THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BALANCING RESIDENTIAL CHARACTER AND TOURISM

A businessman who owned a Bed & Breakfast in a residential part of Kennebunkport knew the importance of maintaining a balance between residential character and tourism-related businesses. He understood the value of the character of the village historic district – hearing and seeing songbirds by day and stars by night - because his guests sought out its quiet neighborhoods within walking distance of the restaurants and shops downtown. During conversations we had 15 years ago, we agreed that Kennebunkport had achieved a good balance of these competing interests and that it was worth preserving.

It’s a testament to the property owners that our two historic residential districts remain intact. There is no historic preservation ordinance providing protection from tear down or alteration of these hundreds of structures, even though Kennebunkport has two National Register Historic Districts.

Another reason these homes haven’t been cannibalized for multi-family units or converted into shops is the Kennebunkport Land Use Ordinance (LUO). It has been described by a local lawyer as a “Cadillac” zoning ordinance. According to a member of the Planning Board who worked on the passage of the original ordinance in the early 1970’s, it was balanced with sufficient protections to make it worth enacting without alienating residents who despised the idea of anyone telling them what to do or not do with their land.

Kennebunkport has a small commercial district where tourist-dependent businesses are concentrated, called Dock Square. When the zoning ordinance was passed, existing commercial enterprises all over town were permitted to continue under a grandfathering provision, even if they were located in residential zones.

Because the Zoning Ordinance limits further commercial development within the residential zones, the scale of the intermixing works. When the businesses and their needs – parking lots – or their offerings – amplified music – intrude into residential areas, the quality of life and character of neighborhoods suffer.

When you hear people clamber for more business development in a community whose property tax base is nearly 90% residential, as it is in Kennebunkport, one wonders about the wisdom of the speaker. As the tax base proves, rather than a tourist town with homes, Kennebunkport is primarily a bedroom community with a summer resort component.

During the last 10 years, our Town has lost a major hotel, the Shawmut Inn, and its hundreds of rooms. The structure was torn down and replaced by what was at the time of construction the most expensive and largest home built in the community. During this same period, a large restaurant and 2 Bed and Breakfasts were converted back to residential use. These properties were among the grandfathered commercial properties and are now in conformity with the residences around them. The free market, driven by demand, seems to have tipped the property use scale here toward residential, not commercial uses.

Not long ago, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust conducted a study of 3 coastal communities in Maine to measure the economic impact on towns which have a high percentage of second homes and a lot of undeveloped land in conservation. The findings confirm that towns which have both, as Kennebunkport does, usually have low tax rates. This is because the demand for municipal services – roads, schools, police and fire – is lower when there is more open land and many seasonal property owners.

There are tangible economic benefits, translated into reduced demand for property tax-funded services, when municipalities contain a good percentage of land in conservation and lots of seasonally-occupied homes.

For many of us who happen to live in communities which experience an influx of summer residents and visitors, our best hope of maintaining property values and therefore preserving the value of our greatest asset, our home, is to preserve the qualities which attract visitors here in the first place. It’s about maintaining character of place.

There are sound economic reasons to maintain a healthy balance between residential and commercial uses. Respect for one to the detriment of the other is foolish public policy.

KENNEBUNKPORT: THE HAPPIEST SEASIDE TOWN IN MAINE.

Al: Hey, Jesse, what’s up man?

JESSE: Well, it’s the oddest thing. Did you hear that Kennebunkport was named one of the happiest seaside towns in the country?

AL: Well, people could say a lot of nice things about Kennebunkport but happiest? I dunno, Jesse. Who says?

JESSE: Oh, some magazine called “Coastal Living”.

AL: Happy? Tell that to the folks down at Goose Rocks. There are many feelings about the beach but I would not call anyone happy. Some of them are quite mad, actually.

JESSE: You’ve got your increased cost sharing for the schools down here at the ‘Port. Have you heard anybody crowing about how happy they are about that?

AL: This is just plain wrong is what it is, Jesse.

JESSE: The magazine evaluated things like how many sunny days, healthiness of beaches…

AL: Don’t they know about the coliform in the water at Goose Rocks?

JESSE: “…standard of living and financial well-being, oh, and something called the “Coastal vibe.”

AL: Well that would be the bar scene over in Lower Village, your “coastal vibe”.

JESSE: So how happy are residents about their taxes going up 9 percent last year? I have feelings about that but it is not happiness.

AL: I guess the magazine probably didn’t ask any of the people who live here whether this is a happy seaside community.

JESSE: Yes, you are right, Al. The only people who find Kennebunkport to be a happy seaside town are the tourists. They don’t care who owns Goose Rocks Beach and they don’t have to pay property taxes!

AN HOMAGE TO THE DRYWALL BUCKET

Recently, our household faced the critical question, “How many drywall buckets does the average family need?”

I asked my husband why there were so many that end up stored in my garden shed and he told me it’s because our friend who lives in the studio above the barn brings them home after he’s done a drywall job.

On the day when I needed the space in my garden shed, I carried a half dozen or so empty drywall buckets out into the yard. I requisitioned one for the ice melt for our walkway. It was selfish of me to take it because someone had attached a beautiful rope handle though there was no cover.

When our friend came home I asked him to keep whichever buckets he needed and could store in “his space” under the porch and leave the others in the barn. I’d drive them to the transfer station with the rest of the recycling later.

“We could leave them down at the end of the driveway” he said, hopefully.  I held my tongue rather than ask “Why?”  Now I worry that I may have hurt his feelings by failing to understand the value of the unused but always available drywall bucket.

Later that day, friends drove by and stopped to talk.  When I noticed 6 to 8 drywall buckets in the back of the truck I asked, “What’s with all the drywall buckets?” Our friend replied, “What do mean? I collect seaweed at the beach, bring it home and spread it on the garden.”  With this comeuppance, I humbly recognized the inherent dignity of the drywall bucket.  No job too small or too dirty.

Later that day I made my pilgrimage to the transfer station. In a concession to my newfound respect for the unneeded drywall buckets, rather than throw them into the dumpster designated for plastic, I placed them on the ground in front of the recycling container.  What if someone came along, saw those drywall buckets and tried to crawl down into the dumpster to get them? Might as well make it easy for whoever needs them.

That afternoon, my husband gathered the fireplace broom and shovel, making ready to clean the ashes out of the woodstove.  Unaware of most of what had transpired that day,   he turned to me and innocently asked, “Where can I find a drywall bucket for the ashes?”

Sheepishly, I told him, “Go out to the barn and use the drywall bucket with the rope handle, the one with the bag of ice melt in it.”  And I silently wondered whether those drywall buckets I didn’t think we needed that morning were still sitting there in front of the plastic recycling dumpster at the transfer station.  But I knew they were gone. 

 

THE RELEASE OF RESCUED FEMALE ORIOLE B-14-12

The Center for Wildlife will be releasing the rescued and rehabilitated female Oriole on April 19, 2012.  She recovered from a number of injuries during her 3 month rehab, including an infected leg and an injured or weakened wing. When she was placed in an outdoor flying cage in March, she gained weight faster than her wings could support her. A staffer called it “flying tank” syndrome.  The prognosis for her was not good when I last spoke to CFW staff about releasing the Oriole, about 3 weeks ago.  Then all of a sudden, she started to fly normally and regained her strength. With the sighting of Orioles in southern Maine, the time has come to let her go.  Because we are Down East, we won’t be able to collect the bird and let her go near our home in Kennebunkport but a CFW volunteer will transport her to town tomorrow and release her nearby.  

OH MY DOG!

On the day of an old fashioned snow storm there’s a cinnamon roll recipe in the Press Herald. How good does that sound on a day when you don’t expect to go outside? The dough hooks were whirling away when the stand mixer suddenly accelerated and then, PZZZT, pop, sparks and smoke, blew up. Oh, well, worry about that later, for now the dough is looking pliable even though the yeast was 5 months past the use-by date.

While the dozen or so rolls were spread out on a cookie sheet for the second rise, I decide to give them a boost by setting them in front of the fireplace. A few minutes later I notice the dog over by the fireplace, eating something…the rolls! Is cinnamon poison for a dog? I know raisins are but there weren’t any in the recipe. Thank goodness for the emergency animal hospital. They refer me to a poison control hotline for animals. They want to know right away if there were raisins in the cinnamon rolls.

Five minutes and a $65 credit-card charge later I’m feeding the dog a mixture of 3%hydrogen peroxide and Greek yogurt. She laps it up like dessert. It seems that the raw dough is very bad, according to the ominous-voiced vet. Yeast dough can expand – there’s no better host for dough to rise than intestines – and the dog can become drunk from the yeast.

I follow the dog around for a few minutes, expectantly holding a towel so she can throw up into it. Then I get distracted. But suddenly good news! She’s puked on the rug, the one that was just sent out to be cleaned. But there isn’t much dough there. She ate 4 or 5 raw rolls. So I call the poison center again to find out if she should have another dose of peroxide. I tell them she didn’t throw up all the dough but there was some carrot in it, something she ate hours ago. “Unfortunately, dogs don’t throw up chronologically” the kind woman tells me.  

While I’m engaged in that conversation, my husband comes into the room and shouts “Goldy puked on the couch!” That's wonderful. Now we have action so I can end the phone call, and indeed, the dog has expectorated everything, there it is, laid out over the blanket covering the couch. Now we just have to watch her for a few hours to see if her abdomen gets distended or she acts drunk. But she can have her usual dinner! This is so confusing.

The next day all is well. The crisis passed, I take a shower and get dressed and as I’m returning to the bathroom there’s the dog eating something, there’s paper all around her on the rug. It’s only the paper that the new bar of soap was wrapped in. The paper I put the soap remnants in! Quick call to the vet where I am reassured this is not a life-threatening situation. At most, she could have diarrhea.

Now I wonder, what are the chances that she would have diarrhea on the same rug she puked on yesterday? It’ll probably hit her when there’s no one here to let her out, while I’m at the store buying a new stand mixer.

RESCUED FEMALE ORIOLE B-14-12

We rescued an immature female oriole during a snowstorm in mid-January. The dog found her on the ground and was picking her up in her mouth when I happened to look out the window. The bird allowed me to take her into my cupped hands after Goldy spit her out. In the house, I held the chartreuse-tinted bird near the wood stove until we rigged up a plate with a towel for bedding and a cover using the inside section of a salad spinner, the piece full of holes.

This cold little bird, her legs frosted with snow, sat by the fire while we consulted with the York Center for Wildlife. They wanted to see the bird that day to make sure she could be treated for whatever injury sent her to the ground.

This wonderful organization takes in birds and critters that have been injured and nurses them with the goal of returning them to the wild. The unfortunate birds who cannot return to the wild, many of them birds of prey, find a permanent home in the unique buildings constructed to house owls and falcons.  Owls are most commonly injured by cars, a sad commentary about modern life. They go to the streets for road kill or are hit as they swoop for prey.

It’s worth a trip to the Center to meet Freya, the peregrine falcon who is now the office mascot. She perches atop a swivel chair in the entry room that serves as an intake and reception center. Freya was so young when she was brought to the Center that she imprinted with the people and now cannot return to the wild. It’s an indescribable thrill to be within 4 feet of a magnificent creature like her.

The injured female oriole, B-14-12 (B for “bird”, 14 because she was the 14^th rescue bird and 12 for the year of her rescue, 2012), has been convalescing at the CFW for about a month now. She spends 24 hours a day in the outdoor aviary where she is able to perch and is relearning how to fly. The CFW staff will let us collect her for release in our yard when the rest of the orioles start coming through again on their spring migration north.

This immature female was one of 3 immature or juvenile orioles who visited our suet bag this winter, one female and two male. They didn’t have the sense to leave Maine last fall. Probably they were lulled into staying by the unseasonably warm weather and lack of snow cover. CFW says many songbirds failed to migrate this year and were caught unawares as the inevitable cold and snow settled in.  My neighbor thinks these birds should be tested for mercury poisoning as their failure to migrate south indicates that they are brain-damaged.

One of the 2 males continues to visit our suet bag daily.  Every morning I watch for him. Is it too much to hope that he might eventually be reunited with his once weaker but perhaps now stronger companion?  Let us hope that the older, more experienced orioles will figure a way to force these two reckless juveniles north to breed and nest and then south again next fall.    

TO BE CONTINUED…..

't ain't Town No More

There was a time when locals referred to Lower Village as “'t ain't Town.” The derogatory nickname derived from the comparison of Lower Village to downtown Kennebunk and to Dock Square in Kennebunkport of which it was neither. Lower Village defied definition but it did have a personality of its own.

Over time, retail shops in Lower Village have tried to capitalize on what was perceived as Kennebunkport’s cachet by listing their address on shopping bags and advertising as ”Kennebunkport.”  A friend and her houseguest spent a frustrating morning trying to locate an antique business which advertises itself as being located on Route 9 in Kennebunkport, but which is physically located on Route 9 on the way to Wells, about a mile from Dock Square and on the Kennebunk side of the River  - just outside of Lower Village.

Essential services which used to be located in Kennebunkport – the hardware store, gas station, grocery store, Laundromat, among others - closed or migrated across the river. Over time, Lower Village became the “downtown” service center Kennebunkport lost as its “downtown” was converted to tourist-dependent retail stores and restaurants.

                                                                                

Those familiar with Lower Village for a half century or so hardly recognize the place today and those who do remember it are concerned about what is happening.

A few years ago the Town of Kennebunk relaxed parking standards on many structures in Lower Village. For years, property sales and commercial development were held back by the requirement that parking be located onsite. The relaxation of the parking requirement was directly responsible for what seems like a commercial development boom.

The first conversion from a home to a business which produced a collective jolt was Tia’s Restaurant. The stately home which was a private residence only 18 months ago has morphed into a 2-story seasonal restaurant with no parking but plenty of tiki-torches and even an outdoor fire pit.  Next door, an art gallery lawn is littered with sculptural whirly-gigs, death to all birds who venture near.

And now everyone is talking about the shocking transformation of a federal-style farmhouse, whose proud façade graced Chase Hill since its construction 150 or more years ago. The new structure, modestly labeled “The Grand” but more accurately described as "The Super-Colossal", is over-scaled, too high and too large in volume.  It towers above everything around it and seems especially imposing as it sits on a high point overlooking the river basin.

Ironically, now that the Town realizes that relaxing the parking requirement worked too well, there is no place for the patrons and employees of all these new businesses to park! Tax payers are being asked to foot the bill for a public parking lot. Stay tuned, there may be trouble ahead on that front.

Old timers in Lower Village are beginning to throw in the towel and put their properties up for sale. When the Town undermines the zoning ordinance that provides protection to the value of your greatest asset, your home, it’s time to take the money and move on.  I feel sorry for people who bought a house as part of a residential neighborhood and now find themselves surrounded by commercial enterprises in structures that once housed families.

Still to come is a large scale overhaul of the Lower Village “streetscape”, beginning in April 2012. There will be new sidewalks, new lighting, a proposal to cantilever a walkway 20 feet into the River, replacement of the wooden railing along the Riverside and many more “improvements”.  It seems like too much to take.

Goodbye, 't ain't Town. We didn't realize how much we liked you until you changed. We took you for granted and now you are gone.

IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

Some of the conclusions in a recent Journal Tribune editorial concerning lighting in Kennebunkport deserve further discussion. The impression left with readers is that there are no street lights throughout the village area but in fact, there are many and they've been sufficient for years.

The area proposed for more lighting is entirely outside the business zone and
consists of nearly all of the National Register Historic District of homes in
the Village Residential Zone, next to Dock Square. Some of the lights are more than a half mile from the downtown.

While employees and customers of downtown businesses park along town streets and in a parking lot outside the business district, they, as well as residents, have been walking these streets without the proposed lighting for decades, without any apparent consequences. The justification for spending more than $160,000 to purchase these lights - not to mention the cost of installation - just isn't there.

This is an idea that might be nice when times are flush or if business interests are willing to pay, but they haven't offered.  Times are tough and taxpayers are tired of funding needs for tourists and businesses.

When many Kennebunkport village residents look toward the north, to Biddeford, we see an unnatural glow in the sky. When we look to Dock Square from the Historic Zone, there's a similar glow.  The village residential zone outside Dock Square isn't the Maine Mall, Biddeford Crossing or downtown Biddeford. Many of us who live here enjoy the distinction and would like to maintain our residential quality of life, including the ability to look up and see the stars at night.

My advice to businesses concerned about their customers and employees walking at night: pool your resources and provide a shuttle service to outlying parking areas.

My advice to taxpayers: hold onto your wallets! Pretty soon, we won't be able to afford to live here. Those who can afford to pay increasing taxes may be able to read inside their homes at night without turning on interior lights.

"NO BETTO IN BIDDO"*

Despite the endless and repetitive television and radio advertising in favor of betting in Biddeford, it came as no surprise that voters statewide rejected that racino proposal as well as the one designed for Lewiston.  Voters have said “No” to gambling proposals in Maine eight times in 11 years according to today’s Portland Press Herald.  It would be easy to lose count without the paper of record reminding us how many times we’ve been down this road.  

We’ve come a long way in one year, since the voters in Biddeford authorized municipal leaders to negotiate with Scarborough Downs and Ocean Properties, Ltd., to bring a racino operation to their city. In Biddeford, the racino proposal won approval in yesterday’s election but not by enough votes to override the “no” votes elsewhere in Maine.

Joanne Twomey, the Mayor who championed the racino proposal for the jobs it would provide, finds herself out of a job the day after the election. Her opponent, Alan Casavant, who did not support the racino, pledged to negotiate a better deal for the city if the proposal got statewide support.

In the mysterious world of politics which cannot be explained, nearly the same number of people who voted for the racino voted for the anti-racino candidate for Mayor.

Biddeford and the towns surrounding it should have some optimism today for the future of this much-maligned former mill town.   Mayor-elect Casavant wants to work on improving the community’s downtown core instead of casting his lot with the racetrack and slot operators out by the Maine Turnpike. Good for him.

Biddeford contains historic buildings in its downtown Main Street and including the former textile mills which line the Saco River. With the growth of University of New England and the expansion and development of communities around it, Biddeford seems poised to begin to capitalize on its assets. 

The election result for Question 2, soundly rejected by voters statewide though equally strongly supported by voters in Biddeford, seems to be a case of outsiders intervening and saving Biddeford from making a terrible and irreversible mistake. It just might be that people will look back on this vote as a turning point for the city.

*Bumper sticker credited to Richard Rhames who was elected Councilor-at-large in Biddeford's election yesterday.

THE VALUE OF PUBLIC LAND

The Kennebunkport Conservation Trust has had remarkable success acquiring and saving land from development. From the islands of Cape Porpoise Harbor to the meadows and streams of the Emmons Preserve, the KCT now holds vast acreage within the community and we are all grateful for this.

Recently, the Trust accepted about $1 million to rebuild on its original site the Olde Grist Mill, a 250-year old tidal mill which was owned continuously by the Perkins family until its destruction by arson in the 1990’s.  

Another million dollars will be used to reconstruct an enclosed shed linking the Goat Island Lighthouse to the lighthouse-keeper’s home. The shed or one like it was destroyed by a storm decades ago. The Coast Guard, its prior owner, wisely decided not to rebuild it.

When these decisions were made to invest in buildings rather than land, financial times were bullish. The Trust even found the funds to erect granite markers denoting some of its holdings which is a far cry from the hand-painted sign which used to signify the entrance to the Trust headquarters on Gravelley Brook Road, the only unpaved public road in Kennebunkport. Times are different today and the economic climate is less certain.

Now we read that the Trust is desperately seeking about $1 million in order to buy land and an island off Goose Rocks Beach and Biddeford’s Granite Point, called Timber Point. This 110-acre parcel, which includes Timber Island, is described as one of the last large parcels of land under single ownership along the coastline between Kittery and Cape Elizabeth.  The $1 million to be raised is only a portion of the roughly $5 million price tag.  The partnership attempting to buy the property includes the KCT, the Trust for Public Land, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Rachel Carson and Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

The clock is running down on the acquisition deadline, September 15.

Sometime during the last 10 years the KCT began a new quest.  The organization expanded its mission from simple land acquisition to include preservation and maintenance of properties which reflect the heritage of the town. It was at this divergence, when the mission was expanded, when some began to question the core principals of the beloved land conservation organization.

One wonders why an organization devoted to saving and acquiring land would get into the business of restoring and maintaining historic properties in the first place. Organizations which are in that business could probably advise why they are getting out of doing this very thing.

The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) adopted a policy some 20 years ago not to accept donations of property without an endowment.  This non-profit, which owns dozens of historic residences throughout New England, recognized its inability to raise enough funds to maintain the properties it wants to preserve.  Kennebunk’s Brick Store Museum reluctantly but wisely decided to sell the Edith Barry home on Summer Street.  Maintenance costs for the house threatened the organization’s ability to operate its museum and house its collection.

We can all hope that some generous benefactor will come forward to ensure the deserving preservation of Timber Point and Timber Island.   Maybe the KCT will rediscover the value of saving land for wildlife and limited public use.   There aren’t any other organizations standing in the wings, prepared to make major land acquisitions here.  The townspeople of Kennebunkport need a KCT recommitted and dedicated to saving land, not buildings.

THE SAME-DAY VOTER REGISTRATION BALLOT INITIATIVE and other reasons why the Maine Democratic Party lacks common sense

The decision of Maine Democrats to launch a ballot initiative to restore same-day voter registration shows why the Party has lost its relevance. While Maine residents endure unemployment, under-employment, a collapsing housing market, reductions to education spending etc., Democrats are consumed with restoring the right to register and vote on the same day.

Speaking from my own experience, as a lifelong registered Democrat and as someone who has moved from state to state at least a half dozen times, and from towns within states many more times than that, I can’t understand why it’s so hard to register to vote 2 days ahead of an election. It isn’t as though registration is required every election or even every year. Once you have registered to vote, until you move, you don’t have to go through the process again.

I started to wonder what was going on with the Maine Democratic Party when it was discovered that two Super Delegates to the 2008 National Democratic Convention were no longer residents of the State: former Governor Kenneth Curtis and former Senator George Mitchell.  Didn’t anyone at the State Party know that Curtis moved to Florida - probably to avoid Maine income tax - and that Mitchell was living elsewhere?

Another alarm went off when the State Party chose to engage in a reputation-slurring, racist campaign against gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler in the fall of 2010.  Does anyone remember the mass-mailed fortune cookie flyers? Cutler’s time in China was portrayed as anti-union and his sin was to perform work for a company that conducted business in China. 

An email to the Maine Democratic Party headquarters in an attempt to find out who was responsible for the offensive mailing produced no answers. Someone did send me a lengthy diatribe about Cutler’s character in case the fortune-cookie flyer was too subtle.  Rather than an explanation taking responsibility for the flyer, I got a lecture.  This is understandable as the Party seems incapable of anything but preaching to the converted.

There were also numerous Kamikaze-like emails and phone calls during the final weeks before the election directing union members - state employees and teachers mostly - to vote for Libby Mitchell rather than Cutler even as Mitchell was tanking in the polls while Cutler began to surge. The Democrats deserve much credit for handing the election to Paul LePage.  Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.

My final beef has to do with Maine being a caucus state.  This may not be the Party’s fault but while I’m at it, I’m going to lay the blame on them.

The caucus system is a charade of a true election. It’s something I experienced while living in Iowa and it’s a combination of much ado about nothing and a joke. If you can’t be there, you don’t get to vote.  Attempts have been made to eliminate the caucus in favor of the more democratic secret ballot system which would permit absentee voting but there’s no reason to change things when a few in leadership control the process.

The last Maine State Democratic caucus, at which Barack Obama was named the victor, was disorganized and lasted well beyond its scheduled length, forcing some attendees to leave before actually casting their votes.  That’s democracy in action! Whoever was in charge should be ashamed.

In Maine today there are many voters who are not registered as Republicans or Democrats. People are abandoning party affiliation and identifying themselves as Independents or members of the Green Party.  Since these folks don’t vote in primaries (unless they temporarily register as Republican or Democrat prior to the primary) both parties end up nominating people to run on their ticket who come from an extreme position. 

Which brings me to the last peeve about Maine Democrats: too many folks come to the party at primary time. There’s no better way to surprise voters than to run 6 to 8 candidates in a primary. Understandably, no one controls such things and it is anyone’s right to run. But isn’t there a way to ask some to check their egos and hold back for another time rather than encourage a baseball team’s worth of candidates?

It’s great to rant about these things but the sad truth is nothing will change. The only option left is to move on to another party or become one of the “unenrolled”.  That title has a desperate quality to it.  Sounds like my kind of group to affiliate with.

BLEAK HOUSE ON THE BEACH

It is a gross oversimplification to describe “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens as a story about a legal dispute coming to a conclusion only when the opposing parties run out of money. In Dickens’ novel, the heirs find at the end of a lengthy probate process that there is no inheritance to be claimed: the financial legacy was exhausted on legal fees.

It isn’t too much of a stretch to see similarities between “Bleak House” and the litigation that parties are engaged in over the ownership and control of Goose Rocks Beach. 

Saturday, June 18, 2011, marked the second time some Kennebunkport voters attended Town Meeting to vote to spend a significant sum of money to litigate this dispute. A total of $700,000, more or less, has been spent or appropriated by the taxpayers. One can only wonder the financial cost to the private property owners.

The beach case, expected to cost the Town at least $1 million, and which will probably cost the property owners/Plaintiffs the same, will be a drain on many other worthy causes which won’t be funded by the Town.  Consider the public projects which might be funded if the Town set aside a quarter of a million dollars annually for 4 years: expansion of sidewalks, free summer recreation access for all children, purchase of waterfront land for a public boat launch or a massive tree planting effort, just to name a few. Think of the money not being donated to non-profit organizations because of the private money tied up in the litigation.

One wonders what might have been if Selectmen recognized the private beach ownership and concentrated their negotiations on finding an acceptable amount of money or other compensation (property tax reductions, for example) so that the townspeople could be offered a long term recreation lease on the private beach areas.

Instead, we are all paying for this complex litigation to wind its way inevitably to the Maine Supreme Court. Who wins, besides the lawyers? There’s already so much bad feeling within the community about the litigation that it may take a complete turnover in property ownership to clear the air. By that time Goose Rocks will be overrun by more people than the delicate beach can handle.

Most appalling of all, the Town’s acting Police Chief  has recently announced in the newspaper that there will be a change in policy for the 2011 summer season: police officers will not enforce “no trespassing” signs at Goose Rocks Beach.  

If you own land in Kennebunkport and someone trespasses on your property, you call 911 - unless your land happens to be on Goose Rocks Beach.

Considering how high emotions are running, it’s inconceivable that law enforcement or Selectmen would permit a festering of arguments over the use of private land.  No good will come of this.

Potential trespassers now know that the police will not come to ask anyone to move along to the public beach. The homeowner is helpless to stop someone from erecting a tent or leaving lawn chairs permanently on his or her land.

This is very bad public policy. It should send a chill through anyone who thinks our home is our castle. In Kennebunkport, castles are indeed made of sand.

SUMMER READING LIST: on the trail of European detectives by book

One offshoot of the popular Swedish writer Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tatoo series is the surge in interest in Scandinavian detective mysteries. Though Larsson is not my favorite author, readers have an appetite for something more because only three of his books have been published. A dispute over his estate and the ownership of his unpublished material may take years to resolve.

What follows are, in my opinion, some of the best contemporary and some older but not dated European – not all Scandinavian - detective mysteries.

HENNING MANKELL, the Kurt Wallander series. Mankell is still alive and writing but just published the last book in this series, The Troubled Man. Mankell locates these books in an actual small town in a rural area of southeastern Sweden. He is skilled at writing about the changes being brought to his country by both immigration and growth and the inevitable backlash from hate groups in what is considered a tolerant, open society. Wallander is cast as an anti-hero, deeply flawed in the conduct of his personal life, charmingly aware of his failings, and consumed by his work at which he is highly successful. Also recommended are the 6 episodes of the Public Television/WGBH-produced “Mystery” series starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh. Because the novels are complex, they were simplified for television. Read some of the books before watching the series which is available on DVD.

MAJ SJOWALL and PER WAHLOO. Their Martin Beck series was written in the 1960’s yet there is little to date these Scandinavian books. Considered by some to be among the best detective novels ever penned. The website www.Scandinavianbooks.com recommends reading these books in sequence, beginning with Roseanna.

OLEN STEINHAUER. His first series - there are five books - is set in the eastern bloc beginning post-World War II and continuing into the 1980’s. Beginning with The Bridge of Sighs these novels contain frightening sequences. His police officers experience bleak and dangerous situations. Sometimes the greatest danger comes from their colleagues who may be agents working on behalf of the repressive political regime. Steinhauer lived in Romania under a Fulbright Scholarship and knows his subject very well.

MICHAEL DIBDIN, the Aurelio Zen series. These will delight you, scare you, make you laugh and appall you. The Italian bureaucracy is completely exposed with a mix of charm and contempt. Zen is a detective who is assigned to a number of the outer provinces, away from his Venice home base. Dibdin writes intelligently but with sparseness. Zen is witty and smart. He sometimes knowingly plays the boob in order to beguile those around him but he is skillful at verbal zingers. Start at the beginning with Ratking. The books will make you want to travel to every location in Italy memorialized in his books. Dibdin’s death leaves his appreciative readers with only a fixed number of books. They are easily read more than once.

ALAN FURST, The Foreign Correspondent. This book was recommended to me by my sister-in-law who is very knowledgeable about the genre and could probably write a blog of her own on this subject. It is not his only book but as I have read others, it seems to be his best. It is set in Paris in World War II during the time of the Nazi occupation. Another good one is titled Spies of the Balkans.

OVERHEARD AT THE POST OFFICE April 18, 2011 - "Tourism Training 101"

CARIBOU – Training sessions aimed at providing front line workers with the tools they need to properly prepare and welcome tourists to Aroostook County are being offered at three locations this month.
Anyone who provides services to the general public would benefit from the class, including gas station attendants, taxi drivers, front desk workers at lodging establishments, retail store clerks, convenience store clerks, waiter-waitress-host, bartender and grocery store employees.
The services are offered courtesy of the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative and are supported by funds from USDA Rural Development.

Bangor Daily News, April 14, 2011, page B3


AL: Hey, Jesse, glad I ran into you. I may be out of town for a little while.

JESSE: What’s up?

AL: My sister who lives in Aroostook County has invited me up there to enroll in Tourism Training.

JESSE: How are you going to train tourists to do anything?

AL: No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. I am going to be trained about how to welcome tourists.

JESSE: Oh? What’s wrong with the way tourists are treated right now?

AL: I will have to find out specifics when the classes start. But apparently the federal government believes that tourists are not well treated in Aroostook County.

JESSE: Are there any tourists up there?

AL: Actually, I don’t know.

JESSE: Who is paying for this training?

AL: The money is coming from some U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program.

JESSE: You mean our taxes are paying for this?

AL: Looks like it.

JESSE: Well of all the pork barrel, confounded wastes of money, this sure takes the cake. Wait a minute: is this part of the stimulus money?

AL: Could be. You know how long it takes trends to reach Aroostook County.

JESSE: If it didn’t break my frugal heart so much I could get a real laugh out of this tourism training idea.

AL: It’s more than just the USDA. Have you heard of something called the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative?

JESSE: No, no, stop, I can’t take this anymore. Help me, I just filed my tax return.

AL: Relax, Jesse. What with gas prices going up, there won’t be many people who can afford to drive to Aroostook County this summa. But if the people from away do get there, the local folks will know how to welcome them. We are learning from the experts. Who else but the government would know how to train people to take someone else’s money?

FINDING WORK IN WASHINGTON

There are reasons to respectfully disagree with the focus of the Portland Press Herald’s dismissive editorial concerning the hiring of former Governor John Baldacci to a previously-non-existent position with the Department of Defense (“Our View: Rep. Wilson grandstands on Baldacci position”, March 18, 2011).

South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson, a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, is criticizing the hiring of Governor Baldacci, who was term-limited out of office. The Press Herald’s editorial was all about condemning Rep. Wilson - he’s the hothead who cried out “You lie” during President Obama’s State of the Union Address. He may be an idiot as the editorial took pains to point out. But there was no mention of the substance of the issue which is the job itself.

A question that might be asked is whether this job is the tip of the iceberg. Is it common practice to hire elected officials rotating out of public service – Republicans or Democrats - in temporary federal jobs?

Was the position advertised and were other candidates interviewed?

Was former Governor Baldacci the best candidate for the position and was he uniquely qualified to carry out the job?

Maine’s two Republican Senators support his hiring. Did they provide job references?

Baldacci’s immediate boss and the man who hired him for one year, Clifford L. Stanley, called the former-Governor’s assignment a “deep dive review” of how the military runs its health care and wellness programs. A troubling reality is that a person who works for Secretary Stanley, Jonathan Woodson, is an assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Could it not be inferred that Woodson should know something about how the military runs its health programs since the word “health” is found in his job title?

Journalists who are “covering” this story – they more accurately seem to be reacting to it – and editorial writers who are opining about it, too, are missing the point: this isn’t about Governor Baldacci’s acceptance of a job or Rep. Wilson’s criticism. Governor Baldacci is a public servant whose reputation is above reproach. Wilson has lost credibility because of his offensive violation of House decorum and other comments. Can’t reporters rise above these givens and get to the real story? Don’t hold your breath.

Life by Keith Richards

Keith Richards, iconic guitarist for the Rolling Stones, has written a very good book called Life and I recommend that you read it. An indication of the interest in the book is that it has remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for 15 weeks.

The book starts off with a description of Richards’ arrest in Arkansas in 1975 for what he believed would turn into drug possession charges. The car he was driving erratically was packed with drugs hidden inside the door panels. Due to some legal maneuvering, the vehicle was never searched. Richards pleaded guilty to reckless driving and paid a fine of $162. Before Richards left the courtroom, the judge and prosecuting attorney asked for a photograph with the famous guitarist which he gladly provided. He’s that kind of guy.

The book reads very easily. It was put together by a writer who sat through long interviews in which Richards talked about his life. You are reading a transcript of him telling his life story in his own descriptive English words. He is fearless about revealing his feelings and some dramatic events in his life including the loss of a child. This is not some egotist rewriting a legacy with a sanitized version of events.

A charming aspect of the narrative is that the author frequently invites other people to write their recollection of a particular event or incident.

Richards was born in 1943 and raised in a suburb of London called Dartford. The early part of the book includes stories about how he overcame being bullied as a child, how he was exposed to music both listening and playing, his reasons for dropping out of art school and his days hanging about with peers who liked the same music. The language he uses is very entertaining. There isn’t a lot of dirty talk substituted for real words either. This man is self-educated and well read. He knows how to tell a good story.

Mick Jagger comes into his life because they briefly attended the same school and because he often had the 45 records that Richards and others wanted to listen to, American delta blues and rock and roll. Elvis Presley, Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry performed the music they craved to hear. The early Stones borrowed the music of their heroes in their early club performances and relied on their own take on other people’s songs until they got into the rhythm of writing their own tunes and lyrics. I still like the early mono albums.

Rolling Stone Magazine considers Richards the 10th best guitarist of all time. Some of the musicians who rank ahead of him on that list are his musical heroes including Berry and Robert Johnson.

It isn’t easy to take credit for creativity while sounding humble but Richard manages to do this as he explains the collaborative nature of the song development he birthed with Jagger. He confesses to waking up one morning and finding the tune to the song “Satisfaction” on the tape recorder he kept by his bedside.

Richards is the genius who wrote most of the music. Jagger took the tunes and wrote the lyrics. They did work together on both words and music at times. They fed off each other’s creative energy for years. These two who needed each other to reach their best ended up disliking each other personally after working, traveling and living closely together for too long.

Keith Richards conquered his 10-year drug addiction to cocaine and heroin in 1979 after going cold turkey 6 to 8 times during that decade. He lost a few close friends to drugs. His face shows the harsh treatment he put his body through. He still smokes. But he is usually photographed with a smile on his face. He has been married for 27 years and has 4 children and a couple of grand kids.

The album which to me epitomizes the high point of the band’s musical genius is Sticky Fingers, partially recorded at Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1969, just before the group went off to play the free concert in Altamont, California. In case you don’t know or have forgotten, the Hells Angels were hired to maintain the peace at this concert and ended up stabbing a concert-goer while the band performed.

Pianist Jim Dickenson writes in the book that many musicians claim that they were there in Muscle Shoals but that it was Dickenson on piano, Ian Stewart (the sixth Rolling Stone) and the 5 Stones in the recording booth for “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses”.

In my opinion, the best song on the Sticky Fingers album - and it wasn’t recorded at Muscle Shoals - is “Can’t you hear me knocking?” The recording displays Richards’ talent and ease at collaborating with other musicians. Rolling Stone Magazine calls it the 25th greatest guitar song of all time. It’s a blues-jazzy wall of sound provided by the saxophone of Bobby Keys and the lead guitar playing of Mick Taylor. But you can hear Richards steadily through the 7 minutes and 14 seconds of this song.

As for Mick Jagger, he’s there for about 2 minutes and 40 seconds singing the lyrics. After that, you hear nothing less than a great bunch of musicians hitting a creative high, handing the music off to each other.

There is much information in the book about notable people of these times including musicians, artists, politicians and ordinary people. This is a man who wants you to know what his life was like, nothing held back, presented with humor, grace and a great deal of self- awareness. Read this book.

OVERHEARD AT THE POST OFFICE FEBRUARY 16, 2011 - Beach Club

Al: Long time no see, Jesse. What’s up?

Jesse: Well, have you seen the centerfold of the new Chamber of Commerce brochure?

Al: Centerfold! Has the Chamber resorted to naked women to market the Kennebunks?

Jesse: No, no, you idiot. The centerfold is a desirable space for advertising because people naturally turn to it. The current brochure’s centerfold features resorts owned by the same group here in Kennebunkport.

Al: Tell me more.

Jesse: Well, you see, there has been a lot of buying and selling of hotels this past winter. One of the newly purchased places is the Tides Inn at Goose Rocks. It’s now called The Tides Beach Club. It is being advertised with a private beach.

Al: Private Beach! That sounds suspiciously as though the owners believe they own some part of that beach. Wait ‘til the Town and the SOB’s find out. It won’t be private for very long. I can’t wait to hear what the Judge says about that!

Jesse: The Tides Beach Club is advertising beachside services.

Al: What are beachside services? Does this mean a person can get a drink or something to eat down there on the private beach?

Jesse: That isn’t clear.

Al: Where is this private beach exactly?

Jesse: The lot is directly in front of the hotel at Goose Rocks.

Al: Does this mean if I want to go down to the beach, I can’t sit there anymore?

Jesse: You will have to take that up with the owners. Maybe you can get permission. If I were you, I’d change out of the striped shorts and plaid flannel shirt before asking. Or at least tuck in your shirt. Oh, and lose the Red Sox hat or turn it around so the bill points forward.

Al: Well isn’t the Town going to stand up for me and the other residents and stop this beach club from saying they own the beach, just as the Town is arguing with other private beach front owners?

Jesse: We will have to wait and see.

Al: Wait and see! Why would this beach club be treated different than some other beachfront owner? Are they SOB’s?

Jesse: Well, the owners of the Beach Club now own a great deal of land and property in Kennebunkport. They pay a lot of taxes to the Town. The Town doesn’t want to make the owners mad or anything. They might go somewhere else.

Al: Where are the business people going to go and find a beach like the one at Goose Rocks? And where will they find a Town to treat them so special?

Jesse: You have a point there, Al.

Al: If the Town won’t stand up for my rights then there’s only one thing for me to do. I’m going to go down to Goose Rocks right now and fill out a membership form to join that Beach Club.

Jesse: It’s not that kind of Club, Al. You see, the people who go there don’t live here.

Al: You can’t be serious. You mean, to belong to that Club you cannot live in Kennebunkport?

Jesse: You need to spend the night at one of the rented rooms to be a member of that club. You can also use the private beach if you stay at Hidden Pond Cottages.

Al: Hidden Pond? Where is that? Is it stocked?

Jesse: Hidden Pond is owned by the same business people. It’s a group of cottages up near the Clock Farm, off Fishing Pole Lane.

Al: People who like to fish can be secretive about their spots so maybe that’s why they want the pond hidden and the beach private.

But if the only people who can join that Beach Club are tourists I won’t have anything to do with them. I’ll just keep on toting my cooler and portable radio down to the public beach right next to them. It won’t bother me a bit if they want listen to the country music on my radio. On the other hand, if they like to fish, they can’t be all bad.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, PALIN STYLE

The commentary concerning the horrific mass murder in Tucson over the past weekend has ranged from thoughtful to thought provoking to downright thoughtless. The most glaring example of the latter came in a message issued by Sarah Palin. Decide for yourself by doing a Google search of her name.

What is unsettling is that Mrs. Palin picked the day of a public memorial gathering where the President spoke about the victims to launch her defense. On a day when many paused and reflected about the lives altered or quieted by this terrible incident, Mrs. Palin decided to come forward with a recorded message. Her words and her tone will be interpreted by many as provocative and will probably spin off additional public commentary focused on her words and the timing of them. The debate will shift to her again.

Some critics have linked the crosshairs images on her website with the actions of the alleged murderer. The images were removed from Palin’s website a few days ago. Crosshairs were superimposed over the photographs of 20 Democratic Congressional candidates for re-election last November, including Congresswoman Giffords, who was nearly assassinated.

There’s no evidence that this website or any other rhetoric can explain the actions of a single individual who is most likely psychotic, according to Charles Krauthammer, a psychiatrist who happens to be a columnist. I agree with him until it is proven otherwise. The crosshairs imagery is offensive on its own.

If someone advised Mrs. Palin to release her message yesterday, that person deserves to be fired or banned from offering opinions in future. If Mrs. Palin decided on her own to release the statement yesterday, then we can conclude she is lacking in both sense and sensibility.

Anyone who exhibits the poor judgment to make a day of reflection about dead and injured victims a day to issue a manifesto, is undeserving of consideration for leadership of anything other than a remote city in Alaska.

MAINE GOVERNOR'S RACE 2010 FINAL COMMENTS

Just a few final remarks about the 2010 election which we can now, thankfully, put behind us.

Voter turnout was huge. The voting percentage in Kennebunkport was 77%.

Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree, both re-elected to Congress, will serve in political “purgatory” as they are now junior members of the minority party. The good news is that they will have lots of time to help individual constituents.

As Eliot Cutler humbly pointed out on election night, before he knew the results of the Governor’s race, whoever was about to be elected was not the first choice of nearly two thirds of Maine voters.

When she knew she’d lost but didn’t know whether Cutler or LePage won, Libby Mitchell showed class in her concession remarks by pledging that Democrats would work with whoever was elected Governor.

Shawn Moody is a natural leader with great political instincts who conducted his campaign with dignity. It was refreshing to watch and listen to him during the debates. He should run for office again.

Maine lost the opportunity to be led by a fine man, Eliot Cutler. We needed the insight, experience and intelligence he would have brought to Augusta. We also lost the people he might’ve attracted to serve in his administration.

Had Angus King endorsed Cutler a week sooner, had the “fortune cookie” flyers come out a week sooner, had the polling results been available earlier which showed that Mitchell was fading and Cutler surging, had any of us who supported Cutler persuaded others to vote for him, the outcome might be different.

The vote confirms that there are indeed “Two Maines”. Cutler took the more affluent (some would say cosmopolitan) coastal towns and large cities, as well as every community on Mount Desert Island. LePage’s strength runs up the west side of the Maine Turnpike and Interstate 95 over to the New Hampshire and up to the Canadian border, the rural Maine.

Not only are there two Maines, there are two York Counties. Cutler carried the large service-center communities of Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, Sanford and incredibly, Biddeford. In many of those communities, however, the votes for LePage and Cutler were very close. LePage carried every rural town in York County and in the end garnered more total votes County-wide.

The results confirm that Maine voters are discriminating because we elected a Republican Governor and two Democratic U.S. Representatives who join two Republican Senators in Washington.

Amazingly, it was only in 1972 that Maine eliminated straight-ticket voting.

An interesting phenomenon was voters in the former manufacturing centers of Biddeford, Sanford, Lewiston and Waterville who historically voted Democratic voted Republican because of their attraction to Paul LePage, a French-Canadian who speaks French. In any other election, Democrats could bank on carrying these towns.

LePage’s Franco-American ancestry no doubt has and will continue to arouse pride in Maine’s dwindling Franco-American population. He made French language robo-calls in strategic locations prior to the June primary and recorded radio ads in French for use during the fall campaign.

About Franco-American pride, some explanation may be needed. People who have moved to Maine in the last 25 years may not realize the extent to which Maine has been populated by Francos. French-Canadians swarmed into the milltowns of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts during the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century. Those mill buildings which are being converted to condominiums housed the textile looms which were operated by the first and second generation immigrants from Canada. When I was growing up in Kennebunkport in the 1950's, downtown Biddeford served as our shopping center and it contained many speciality stores. It was common to be in a store in downtown Biddeford and hear French spoken. The other side of the presence of French Canadians was the discrimination they faced. My mother, who graduated from teacher's college (Farmington Normal School) in 1933, was not hired for a job in her hometown of Yarmouth because she was a Catholic Franco-American. She moved to New York to take a teaching position. She also remembered as a child, being in church with her mother and hearing the priest warn that the Klu Klux Klan was active in Maine and that Catholics were a target for this group. There are many reasons to celebrate the victory of a politician raised in a Franco-American household. For my grandparents, my mother and aunts and uncles, for all the French-Candadian immigrants who were discriminated against or suffered second-class status, I tip my hat to Paul LePage.

Is LePage the Sarah Palin of Maine? Both were elected Governor with limited political experience after being elected mayor. Let’s hope the resemblance ends there. Waterville has a population of about 16,000, compared with Wasilla, Alaska’s 8,500 residents.

LePage was not my first choice for Governor. But you have to admire his perseverance despite the adverse conditions of his youth. Setting his politics aside, his personal story is transformational and inspirational. His political message resonated with people who are drawn to the so-called Tea Party Movement. If he surrounds himself with good people, he may surprise all of us. I wish him well.

If anyone was driven away from the television by repetitive and scornful political ads, it is now safe to watch your favorite programs. After what we’ve seen the last 2 months, non-political advertising seems delightfully benign, optimistic and naïve.

BETTING ON BIDDEFORD: People needing people

This November, all Maine voters will decide whether a gambling casino should be permitted in Oxford County. Casino gambling is illegal in Maine. This question reached voters via a citizen-initiated referendum.

How, then, can the voters of one town, Biddeford, be permitted to bring a racino - a race track with gambling – to their community without asking other Maine residents what we think about it? It really stinks that communities near the facility will have no say in this decision.

Due to a provision in the racino law which voters approved when they said “no” to the casino in Sanford years ago, but “ok” to a racino in Bangor, an existing horse racing track may move within 25 miles to operate a racino. The proposed host town has to approve the deal. Since Scarborough voters turned down the opportunity to host a racino, Joe Ricci’s widow, Sharon Terry, owner of Scarborough Downs, has come a-courtin’ to Biddeford.

Scarborough Downs is partnered with Tom Walsh, doing business as Ocean Properties, Ltd, and a third-party investor, a “silent partner”, the entity with knowledge of the gambling industry, who has not been identified.

Who needs who? Scarborough Downs, a racetrack, needs a host town to accept the racino. The “silent partner” needs a way to operate a gaming facility in Maine. The only way to do so currently is to partner with a harness racing business. Ocean Properties Ltd.’s needs are less clear since the business seems to concentrate on hospitality facilities on the waterfront. The corporation, founded by Tom Walsh, owns nearly half the transient room accommodations in Bar Harbor, most of it waterfront. They own hotels in Canada and the United States and manage other real estate for third-party investors. You may want to Google search “Ocean Properties Ltd. and Tom Walsh” to see how vast their holdings are.

Biddeford’s Mayor Joanne Twomey is unwavering in her belief that a racino represents the kind of development the city needs because she thinks it will bring jobs. What are these jobs, how much will they pay and what skills are required? Can we be sure that only local residents will be hired?

This project, to be built near Exit 32 of the Maine Turnpike, is about the false economy of taking money out of the pockets of people who can’t afford to lose their assets, by preying on their hopes and dreams for winning some money. It’s about the city promoting a money-exchange rather than a business which might actually produce something of value. It’s an income-transfer program which would be built on city-owned land.

At a time when this proud mill city with a surplus of vacant but desirable mill buildings seems poised for a renaissance because entrepreneurs are investing in these structures, when Maine Energy Recovery Company (MERC) may be compelled to find a location outside the downtown, and as the University of New England continues to expand, a majority of the leaders of this city are placing their bets for an improved economy on a gambling operation. It’s sad that it has come to this.

Maine voters made a big mistake years ago when we let the gambling industry get a foot-in-the-door here in Maine, at what is now Hollywood Slots in Bangor. Some were persuaded to vote for that operation as a way to save the harness racing industry.

Biddeford City Councilor Clement Fleurent, who says he is morally opposed to gambling, took the trip with Mayor Twomey and other Councilors to see the Slots operation in Bangor. According to the Kennebunk Post (October 8, 2010), he called Hollywood Slots a “first class joint”. But he said that his “lasting impression was of people streaming in and out of the racino without smiles on their faces”. He gets it. Why isn’t he the Mayor?