…or don’t complain
Ah, June. What town meetings weren’t held in March will be held this month. The summer weather – if it ever arrives this year – will tend to make these later meetings more strained, hotter. Especially when the political climate is already tense.

A lot of towns in western Maine will vote on expensive new building construction or changes in emergency services.

In Phillips, voters will evaluate a new option for ambulance service. Buckfield voters will consider a new highway garage. Townspeople in Bethel will vote on disbanding the municipal police department. Citizens in SAD 9 will tackle approval of a growing school budget.

There are strong opinions on all sides of these issues, and voters are already simmering.

Maine has a proud history of town-meeting style government, a system where residents approve budgets for municipalities and schools. Years ago, these meetings were popular because they brought neighbors together to socialize and eat. Now, meetings are frequently scheduled in the evening or on Saturday mornings, meals are all but eliminated and other demands on time have narrowed attendance to those with special interests.

The shifting audience has seriously weakened town-meeting governance.

How many school budget meetings are held where a majority is made up of educators?

How many times has a town debated construction of a new fire station in meeting rooms packed with firefighters and emergency responders?

It’s natural for those who benefit from the outcome of a vote to attend meetings to ensure passage, but it makes debates lopsided from the start. While routine, is that the best system of government?

A typical town meeting is an assembly of people there to vote on very specific articles. Once an item of interest is decided, people frequently get up and leave. And, sometimes, not too quietly.

School budget meetings can be the same way, which means the agenda gets ever shorter shrift as the meeting progresses.

And, then, when it’s all over, the loudest complaints are often voiced by people who didn’t even bother to attend the meetings.

We are personally empowered to set municipal and school spending. That’s what town and budget meetings are for. When voters stay away government and special interests are empowered to set their own spending.

Don’t let that happen.


Safety at home


The governor is set to sign a bill that will prohibit foster parents from smoking in their cars and limit their habit to certain areas of their homes.

This is an honest effort to protect children placed in the state’s care, but it sets an unduly high qualification on foster parents and will likely further limit the pool of possible foster parents. That won’t help children.

Should foster parents be required to abstain from smoking in their cars when children are present? Absolutely. A car is a closed environment and children cannot get away from the deadly smoke.

But make it illegal in a private home?

The bill, amended to soften a total ban on smoking in foster homes, requires the Department of Human Services to adopt rules by next year to establish smoke-free zones for foster children.

Rules aren’t enough. Educating adults about the dangers of secondhand smoke works best.

DHS must deliver a thorough education component to convince foster parents that caring for children means keeping them safe from cigarettes.


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