Dear Editor:

What a long, strange road it’s been. And it’s getting longer and stranger. The more desperate CMBG becomes, the worse their behavior. It was foolhardy when they built several huge parking lots in the Knickerbocker watershed even though their permits were under appeal. It was weird when, after being fined by DEP for frequently muddying the stream running to Knickerbocker, they made vague accusations of “sabotage”. It was disturbing when, as they realized they were about to lose their permit at the Board of Appeals, they concocted a last-minute conspiracy theory about two upstanding citizens who had voted against them. And it’s downright bizarre now that CMBG is using that conspiracy theory to sue the town in both federal and state courts.

Increasingly aggressive, CMBG has recently forced the Water District, the Board of Appeals, the Selectmen, and other Boothbay town employees to print out thousands of pages of emails and documents to satisfy antagonistic FOIA requests.

In one final, desperate legal attack, CMBG is hoping to bully everyone into submission. Their four lawyers are especially eager to scare the Boothbay Selectmen with a threat of long, expensive courtroom proceedings. Which is why CMBG has said it will force the town to pay their legal fees if they win their bias claim in federal court.

What kind of tax-exempt nonprofit risks contaminating a town’s drinking water, and then threatens to force taxpayers to pay for the lawyers defending that likely contamination?

Because of its ambition to be a national tourist attraction, CMBG no longer cares about the Boothbay community. So how should Boothbay respond?

As a reminder, the only reason my family and others are fighting CMBG is to remove the small portion of their development in the Knickerbocker watershed. Relocating just four (out of 11) parking lots would protect your drinking water, my family, and several wetlands. The best science available tells us that CMBG’s parking lots pose a threat to the lake. We’re not trying to harm CMBG; rather, we’re trying to keep CMBG from harming all of us.

Jason Anthony

Bristol