Dear Editor:

I was so disappointed to learn recently of the transformation of the Cuckolds into a luxury inn. Growing up in the Boothbay region, I have long seen the lighthouse off of Newagen as an emblem of the romance and unpredictability of the voracious ocean, an ark of harbor history, and I waited years in the hopes of it becoming publicly accessible.

However, I am dismayed that the cost of public access has been the privileging of exclusivity. The new inn's publicity is almost oxymoronic in tone — on the one hand touting the project as a community initiative and on the other promising that, for an exorbitant price, the island may be temporarily closed to the public by anyone willing to pay. The influence of Paul Coulombe on its final form has been well-documented, and the results smack of the same encroaching pretension as the misleadingly renamed "Boothbay Harbor" Country Club.

I am familiar with the allure of exclusive big ticket events as insurance of sustainability for museums in a difficult economic climate, but I also know that this is a facile, lazy strategy most often adopted by those unwilling to dream up sufficiently compelling programming.

The Cuckolds are a testament to the rough-edged beauty of Maine, to rocks stripped by storms and beacons guiding ships to safe harbor. In short, they have character — a character entirely out-of-keeping with such gentrification.

Boothbay does need to draw visitors, it does benefit from museums and grassroots efforts from its citizens, and it is hard to see that local spirit and verve swallowed by the power of money.

Alison Rittershaus
Trevett