Your Dec. 16 editorial attacks the Portland Water District (PWD) for telling the Standish officials to stop maintaining our property without permission. You call our actions “baseless and a punch in the stomach to Standish…”
I wholeheartedly disagree. It seems totally reasonable to ask permission to use someone else’s property for a large or long-term event. The Sno-Seekers have asked for, and been granted, permission to use PWD for a winterfest rally the past few years. The Windham Rotary has asked for, and been granted, permission for an ice fishing derby the past few years.
But the Town Council believed it did not need to ask permission – it believed it had the right to use PWD land as its own. PWD disagreed and went to Superior Court to make its case. Superior Court rejected the town’s arguments and agreed with PWD’s position. The Town Council has appealed Superior Court’s decision, but until the appeal is decided the Superior Court decision stands.
Within days of the Court’s decision, Standish Public Works dispatched a highway grader to maintain PWD’s property. PWD responded with a “cease and desist letter.” Somehow the town councilors were surprised by PWD’s letter because they hadn’t been told to stay off the property (though the legal arguments had been going back and forth in Court for nearly two years). When they received such instructions, they were “affronted.” Somehow PWD is at fault for not expressly telling the town to stay off our property without permission, and then is at fault to telling them just that.
The key point made by PWD is that land use should not be taken for granted, but granted by permission. And, yes, conditions and restrictions may come with permission. That’s the way it is with leases, licenses, permits and so forth. Your editorial sympathizes with the Standish Town Manager for not wanting to ask PWD for permission because it might weaken their appeal. But what if PWD stands idly by while the town continues to use our land without permission – wouldn’t that weaken our position on appeal?
The editorial questions “If the District can be trusted…” But PWD has been absolutely consistent in its desire to control activity at the boat launch area. We’ve made numerous offers of land on both sides of the lake. We’ve offered to pay for a relocated state-of-the-art launch facility on land that could also support a beach and other recreational activities. It is not spite, as suggested in the editorial and accompanying story, that led PWD to issue its cease & desist letter, it was a last resort.
Paul Thomas Hunt
Portland Water District
Environmental Services Manager
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