To the Editor:
“Cockamamie:” “ludicrous, nonsensical”, American Heritage Dictionary.
The Newcastle Selectmen have apparently decided not to put the proposed Village Center zoning changes to March Town Meeting. That’s a sound decision, but probably won’t end the matter.
This proposal has been around for about three years, driven along by a few interested parties. Those opposing it thought we had killed it two years ago, but here it is revised and dressed up in new clothes. Now it has the Newcastle Planning Board as its sponsor. It’s a veritable phoenix, though I can think of several less favorable metaphors.
Don’t think it has gone away. The interested parties are really interested, and will continue to change its clothing, and present it to the Town.
The real danger may be that it won’t be considered at the annual Town Meeting. It may quietly appear at a Special Town Meeting. As we all know, Special Town Meetings are dangerous affairs: poorly advertised and even more poorly attended.
To present such a fundamental change at a Special Town Meeting would be a gross miscarriage of democracy. I hope and believe our present Selectmen would not make such a decision, but nonetheless, “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
Jonathan C. Hull, Newcastle
