Dear Editor:

One definition of a carpetbagger that I found says “Anyone from the North who goes to the South for political or financial advantage.”

It's not often that I've had a chance to sit down and break bread with a real live carpetbagger. He's from up north in Lewiston way and used to come here as a child in the summer. Like most of us summer kids he fell in love with the place the minute he arrived. He came here in the Fifties while I beat him by arriving in the Thirties. Both of us returned later in life with a dream. Mine was to start a magazine and write some books. As a carpetbagger, his plan was much more grand.

He started his shenanigans by purchasing the sorriest golf course in the state. People snickered until the old clubhouse came down and a magnificent new one was in its place the following golfing season. In the meantime the hospital had a new health facility and the ambulance service a new building. As if this wasn't enough, he took on a very tired motel on the east side and in one winter turned it into a masterpiece. By the way, this carpetbagger re-opened that motel to a large number of us semi frozen citizens after that bad stretch of cold weather last fall. He fed us, too. For seven days.

And now he's got a great idea for certain parts of the east side. He's bought Cap’n Fish old motel and another property nearby. He plans to build some very attractive dining and living establishments and a fish store and marina. There have been nine planning board meetings on this project so far, so they haven't gone easy on this old carpetbagger.

So what's the catch? What's he getting out of this? As an acquaintance of this gent, I'd sure like to pocket the money he's lost on these various projects. As he's told me on various occasions, “Mrs. Coulombe thinks I should be institutionalized, because I'm losing my shirt on these projects. I'm doing it because I love this place and the people here.”

Maybe he's not a carpetbagger after all.

Robert Foster III

Boothbay