Dear Editor:

Have we forgotten what makes Edgecomb a wonderful community? Instead of working together to resolve issue, Edgecomb citizens fractured into opposing camps. Criticizing is easier than fixing. We must commit to making Edgecomb work for the whole community.

With Stuart Smith's campaign to run for select board again, I revisited newspaper archives recounting the significant missteps occurring under Smith's "guidance" during his previous tenure a decade ago: accounting errors, miscalculated tax mil rates, uninformed decisions leading to poorly handled lawsuits, all costing Edgecomb thousands of dollars. Others in town more closely involved can better explain these costly events. I'll focus on what I know firsthand.

A decade ago, Edgecomb faced a crisis with its website inadequacies. Information was outdated or non-existent. The planning board, legally required to post notices, ordinances and permit applications, needed the website. The site did not update citizens about the select board agendas or actions, or help them understand and access town hall services. Most were unaware there was even a town website.

Smith built and controlled edgecomb.org and was unresponsive to its need for updating with then-current technology. A group of citizens, responding to the new select board's request, voluntarily undertook building a website from scratch. They spent long, uncompensated hour coordinating and designing an economically viable site addressing the townspeople's needs. Refusing to release the URL to the town when Smith left office, it took more than a year before he chose to sell edgecomb.org to the town -- one more cost.

Edgecomb has changed in the last decade. Size, demographics, technology, state regulations, and the role of town staff, school, boards and committees are all more complex. We who have brought the town this far need to step aside and allow for more energy, new people, versed in today's needs and possibilities.

Forrest Carver is part of that new energy. He has been civically active as an EMT and fire department volunteer, a participant on committees, and the prime mover of the 250th Birthday Road Race, all while raising his young family in town, and successfully managing his business (Bath Cycle & Ski). Forrest seeks dialogue, listens and works toward collegial solutions, while balancing the bottom line. He is definitely the select board candidate for today's Edgecomb.

Jane Blevins

Edgecomb