It’s time to vote!
The experts expect low turnout for Election Day 2017.
With no major offices on the ballot, no president or senator or governor to elect, many Mainers plan to sit this one out.
If you’re one of those Mainers, we urge you to reconsider.
Next week’s vote will have a long-lasting impact on health care policy in our state – and that’s just one issue.
In Damariscotta and Wiscasset, local referendums will influence the appearance and economy of these towns for many years.
You have the opportunity to change the future of your community and your state. Don’t let it pass you by.
And if you don’t vote, don’t complain!
Referendums
A further note on the statewide referendum issues: you will find the questions and a summary of their impact on page 5, as well as the hours and locations of polling places.
The summary includes only information from the “Maine Citizen’s Guide to the Referendum Election,” which compiles the actual text of the bill behind each question and fiscal and legal analysis from state agencies.
“What does each question actually do?” is the question this summary attempts to answer.
The summary does not attempt to encompass the many philosophical arguments for and against the referendum questions, particularly Question 2. Nor does it attempt to resolve the dispute about the success – or lack thereof – of Maine’s previous Medicaid expansion.
We did not think it would be particularly valuable to regurgitate these arguments, nor did we think it likely that we would resolve the dispute. You can find these arguments in the letters on our opinion pages.
What we did think would be helpful, including to ourselves as voters, is to know what the laws will actually say and do if we pass them. There were a couple surprises in there, at least to us. We hope you find it helpful.
The storm
We at The Lincoln County News want to send a big thank you to everyone behind the ongoing cleanup from the great windstorm of Sunday-Monday, Oct. 29-30.
To the first responders, police officers, utility workers, ambulance crews, and emergency dispatchers, we appreciate your hard work to keep our community safe.
We want to single out the volunteer firefighters who were out in the rain and wind early Monday with chainsaws and traffic cones in an effort to avoid tragedies and keep most roads passable.
Many of us dread Monday mornings to begin with. Can you imagine, hours before your alarm goes off, going out into hurricane-like conditions, then spending the rest of the day going from one trouble spot to the next, each job popping up before you can finish the last, all while there may be power out and trees down at your own home or workplace?
For many of these folks, to respond to a call is to lose money. Many own small businesses. Think about it: if you’re a landscaper or a plumber and you charge, say, $40 or $60 per hour, then you respond to a call where you make minimum wage, give or take a few dollars, or maybe nothing, it’s not hard to see how you finish the day with less money in your pocket.
There were a lot of exhausted and exasperated voices on the scanner Monday.
To the men and women behind those voices, thank you for your service.
And if you’re looking for a way to help after the devastation of Monday’s storm, there’s no better way we can think of than to join your local fire department or first responders unit.
LCN outage
The last couple days have been unusual ones at The Lincoln County News office. The power was out when we arrived Monday morning and did not come back until late Tuesday afternoon. At press time, we are expecting another outage.
A generator kept a few lights and computers on. Unfortunately not the bathroom lights, and our crew is grateful to be able to use the bathroom without a flashlight again.
The generator was also not powerful enough to run the equipment in the print shop, including the newspaper press.
For a few hours Tuesday, when we did not know how long the outage might last, we were frantically calling every other newspaper in the state with a printing press to see if someone could print the paper this week.
Fortunately we were able to print it ourselves, but we are grateful for the offers of help we received.
We are also grateful this week will not go into The Lincoln County News history books as “the week the paper didn’t come out!”
We take great pride in the reliability of our product. People notice when we’re a few minutes late, let alone a day or a week!
To everyone who still lacks power, see the front-page article about the storm for information about warming centers and other services. We will continue to post updates about available services on our website and Facebook page.
