Dear Editor:

Certainly we hope not and make no assertions, believing instead his actions as governor are simply those of a two-bit politician who, having greatness thrust upon him, promptly becomes a blunderbuss, acting the fool and creating messes wherever he steps.

Is this, then, why he spurned those he was sworn to protect, Mainers living on the shores of Flagstaff Lake, when they complained that Florida Power & Light, a large out-of-state utility company and owners of a dam controlling water levels in the lake was violating terms of its agreement, causing residents economic hardship and hazardous health issues?

Could one suggest lack of wisdom in this classic spat between citizens and corporate interests, which provided our governor with justification to rig the contract renewal process so that Mainers lost and the corporation won? And by employing finesse that would leave a Mississippi riverboat gambler blushing?

Maine's attorney general alerted the governor and his hand-picked commissioner of Environmental Protection (you can't make this stuff up), formerly a registered lobbyist with FP&L as a client, that the state must, before a specified deadline, request reopening contract negotiations between FP&L and the Federal government if Flagstaff Lake residents were to be given a chance to air their grievances.

Failure to act by this date would deny that opportunity. Worse, under existing terms and conditions, the contract would automatically renew for 25 years.

In other words, the governor need only raise a finger and Flagstaff Lake residents would get their day in court.

Hardly a reticent man, Mr. LePage now acted the deaf mute. The deadline passed and the contract was renewed.

Shortly thereafter FP&L sold the Flagstaff Lake dam and other such facilities in Maine for better than $750,000,000.

Paul E. McArdle

Boothbay, Maine