I have committed the majority of my adult life to serving people in need. I have done so both as a paid professional and as a volunteer.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that I accept the facilities for people seeking help as an important and welcome part of my community.

However, there must be a limit to the burden a community can place on a neighborhood. Enough is enough! I will not willingly accept a soup kitchen and a 24-hour shelter in my neighborhood.

For 11 years I have shared a property line with the Men’s Half-Way House. These folks are the best neighbors anyone could ask for. The few problems I have experienced as a result of my family’s proximity to this facility have been greatly outweighed by the pleasure of having it there. Therefore, I have remained silent about my few complaints.

More than a year ago, the Salvation Army, one block from my house, opened a soup kitchen serving noontime meals several days a week. Again, I gladly accept this service in my neighborhood. In a friendly manner, I greet people who troop past my home on the way to or from the Salvation Army. Those who are lucid return my greetings. However, I have caught a few lone strangers talking with my young children. I have warned these men away from my children.

Last year, the Shaw House Adolescent Shelter opened next door. Those who know me know that I am pleased that the Shaw House exists in our community. Teenagers must have services. But, the Shaw House attracts an undesirable crowd. Many members of this crowd have no need for shelter but come by because the parking lot is a great place to hang out. When my child told me that every evening violence and vulgarity, which erupted nightly in the parking lot, scared her and she was afraid to play in her backyard, I called the police.

We have more than one group home in our neighborhood. Independent and semi-independent homes for mental health consumers and people who are intellectually challenged are essential to a healthy society….

Manna Ministries provides to the most hard-pressed in this recession which is most basic and most essential to survival. But, at its location on Hammond Street, it has also been a magnet for street fighters and vandals.

Now, Manna proposes a 24-hour shelter and soup kitchen in this already over-whelmed neighborhood. Not if I can help it.

This rather hard-nosed attitude of mine makes me neither uncompassionate nor un-Christian. I’m just saying the maximum acceptable load for this particular neighborhood jas been reached.

I invite you to go elsewhere. John Jeffers Bangor