Dear Editor:

Having read the proposal for the Boothbay TIF district, I strongly encourage everyone to do as the town manager suggested and inform yourselves of this plan. We have to ask: Whose idea was this and who benefits the most if it's enacted; 272 acres is a lot of territory to write off to industrial/commercial development, especially when it includes the town Common and surrounding properties.

I feel the private interests involved in this proposal have an agenda for development that, if allowed to happen, would forever change the integrity and traditions of the town's heritage. That the Industrial Park and its occupants should be given encouragement to expand and create some more decent paying jobs is a fine idea. But to open up the area as proposed is questionable at best.

The preliminary concept drawing shows a rotary around the Civil War monument that is apparently no bigger than the current roadway footprint. Think about how big a radius a tractor-trailer truck needs to safely navigate and you'll realize that more land will have to be swallowed up for this part of the project to happen. At this intersection we see one of the oldest burial grounds in the town fronted by a town park that is home to a veterans memorial. On the next corner stands a home that is on the National Historic Register. Then the town offices and finally the Common itself. Can any of these locations stand the encroachment this proposal requires?

What might become of the properties fronting the Common? We have a church, homes and several small businesses doing fine where they are and complimenting the landscape that is our town's traditional common space. Given the proximity to the Common of real estate holdings already in the hands of those proposing the TIF, we have to wonder what agenda is waiting in the wings that might forever drastically alter the one focal point of unity the town of Boothbay has.

Boothbay residents need to pay close attention to the events unfolding in our town. I feel this project steals more from us as a community than it gives back. 

Earl F. Leavitt Jr.
Boothbay