Dear Editor:

I first came to Boothbay Harbor in 1970 as a foreign student to work in a seasonal job on the East Side. Lived in a camper the first summer, rented a room on Atlantic Avenue in subsequent years. My first summer’s work paid for my last year of college and summer work, plus jobs elsewhere, supported me through a graduate degree at Orono. I still have good friends from that time and five East Siders were in our wedding party. And I have many treasured memories of friends and long gone characters.

We returned to Boothbay Harbor 40 years ago next month. We have lived here the full four season cycle; no second home, no winter months in warmer climes. My wife and our son was born in St. Andrews. I was elected selectman twice and county commissioner once. I never spent a dollar on a campaign; no signs, full page ads or telephone surveys. I have worked in a small family business, been self-employed, worked part-time, seasonal, and even worked in faraway Wiscasset. Yes, there have been changes.

For me the East Side, its people, its heritage, and its working waterfront encapsulates what makes Boothbay Harbor the place that it is. I have always liked the people, the working waterfront, the harbor itself and the open views to the west, particularly at sunset. That is what brought me here in the first place, brought me back and kept me here. It is what brings people here, and brings them back year after year. Boothbay Harbor is still a real place and still itself.

The East Side I described is under threat by over development. A community is made up of more than expensive buildings and seasonal businesses. We need year-round people, year-round jobs, working waterfront, public access, and affordable, year-round housing.

The proposed changes to the height ordinances will adversely affect our waterfront. It will crowd the shoreline and block out views. One just has to look at Chandlers Wharf in Portland, and many other threatened coastal communities, to see what could happen here. We must not lose this critical waterfront and everything it means.

That is why I am voting NO on Article 3.

John W. O’Connell

W. Boothbay Harbor