Friday, June 29, 2012: Searsport propane tank, fireworks and Social Security

Irrelevant demands

I write to express my concern about numerous and irrelevant demands for “standing” by other towns into the local application by DCP Midstream. Our town held a vote, which convincingly said let’s move on within our process. At the previous Planning Board meeting, I was disgusted by the behavior of the league of rich lawyers representing Thanks But No Tank and Islesboro. It doesn’t appear that any of these towns/communities of interest contacted DCP for information; instead they were misled by the fear-mongering and misrepresentation of TBNT.

The Planning Board needs to follow the right process. There was to be no public testimony during the completeness phase, and yet it was allowed, and from what I saw, DCP

representatives were denied the opportunity to respond and were dismissed. This is a breach. There are rich wallets at work which will do anything to prevent a fair process and to derail this project. I ask that the Planning Board be above this. How they treat DCP Midstream is a reflection of how they will treat any new business. Our website says we are open for business.

Anyone watching would say we haven’t been welcoming and don’t appear receptive. I ask for rational thinking and that Planning Board members who have an axe to grind dismiss themselves for conflict of interest. There appears to be some who are influenced by TBNT directly or indirectly and may be subverting the process. I urge the Planning Board continue to accept the advice of our lawyer, who seems to be the only rational and expert opinion capable of leading us through this process.

Michelle Hanson

Stockton Springs

Dog fireworks

As many dog owners will attest, our pets often are deeply disturbed by loud noises such as thunderstorms and fireworks. Prior to the new law, we could anticipate the normal Fourth of July events or other regularly scheduled fireworks and take precautions such as isolating our pets or even giving them sedatives.

Now it appears we will have weekly barrages, especially at our local lakes. While I doubt many would even consider the stress this causes in dogs, perhaps when they hear the local pet barking nonstop and howling with every blast, they will think of their neighbors and limit their celebrations to those significant holidays.

I know our dog would certainly appreciate a break.

James Ward

Hampden

BDN news

Yesterday the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee proposed to cite Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if he did not turn over documents listed in the subpoena submitted by that committee to further their investigation of Fast and Furious. Mr. Holder asked for a meeting with Darrell Issa and other congressmen and senators before the vote in the committee.

This is a confrontation between Congress and the administration and is an important issue. I found no mention of this very important item anywhere in the June 20, 2012 edition of the BDN. I realize that a lot of information in that developing story was not available at press time but there were enough facts known to at least earn front-page mention.

What does the “N” in BDN stand for? If the BDN no longer reports important national news items, please explain to me and other readers why we should continue to subscribe to the BDN. The comics are not enough to justify my subscription.

Gad Liebmann

Belfast

Channel respect

The ongoing contract negotiations between WABI-TV and DirectTV have left several thousand customers without access to CBS national programming and local WABI news and weather.

There appears to be no reason for this other than greed on the part of WABI-TV and their

parent company, Diversified Communications of Portland. We customers are being made pawns in WABI’s attempt to get a 300 percent increase in their fee. I wonder if they are rebating their advertisers the percentage of the advertising costs in proportion to the number of customers that cannot view their advertising. I bet not!

I would advise all advertisers to look for a rebate. This is one more example of why

deregulating everything possible is inane. Corporations usually will not make themselves accountable unless it hits them in bottom line.

Come on, Channel 5 … start treating your viewers with some respect!

James Greenleaf

Monson

NBC News

I quite agree with Marc Chasse of Fort Kent, who wrote about how hard it is to understand what the BBC news announcers are saying. Once in awhile I tune in and am horrified at the lack of clarity in their speech. I am originally from England and grew up listening to the always clear, albeit a bit stilted, voices of the BBC. Little did I know then that one day I would be trying to listen to the news from Britain and hunting for the subtitle button!

Sorry BBC, it’s NBC for me now. It might not be the best news, but at least you can understand what they say.

Susan Clement

Hampden

Social Security and Medicare

Now that the primaries are over, I hope our candidates can start to focus on the real issues of the day, namely the financial and health security of older Americans. I think we can all agree that these issues are very important, and here in Maine, we know that many of our older residents are having a tough time. Going forward, I am eager to hear what our candidates have to say about Social Security and Medicare and how they plan to protect and strengthen these incredibly important programs.

When you think about it, even if Social Security was never meant to be the sole income for retirees, for many Americans that is how things have panned out. A third of Mainers on Social Security have nothing but those monthly benefit checks to live on. Any changes to the program could have devastating consequences and the proposals that our congressional representatives will be reviewing down the road need to be examined very closely. I hope they remember that these are benefits we have earned after a lifetime of hard work. Maybe we didn’t all make a lot of money, maybe we didn’t all save as much as we could have, but we still earned our benefits along the way.

As an active voter, I plan to pay close attention to each of the candidate’s proposals regarding Social Security and Medicare. They are too important to be put aside for someone else to think about.

Will Hemond

Cumberland