Editor: 

Based on erroneous rumor, several women attended the board of selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday night (March 11) to protest what they “thought to be” the truth.

 Had one of them picked up a telephone and called the town manager, the parks and recreation director, or a selectman, to check the veracity of the information heard through the electronic grapevine, the 40-minute lambasting suffered by the board, could have been avoided.

Had interest existed to watch or read about the Herculean efforts put forth by selectmen, budget board, town administrators, and department heads to trim their budgets, they would have understood why it was suggested to study the fiscal efficiency of the parks and recreation budget.

 However, according to one participant, “I don’t watch meetings because…they’re boring. I only tune in when it is a subject that interests me.”

When her turn at the podium arrived, another resident charged the selectmen with being “anti-young families.” She went so far as to suggest that the “Welcome to Kennebunk” signs at either end of the town have the words added, “If you are 55 or older.”

In response to the board’s suggestion that some fees be raised a mere $5 or $10 to help alleviate recreational shortfalls, emotional pleas were made not to do so because, “it would be unaffordable.”

 All Kennebunk taxpayers, not just those under 55, subsidize $218,000 of the recreation budget which is oriented primarily toward the town’s young families with children.

Approximately 70 percent of Kennebunk taxpayers do not have children in the school system; yet they pay the lion’s share of the $29 million burdensome and burgeoning school budget.

 I found the ladies reasoning ironic and severely lacking in the realm of budgetary knowledge and planning.

 Looming before us, are projected large losses of town revenue. Soon to arrive on our doorstep, is the horrendous hit Kennebunk taxpayers will take from the school budget, exacerbated by the loss $517,175 in state aid.

Tentative figures for anticipated increases to the town, school, and county budgets indicate we could be facing the addition of several hundred dollars to our individual property taxes.

Ask yourself, what is it that you perceive as most “unaffordable?” Ten dollars, hundreds of dollars?

 From my perspective, Kennebunk can no longer “afford” apathetic, misinformed citizens who don’t take time to educate themselves about the processes required to run their town efficiently, with less cost to taxpayers.

Marta Badyk

Kennebunk