To the Editor:
This letter has a theme, as does my campaign for Selectman in Edgecomb. That theme may best be summed up in a quote from a poem all of us remember, as follows;
“Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings– ”
First, let me indicate what reasons have led me to run for this office. The Town of Edgecomb has a Select Board that essentially represents one small part of the town, the Northwest corner. There is a large part of the town, particularly the east and south of the town, which seems to be left out of the book.
High on the list of issues critical to the whole town is broadband access. A Broadband Committee has been in place for some time, but information has been hard to come by and general citizen input to the Committee, other than “we need broadband!” has been minimal.
I have also noted the warrant item passed by the town in the 2008 Town Meeting to effect a longstanding agreement to exchange the town-owned Lallis property for the BRLT-owned Church property. This operation seems to remain on hold; not mentioned in the Selectmen’s report in the current Annual report.
Another issue brought up in a recent Select Board meeting concerned the decision to terminate town support of the Wiscasset Public Library. Comments from citizens at that meeting were very much in favor of the Library, but there had been no discussion with the Town in general before that decision was made.
I learned that support of the Wiscasset Library has been added to this year’s Warrant, and now that the Warrant is finally available, I see that that is so. Minutes of meetings later than March 30, when such a decision by the Board most likely was made, are, as I write this letter, not yet on the town website.
Associated with incompleteness of the town website, the town calendar there did not list the all-important Town Meeting about the local school budget that happened last week. Very few of the town residents knew of that Town Meeting, and only a minimal number attended.
As for my quote above, I am running with the desire to be a cabbage, covering the basic ground of the whole town, enriching the knowledge of its people about issues of the town, and cultivating those issues before the town with input from the entire town.
Edgecomb need not be run by a triumvirate of kings, such as I feel has just now happened with this year’s Warrant. For instance, the town is asked to vote on three ordinances, but I am unaware of any public meetings or public hearings about these ordinances, a process that is general for such items, and a process that I, if a Selectman, would have certainly followed.
Bruce Cameron, Candidate,
Edgecomb Board of Selectmen, Edgecomb
