Dear Editor:

I have watched with great interest the discussion concerning the roundabout proposal and the future plans for the area known as Boothbay Center. In the interest of full disclosure let me say that I think both are great ideas and that the roundabout will help address what has been described as “a mess,” that being the traffic at the Center. The naysayers involved in the discussion use any number of reasons in their argument but the most amusing is the bemoaning the destruction of our “quaint fishing village atmosphere.”

Those folks must mostly be somewhat recent transplants to our little peninsula because they certainly have a much more romantic idea of this concept then I. When I grew up here it was at the tail end of what might be called the “fishing village” era. In those days, living in a “fishing village” meant that at odd hours of the night the thrum of heavy diesels could be heard, followed by the bright lights and loud voices associated with unloading. In the morning you were greeted by the sound of diesel and gas marine engines, hammers on steel hulls, caulking irons, grinders and the scream of sandblasters. This cacophony of sound was accompanied by the smell of Malpaque and the Freezer (especially if the gurry trucks were full on a hot August day) and the disagreeable effluvium from the sewer plant. Either way, the “atmosphere” of this “quaint fishing village” could make your eyes water, depending on the direction of the wind, but to us locals it mainly meant jobs and prosperity

Most of that is long gone now, the industries those things belonged to have moved on and we are left with a service industry for retirees and an ever more competitive tourist business. It seems as though the potential for greater safety and an effort to help not only beautify the Center but accommodate future growth would be an easy decision but the romantics among us are going to stick to their fantasies I suppose. To listen to some we should all be dressed in nankeen trousers and Guernsey sweaters instead of Carhartts and sweatshirts.

Linc Sample

Boothbay Harbor