To the Editor:
Bremen town meeting is next Sat., March 28. I urge all voters to attend.
My last letter addressed two warrant articles that could conceivably alter the waterfront and the commercial fisheries district. It seems that one article, 52, has been re-drafted and will be added as an amendment to the warrant – right under the wire. This article is particularly pernicious. It has the potential to destroy bit by bit the commercial fisheries district.
It will allow one property to be singled out of the district because of its clam flat and deemed residential. Since when is a clam flat not viable as a commercial waterfront? Deep water is not the only criteria. The whole idea of a district is to protect the whole; you cannot defend the whole if it has loopholes and exceptions. This loophole could be used by any property owner presently or in the future to do the same. I suspect, too, that future appeals to do the same would be made by those with the means to exercise such a loophole.
Does the town have equally deep pockets to protect itself? We are that source of funds, through our ability to vote NO. I am so discouraged – and angered – to hear one plea: to save the working waterfront and then have such a devastating, personal article presented which is clearly not in support of protecting and maintaining the commercial fisheries. I suspect the former plea is only as good as its means to its personal end. Let us defend what some have struggled to maintain and send a clear message that Bremen’s end as a working waterfront is not in our lifetime.
Olivia Atherton, Bremen
