op-ed piece I was submitting about the May Referendum capital items, Mr. Rasche stated to me - "York residents can afford more taxes". The fabrication alluded to in his editorial is not mine.
We should not confuse the citizens of York. The Independent's generated controversy is not about the editor asserting a position at odds with someone else's view. The issue, central to the democratic process, is my call for an open debate/decision making process versus the York Independent exhorting its readers to squash, annihilate, extinguish, shut down, smash, suppress, trample, etc. talk about using the Coventry Hall property for anything but a Town Hall.
Len Dorrian
York
Send your letters to the Editor at PO Box 6, York, ME 03909 or via email to editor@yorkindependent.net. Deadline for publication is 12:00 noon on the Monday prior to that week's publication
