Guest Column

As chairman of the Lubec Community Development Block Grant Committee, as well as a concerned citizen, I’ve had the opportunity to witness first-hand some of the needs of our town.

Lubec is a geographically isolated community which has seen its primary industry of sardine canning in decline for many years. Our unemployment rate is one of the highest in Washington County, while at the same time our town’s assessed valuation continues to rise unabated because of our large amount of coastal properties — 95 miles, more than any other community in Maine. This places an even heavier burden on an already overtaxed citizenry. Because of this overvaluation, our town has continued to lose state revenue in many areas, i.e. schools, road maintenance.

At the same time, state and federal agencies are forcing us to establish a new sewage infrastructure (new sewage lines, treatment plant, dechlorination). Up to 70 percent of the serviced community cannot afford the costs of hooking up to these facilities. Each homeowner’s costs, which could easily exceed $3,000, covers excavation which can be up to 200 feet, and possible rearrangement of plumbing facilities.

In 1989 the town of Lubec was denied Community Development Block Grant funding to assist in this matter. One of the areas in which our grant proposal was faulted by the Department of Economic Community Development was the lack of community input and participation.

I would like to thank and congratulate those people who gave of their time on very short notice to help in writing last year’s proposal.

This year, however, I am bound and determined to see that the trend of non-participation ends. I am pleading to everyone in the community to attend our first committee meeting of 1990 on Wednesday, May 9 at 7 p.m. in the Lubec High School library, and help us resolve this myriad of problems.

At the meeting will be representatives of several area agencies — Doug Guy of WHCA, Linda Pagels of the Washington County Planning Commission, Hugh Porter of the Quoddy Job Opportunity Zone, and Rep. George Townsend. These people will be there to answer questions and to assist us in determining the direction we will take.

It is your responsibility as citizens and taxpayers to participate in this process, or you can sit back and pay the pipe later.

Thomas Emerson is chairman of the Lubec Community Development Black Grant Committee.