Every other Monday night is town meeting night in our town. The council meets, discusses current issues, then opens a forum to the public. Tonight's meeting was a special one to discuss changing our zoning to allow businesses into town. Our town only has about 7,000 people, and we live in the last unspoiled part of our small state. We have clean water, clean air and lots of forest land. We also have some of the highest property taxes in the state. For years, no one has wanted any industry in town, for the reasons I've mentioned. However now, our taxes are so high that elderly folks who have lived here all their lives and raised families, have to sell their homes because they can't afford the taxes anymore. We have no tax relief, or industry. The whole burden is on the property owners.

I am on the Conservation Commission, so I went to speak on their behalf. I concurred that we need to attract *sensible* development. Something clean, quiet, and non-polluting, i.e. an office park or medical facility. We can still see the stars here.

Two couples were there who are very new to town. They have both moved here from the city. They want to see NO businesses because they came here to escape that. We got talking afterward, and it was really nice to meet new people. They said how much they love the kindness of the people here, and the quietness. We are very laid back, and take the time to get to know each other.

I hope we can strike a balance between tax relief and preserving the environment that we have.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 07:32 am:

Good for you to speak up and nice that you met new people, too!