Dear Editor:

As is often the case, rumors fly around the proposed Spinney dock on the Sheepscot Rover in Alna. Let’s get one thing straight. Well over 50 residents, many of whom live and own property on the river, have brought one simple request to the Alna Planning Board and the select board: enforce the town’s Shoreland Zoning.

We should not play local politics with a resource that is a national treasure that supports several rare, threatened and endangered fish species, including Atlantic salmon.

We should maintain the prohibition on business use of this outstanding public resource. As virtually all of the neighbors have said, limited private use is OK, but unlimited business use exploiting and degrading this public trust resource is not.

The group of citizens opposing this incompatible use has presented an alternative which satisfies all of the applicant’s stated intentions. The town requested that the two parties work together. Compromise could work if the applicant would embrace a use that all landowners opposing this application have stated they can live with and that the applicant has repeatedly stated is actually his intent.

We can’t compromise this outstanding natural resource by ignoring our Shoreland Zoning ordinance. We must not ignore the precedent this sets for future river proposals. We must recognize that this is a situation where decisions must speak for the continued protection of a resource for the many rather than degrading a resource for the few.

At the end of the day, this is all about doing the best job we can to preserve a natural treasure for all, rather than allowing one proposed project/use to permanently impact everyone’s enjoyment of this treasure. Here today, gone tomorrow is at stake and this is too important for all of us.

Mark and Dale DesMeules

Alna