Letters to the Editor

To the editor,

With their resounding rejection of the recent infamous effort to recall two highly effective members of our school board, the people of Kennebunk have made it clear they do not want regressive politics interfering with our school system.

Now, with the upcoming election in June, we have a great opportunity. It is to support a board that will continue to be:

A.) energetically focused on the academic success and personal development of ALL of our students and,

B.) one that supports our dedicated teachers and other RSU 21 personnel to whom we have entrusted our children.

It is with this in mind that I will be voting for Claudia Sayre and Gayle Asmussen Spofford for RSU 21 Board of Directors and I encourage all other Kennebunk voters to do the same.

Tom Berry

Kennebunk

Marking the select board ballot

To the editor,

When deciding to vote for a candidate for any position, I methodically assess their values, positions taken over time and accomplishments. Additionally, I weigh their level of engagement, consistency, impact and judgment. Based on these actions, it is overwhelmingly clear that on June 14, 2022, I will mark my Kennebunk Select Board ballot for Miriam Whitehouse.

Miriam is considered by all who know her to be knowledgeable, hard-working, and community focused. She is committed to leaving no stone unturned when it comes to advocating for the people of Kennebunk. I have particularly been impressed by her ability to offer suggestions and seek solutions. She is genuinely interested in the entire community, but equally concerned about the individual needs of all.

Miriam and husband, Jonathan, are longtime residents of Kennebunk. She has served our community as a volunteer in numerous capacities. She served on the Kennebunk High School principal Interview Search Committee, Kennebunk Economic Development Committee and Lower Village Committee, to name a few. Additionally, she has volunteered in all Maine Regional School Unit 21 schools in support of our students and staff. Miriam’s dedication to our community makes her a powerhouse and an obvious choice for the Kennebunk Select Board. It has been said, “To whom much is given, much is required.” As the town of Kennebunk has given much to Miriam and her family, she has an unyielding desire to serve her community in return.

I am confident that Miriam will provide the leadership needed to continuously move our community forward. Based on this and more, I will vote for her. I ask that you do the same.

Kenneth B. Cooper

Kennebunk

Signs, signs, lighting up the signs

To the editor,

Susan Graham’s column “Post Office Conversations” illustrates how, as the senator says, rigged elections are the path from Democracy to Autocracy, and raises several interesting local questions. I was curious as to why anyone would want to locate and identify town-owned properties in the dark, or as the lawyers like to say, “in the night season.”

In an emergency, you can call them on the telephone, and if it wasn’t an emergency, it could wait till daylight and normal business office hours.

George, who lives in the basement apartment next door, said he’d heard similar comments on Kennebunkport’s proposal to place internally lit signs on town-owned properties. But his concern was not the evolution of our form of government, or even whose annual budget had a surplus large enough to undertake the illumination of town property signage, but rather would the internally lighted signage be season-sensitive.

That is, would the equipment glow orange for Halloween, blue and white for Hanukkah, red and green for Christmas, a steady red, white and blue for Memorial weekend, and a flashing or twinkling red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July?

Orrin Frink

Kennebunkport

Towns or resorts?

To the editor,

Affordable housing efforts are coming along, thanks to the Maine Legislature. But they don’t face the heart of this high-end problem. I see two ways toward better fairness.

First, a house or development that is partially funded with subsidies should be affordable — not for 25 or 30 years, but as long as the house exists.

Second, our towns are now allowing B&B’s to make a huge amount of money in our residential neighborhoods. This trend is preventing ordinary people from living here. These B&Bs call themselves B&B’s, but they are not.

Traditionally, a B&B is an owner occupied house that rents out a bedroom or two. They have made it possible for retired folks and others to remain in their homes. But many of the high-end B&B’s are not occupied by their owners. Some are owned out-of-state, many are breaking up neighborhoods, all are driving up home prices.

Tourists pay up to $7,000 per week to spend their vacation in B&B’s that are really hotels. This trend is bad for residents as well as the real hotels and motels that do business in our commercial zones.

Here’s the heart of my proposed law. B&B’s must be owner occupied. Hotels and inns must be located in commercial zones. (Spot zoning may allow inns that have long existed as commercial establishments.) These businesses must abide by the laws and tax rates that apply to hotels and motels. Period.

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