“One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.”
John Steinbeck, author

Did at least one Windham town councilor mention a rain tax? I presume that’s a take-off of what the city of Portland is doing and just another reason why I will never live in that city again. That tax supposedly helps pay for improvements to the storm water system, which evidently the city of Portland never properly funded in the past. Storm water, perhaps illegally, is getting into the sewer system. Property owners are taxed on the amount of impervious surfaces on their properties unless they can figure out how to effectively stop the runoff into city drains.

I almost believe such a tax wouldn’t happen in Windham unless a group of taxoholics gets elected, then anything can happen. As best as I can guess, the town of Windham doesn’t have a large storm runoff system like Portland’s, although there is, of course, storm runoff. One can easily see it in the Pleasant River and in streams, and several of them now have problems. As more and more of Windham continues to see development take place, the amount of impervious surface will increase, which will increase storm runoff. If this trend continues, I would have to imagine Windham will have to do more.

Since I mentioned Portland, I have been monitoring the push for PTO (paid time off), which would accumulate one hour per 30 worked for up to 40 hours a year, Gee, when I started working this was called vacation time. Is this something not included as vacation time? Combine that with a push for sick time and family leave and pretty soon we’ll have as much time off as those who work in France. That is if they aren’t out demonstrating against their government and burning vehicles and other things. Sorry for digressing to France, but I had a cup of coffee there once and found it so disgusting I never went back. I will admit that a French apple brandy from Normandy called Calvados is really good, especially if one can afford the expensive versions of it.

Since I mentioned government taking more money away from us, how about a Maine legislator’s proposal to tax the fuels we use to heat our homes? Oh, this proposal sounds good since the tax would be used to help insulate homes that need it. I am sure many do because my wife and I have lived in a couple of them. We even increased the insulation factor for our home in order to save money on heating costs.

But don’t worry and be happy because the Maine Department of Environmental Protection sunk Windham’s North Windham sewer project into the mud. Talk about committing sewercide once again. A sewer system right over North Windham’s aquifer is not good. The interim town manager mentioned moving it to the other side of Route 302, which might be a lot better location. I hope there’s no aquifer there. Will even more studies be needed because of this?

Lane Hiltunen of Windham wonders where all of the global warming went to.

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