Retire bond before building town office

To the editor,

Thank you Kennebunkport voters for recognizing the cost of living in our town. I view the no vote on a new town hall not as a rejection of the idea, but as a wake-up call to our town leaders to exercise the same fiscal restraint that residents do in their own homes and families.

I think most are in agreement that more and better work space for town employees is a good idea, but is it an immediate need? It would add more debt to the town parcel bond, which already represents a large, long-term cost to taxpayers, and one that is likely to increase over its life, given the bond’s structure and current interest rates.

Let’s retire that bond before incurring another multi-million-dollar expense. If selling some town-owned property and applying those funds to the parcel bond will accelerate that process, let’s do it. And it wouldn’t hurt to think of ways to offset the cost of a town hall before bringing that idea to the voters again.

I read recently that Kennebunkport’s tax rate is well below that paid by residents of Kennebunk and Arundel. That’s something to be proud of, and we must find ways to maintain that status, because it’s essential to keeping Kennebunkport affordable for working families and retirees. One way to do that is to prioritize expensive projects rather than asking for them all at once. Given a relatively even and manageable tax burden, taxpayers/voters are more likely to support good investments in our town.

Rita Brown

Kennebunkport

Demand ban on assault weapons

To the editor,

One simple action could make a difference: Call 283-1101 to contact Sen. Collins at her Biddeford office and ask her helpful staff to tell the senator to forcefully speak out and vote for legislation to ban assault weapons. Insist that she take immediate action to remove the citizens of Maine from the line of fire from assault weapons.

Note: In 1994 Congress enacted a federal assault weapons ban which expired on Sept. 13, 2004. When it expired, assault weapons and large-capacity magazines were legalized, unless banned by state or local laws.

Where assault weapons are used there are nearly six times as many people shot, more than twice as many people killed, and 23 times as many people wounded on average.

Joanne Hulsey

Kennebunk

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.