Dear Editor:

The Boothbay Selectmen voted on March 28 to agree to a complex, far-reaching settlement proposal written by the town attorney and CMBG’s lawyers in order to make CMBG’s expensive lawsuits go away. In doing so, the selectmen:

• Declined to discuss the science regarding the likely impact of CMBG’s development on Knickerbocker Lake. In fact, one selectmen said to the others, “There’s an awful lot of science here to learn, but frankly I don’t want to learn it. Do you?” They did not.
• Indicated by their silence that their obligation to be “protecting the health, safety and welfare of the residents…” would not apply to the threat posed by CMBG’s development to Knickerbocker Lake or my family. Some members expressed regret about the impact on my family, but were prevented by their attorney from getting into details.
• Demonstrated that they would, if sued by a powerful developer, erase eight months of hard work by the five members of the board of appeals. This agreement vacates the entire BOA decision rather than simply overturning the one vote on which the BOA disagreed with CMBG. Why would anyone serve on town boards now? It’s hard, undervalued work already; now we know it can be dismissed altogether.
• Confessed that they knew very little about CMBG’s development, and very little about the concerns of those opposed to it. Their decision to confirm this settlement, given that lack of knowledge, had no basis other than the desire to avoid a lawsuit.

So what did we learn? Among other things, we learned that justice goes to the highest bidder, town government is short-sighted, and good nonprofits with bad leadership do bad things. Not surprising, but still real problems.

And we learned, embarrassingly, that fiction can become fact where money is involved. The town now pretends that CMBG is not a museum and is instead similar to an educational facility. For proof otherwise, Google either “2 CFR 3187.3” or “botanical gardens living museum” and ask yourself how a museum with 3 percent of its visitors taking classes now poses as a school.

And please, think about the consequences of this fiction.

Jason Anthony

Bristol