Those opposing the CMP corridor in Woolwich need to vote Nov. 5 

Town after town along the proposed 145-mile Central Maine Power transmission line corridor has voted to oppose the project or rescind support. But despite the growing opposition, bureaucrats in Augusta have continued to push this unpopular project forward. 

That’s why I joined with fellow Woolwich residents Sherri Harvey, Rachel Murphy and Ruth Herring recently to turn in petitions to give the residents of our town a voice in the ongoing debate. 

On Nov. 5, our community will vote on two questions. They read, “To see if the Town will vote to oppose the Central Maine Power (CMP) New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) 145 Mile Hydro-electric Transmission Line Project from Quebec border through the State of Maine?” 

The second question reads: “To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Selectmen to submit a letter of opposition to: Central Maine Power (CMP) New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC), Maine Public Utilities Commission, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and Maine Land Use Planning Commission; on behalf of the Inhabitants of the Town of Woolwich in the event that Article #1 is passed with a YES vote?” 

If you oppose the proposed CMP corridor, I urge you to vote ‘Yes’ on both questions on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at the Woolwich Central School Cafeteria at 137 Nequasset Rd.  

Dani Friend, 

Woolwich 

Land Trust deserves to celebrate its success 

As board president of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust (BTLT), I feel compelled to respond to a letter from Jeanne Johnson published in Sept. 13’s Times Record.  The letter suggests that BTLT’s conservation of Crystal Spring Farm is the only step the organization has taken in its nearly 40-year history to respond to the pressures development places on the area’s farmland and other fragile habitats.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

BTLT was formed in 1985 to respond to the very development pressures the writer refers to. Before undertaking the conservation of Crystal Spring Farm in 1994, we had conserved over 450 acres in Brunswick and Topsham, primarily farmland but also public parks, forestlands, and valuable shoreline habitat. Still, the effort to protect Crystal Spring Farm was landmark for our community. The historic farm was slated to become dozens of private homes, and the land trust stretched its resources to bring the community together around a vision for a future that included more than suburban development. 

If we had had unlimited capacity from the start, we certainly would have done more to conserve farmland and habitat that were being developed at that time, but our resources were and remain limited. We have worked hard throughout our existence to protect open space, water access, trail connections, and farmland. Currently, that includes over 2,700 acres conserved, with just over half of that farmland. We also work to secure the future of wild- and farmlands by engaging the community with the land, teaching children to understand where their food comes from and to love the natural world, and providing space for nearly 40 local farmers to sell their products to the community at the farmers’ market we run at Crystal Spring Farm, one of the best in New England. 

While we recognize that much remains to be done, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate our successes. BTLT and its 1,000+ members are proud of all our relatively small organization has accomplished, and we are determined to continue working with our many partner organizations and individuals to build on this record of conservation achievement. 

Emily Swan, 

Brunswick 

Support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 

When you think about HIV, malaria, or tuberculosis, do you think about death? If so, reconsider. For the past 17 years, an extraordinarily effective institution has helped save 27 million people from death caused by those three diseases. 

It’s called the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the U.S. helped create it in 2002. Since then, the U.S. has been the leading funder, and the rest of the world looks to us when deciding on how much they should contribute. Without the U.S. providing one-third of the financial resources for the Global Fund, many of those lives would have been lost. 

This is the kind of foreign aid that we can be proud of: efficient, effective, and equitable. 

The Global Fund can now save 16 million more lives by 2022. But it needs at least $14 billion to do it. The path to finally ending these diseases is before us, and it’s up to us–through Congress–to do it. We must rise to the challenge. 

I thank Rep. Pingree for her previous support of the Global Fund, and urge her to sign onto bipartisan resolutions in the House (H.Res. 517) affirming the U.S. commitment to fund at least one-third of the $14 billion needed to replenish the Global Fund. 

Carolyn Prouty, 

Phippsburg