Letters to the Editor
Dorrian responds
Dear Independent,I would like to clear up issues raised by The Independent the past two weeks regarding my change of residency from Maine to Massachusetts in November of 2001 and then from Massachusetts to Maine in February of 2005. I assure your readers that I made a good faith effort to take the appropriate and responsible steps associated with a change of residency on each occasion: I registered to vote; re-registered my car; changed my driver's license and mailing address; filed tax returns with my new resident state, and filed a new homestead exemption.
Your report two weeks ago initially alerted me that the city of Boston was not notified of my 2005 voter registration in York. I had assumed, as I think many voters assume, that this notification is automatic. This was an oversight on my part, but as your report acknowledged, I have never voted in two communities at the same time.
Your report also alerted me that I had inadvertently neglected to notify assessors in York and Boston, upon assuming non-residency status in 2001 and 2005 respectively, to terminate my existing residential exemption. The homestead exemption procedures and forms in Maine and Massachusetts are quite confusing and I incorrectly assumed that the steps I took to change residency would result in the exemptions being terminated. Nevertheless, I take full responsibility for these oversights.
When I read your initial report on Thursday, 5 April, to discover precisely what happened so I could take corrective action, I immediately visited the Boston Assessor's Office and had a second follow-up visit a few days later. I also met with the assessor for the town of York, his staff and the town clerk this past Friday. Based on their advice, summarized in a letter to me from the assessor dated 12 April, I have paid three separate checks to the town of York for $73.00, $122.75 and $109.98, reflecting the tax savings for which I should not have received a residential exemption. The York assessor informed me that all other exemptions were appropriate. Likewise, on 6 April, I requested the city of Boston recalculate my current year's property tax without a residential exemption. I then paid the full tax payment April 6 before it was due. I will reconfirm that all other Boston exemptions were appropriate directly with the Boston assessor this week.
The Independent's reporting of this issue serves as a healthy lesson of our need to be attentive to and exercise greater care for administrative detail when doing something so seemingly simple as changing one's permanent residence and routinely filling out exemption forms, as well as tracking the completeness of tax assessments each year. Indeed, when re-elected to my next select term I will investigate ways to streamline, and make more transparent, such registration requirements so that other well-intentioned residents might not be so publicly blindsided.
I sincerely appreciate the assistance and the frank advice provided by the taxing authorities in both the city of Boston and the town of York.
Len Dorrian
York Selectman
Dorrian supporter blames paper
Dear Independent,I have known Mr. Dorrian for several years and have always been impressed with his intelligence, honesty and dedication to public service. I have always found him to be credible. I suspect that when he completes his research, the explanation will fall somewhere between unintentional error and bureaucratic confusion. Reporting his findings simultaneously with the headline news story would have provided more clarity and fairness, thus lent more credibility to The Independent's journalistic efforts.
Mr. Rasche, did you really think that, when Mr. Dorrian indicated that he would publicly report his findings, that he meant that he would call you each and every time he unearthed a piece of the information he would need to understand what happened? Isn't it more reasonable to think that he would, as any good manager would do, research and gather all of the information first and then report publicly? The paper needs to wrestle a little harder with the credibility thing. Your rush to judgment does not serve the paper well. If you want your readers to consider The Independent a credible entity, then all at the paper need to act in a credible manner.
Terry O'Rourke
York
Demand to be heard
Dear Independent,The Education and Appropriations Committees are continuing their furious pace to remodel the organization of Maine public education. The governor, asking public servants to do so much work, of such magnitude, in so little time, with so much at stake for the economic health of York and the quality of our public education, is unfair.
In addition, we will not be able to vote on the final plan before the Legislature votes on the budget and makes the new plan law.
Please contact your legislators and demand, at least, a public hearing on the final plan before the Maine Legislature votes on it. If you see or contact our state Sen. Peter Bowman, chair of the Education Committee, thank him for his hard work. Visit www.yorkschools.org for more information about the reorganization plans. If you are a taxpayer in York and/or have children in the York School System, you should be paying attention.
Here is a letter the York School Committee has sent to the Appropriations Committee:
Dear Honorable Members of the Appropriations Committee,
While we acknowledge and appreciate the hard work you are undertaking to remodel the educational system of Maine within such an unforgivably short time frame, such far-reaching decisions demand at least one public hearing in a democratic society. Before any legislation concerning school district consolidation is voted on, with all due respect, we demand, as residents and public servants of Maine, to have our opinions listened to in a meaningful way. Please schedule a public hearing before a vote.
Sincerely,
Patty Hymanson, Chairperson
York School Committee
Thanks from YORKWISE
Dear Independent,The YORKWISE organization would like to thank the Seacoast business community, the York High School parents, teachers, staff and students, and all the members of our community who contributed to our highly successful benefit auction.
As a result of the generous donations and the bidding of those in attendance last Saturday, April 7, we were able to raise over $20,000 to help support alcohol and substance abuse programs and 2007 senior class graduation events.
It is truly remarkable the amount of giving that goes on in this town and a simple thank-you doesn't do justice to the support that was showered upon our program.
We are looking forward to next year when we can bring the whole community together for supporting another great auction!
Auction Committee
YORKWISE
Support funds for the YAA
Dear Independent,We would like to inform the citizens of York why the York Ambulance Association, Inc., is requesting town funding for an emergency services contract.
First, the name change; from York Volunteer Ambulance to York Ambulance. This change resulted from our patients, many of whom were under the misperception that an ambulance with the name "volunteer" would not provide them with as good a service a "real" ambulance. This name change has been a slight but positive change amongst our entire crew who take great pride in our organization and its excellent service.
Second, we have always been focused on carrying on the goals of our founders and want only to continue providing exceptional service to our citizens and visitors alike. In our 34 years, we've seen the population in York increase. This has brought increased needs and demands and we've met those demands by employing trained paramedics and providing immediate response with "live-in" crews.
Third, we are still a nonprofit ambulance service. We do pay our paramedics and crews; this has evolved from waning volunteerism. We rely on memberships, donations and billings to sustain our annual budgets. Though our town boasts a population of 14,000 citizens, only about 2,000 citizens annually support York Ambulance through memberships. This is a small percentage of our community that has been sustaining us.
As a tourist town, the summer months bring a huge increase in emergency calls. Many visitors using our service have been impossible to track for purposes of billing, and we suffer the loss. Around 20 percent of our 911 calls are also not billable because patients decline transportation.
Our research has found that neighboring communities either finance their entire ambulance and costs or they contract with a private service. We checked and found that private service contracts in neighboring towns are costing those taxpayers $75,000 annually, while other towns have their own ambulance budgets, costing them around $206,500 or more annually.
In the past few years, increases in insurance, payroll, benefits and equipment have caused us to explore how ambulance services in neighboring communities are run. In so doing, we discovered that many ambulances like ours have a contract with the municipality to provide emergency services. This approach seems sensible as it guarantees the municipality emergency coverage while it also helps offset our operating expenses.
York Ambulance has been proud to serve our community for over 35 years. We provide high caliber personnel who provide the best possible care. We want to continue providing our citizens excellent pre-hospital care with a minimal price tag. As you go to the polls to vote, please take a moment to carefully consider how small an investment a $40,000 contract truly is.
Sincerely,
Board of Directors
York Ambulance Association
Go South, Mr. Dorrian
Dear Independent,It was with great alarm and trepidation when I read last week's jarring news article about the affliction besetting Selectman Len Dorrian. From what I understand from further press releases from the Center for Disease Control, Agamenticus Regional Office, it appears that Selectman Dorrian may be suffering from the dreaded viral disorder now known as Trowbridge RB1. Named for the former York zoning diva, S. Trowbridge, the CDC report appears to finger Boston, Mass., as the probable incubation site.
One of the primary symptoms of this disorder is the inability of the infected individual to remember where one's voting and home residence is. A further symptom may include the afflicted individual's earnest attempts to denigrate local government, all the while proclaiming themselves as a political messiah.
Even though many local pundits believe this disorder to be a relatively modern phenomena, an anonymous source from Old York Historical Society claims this virus really goes back over 350 years to when Puritan authorities in Boston posted a minister to York to cleanse the morale of York's citizens, albeit mostly unsuccessful. The only known cure, according to the CDC report, is a variation of Horace Greely's mantra, "Go South young man, go South."
Here's hoping that Selectman Dorrian seeks the cure.
Ronald N. Nowell
Cape Neddick
The man behind the music
Dear Independent,Our first distinguished American composer, Stephen Collins Foster, died in Bellevue Hospital in 1864 at the age of 38 with less than a dollar in his pockets.
The writer of "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Camptown Races" was married and had a child. Unfortunately for his family, his talents and his life, he was a victim of the disease of alcoholism. His habits made any organized daily relationship with others impossible.
Foster was a primitive and he lived in a primitive society. The social notion that he was entitled to draw continuing sustenance from the beauty of his songs was not yet born. His dreadful death was preceded by a collapse at the Bowery flophouse he called home.
Picture him miserably ill, without resources, redolent of whiskey and shame. His "Jeannie with the light brown hair" was many miles away, another casualty of his dissipation. But perhaps we can believe - others may not - that in his final agony, our God, who understands all human frailties, welcomed his trembling soul to the congregation of the blessed.
And Foster bequeathed to us, for our joy, his wondrous songs.
Warren J. LeMon
York
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