On behalf of my cousin Elizabeth Drowne, I urge a “no” vote on March 5.
Elizabeth’s 1891 will donated her 100-acre farm to the residents of Cumberland. She requested that the farm – now the town forest – be used to support the “cause of education and that cause alone.” Excepting the early misstep of the dump, the town has generally honored this request. In 1951, the Drowne School was built. In 1957 upon the sale of the farmhouse, selectmen affirmed that “the farm should benefit the town schools.” The 2021 Bicentennial Program states the farm “was willed to the town for educational purposes.”
The Town Council now proposes to take the farm in a radically different direction. While the project may be worthy, it is decidedly not in the cause of education. Substantial acreage would be off-limits to education for several generations.
Please vote “no” on March 5.
Denny Gallaudet
Cumberland
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