Dear Editor:

We, the undersigned, are average citizens who actually live in Alna. We work hard and come home tired, so under normal circumstances we generally do not attend public meetings or write letters to the editor. We do, however, vote.

And we have elected the selectmen that we trust, and they in turn have appointed a planning board that they trust.

Unlike many of the opponents that have recently arrived to save the river from us, we actually know our selectmen and planning board members, and it looks to us like these volunteer citizen officers, under enormous pressure, are doing their level best to make sure Jeff Spinney's project is treated fairly under our ordinances. We can no longer be silent while a tiny but vocal band continuously harasses them, makes their lives miserable, generally tries to grind our town government to a halt in paperwork and buries us in legal costs ($25,000 so far and climbing) - just to stop a project they don't like. Even though Mr. Spinney has passed every legal test and has been fully permitted by DEP and the Army Corps of Engineers, they just do not want his project in “their” river, and the only tool they have left is harassment of town officers who are just trying to do their jobs.

They are essentially trying to bully us and our town and appear to have the money and time to do so.

Well, it is our river too. And Mr. Spinney's only fault seems to be that he would allow access to it by those of us who don't have our own waterfront property.

It is insulting to say that he, and we, do not care about the Sheepscot.

Many of us have lived near it all our lives, and fished, and hunted and snowmobiled and, yes, boated around it without doing it any harm.

In truth, the biggest fear these folks have is not that the selectmen and planning board will not hold Mr. Spinney to the rules, but rather that they will decide by those rules, and he will prevail.

Tim Richards

Alicia Long, Amy Stockford, Ashley Robinson, Beth Whitney, Bill Huntington, Bill Seigars, Bob Seigars, Bobby Hull, Brandon Shorey, Brian Long, Butch Brown, Carla Pendrok, Chad Hilton, Cindy Seigars, Dave Jewett, David Beal, Ellen Beal, Forest Faulkingham, Grace Shorey, Herman Lovejoy, Janet Verney, Jay Verney, Jayne Stockford, Jeff Mcleod, Joel Verney, Johanna Levasseur, John Baird, John Seigars Jr., John Seigars Sr., John Shorey, Kateleen Trask, Kirk Lynch, Kristina Verney, Kyle Levasseur, Larry Hanna, Laura Lynch, Linda Abbott, Linda Bean, Linda Morris Long, Linda Verney, Liz Brown, Marc Tenney, Marcie Lovejoy, Marie Johnson, Marilyn Brown, Marion Hanna, Melissa Averill, Melody Huntington, Michael Trask, Michele Brooks, Pam Hull, Patty Averill, Peter Love, Ralph Hilton, Roger Whitney, Ron Brown, Ruth Stone, Sawyer Hull, Scott Hanna, Dwight and Lorna Harrington, Jim
and Pat Dance, Scott Robinson, Steve Averill, Sumner Averill, Susan Sutter, Syd Faulkingham, Tiiffany Brown, Toby Stockford, Todd Clark, William Aknson and Chris Cooper