To the editor:

As a frequent and long time visitor and contributor to the Kennebunk economy I read the July 31 Kennebunk Post and noted the irony of a small group of activist citizens, POWWR, celebrating the prevention of a legal business from operating in the area (“Water Bottler Retreats from Newfield”). Coincidentally the cover story in the same issue revealed that food pantries go bare as the rolls of local unemployed surges – even during the height of the tourism season.

Don’t these people see the link between businesses and jobs and the necessity of both for families to provide for themselves?

There is the concept of Economicology - where environmentalist and commerce need to collaborate and work together for the benefit of all. That should have happened here and did not.

Water is a sustainable resource. It is not finite. Couldn’t the two parties come together and work out a solution that would have sensibly benefited the community providing jobs, tax revenue and still protecting the aquifer? 

Too bad emotion trumped rational behavior. Maybe next time people will talk to each other first and work to a solution that benefits the people who live here.

Chris Dalambakis

Kennebunkport and Cincinnati