Dear Editor:

I used to enjoy my nice morning commute to work; a stop at the post office to collect the mail and then a drive through downtown and up to my place of work on Route 27. This summer my morning drive has not been so pleasant due to an odor that, depending on the day and wind direction, I can smell when I reach the post office.

It is an odor I know all too well. Having grown up with a lobsterman and purse seiner for a dad and currently living with a fisherman, I recognize the smell of bait.

I pondered why, after all the years that I have lived here and have not smelled bait on a regular basis, that I am smelling it now. I have watched on more than one occasion the truck drivers who deliver the bait to the fish pier, rinse their trucks out at the pier and then drive out of town.

Upon their drive out, the trucks are draining the bait juice all over the roadway, creating the odor as you drive in and out of town. Just this morning I could not only smell but see the runoff from downtown to the center in Boothbay.

I believe it is time for the management of the fish pier to rethink the allowing of the truck drivers to rinse the trucks. The town did not tolerate this type of activity when the property was leased to Kettle Fish, so why are we now?

This is a blatant disrespect to the neighbors of the fish pier as well as local businesses and residents of not only Boothbay Harbor but Boothbay and visitors to the region.

Jodi Brewer
Boothbay Harbor