On June 12, at our annual town meeting, I was quoted by the Bangor Daily News as being critical of the school budget. That is entirely correct.

Howard Dunn, who was an incumbent councilor that I defeated by a large margin four years ago and who has taken every opportunity to take a poke at me in public or private since, was also quoted as saying, “The picture painted by our town council chairman is we should pack our bags and move to Hudson because things are going to hell in a handbasket pretty fast.” Let’s look at some of the positive attributes to our little community.

According to the last census, Glenburn is the fastest growing town in Penobscot County. Just outside of Bangor and convenient to the many attraction our lovely area has to offer, it is a wonderful choice for many people to reside, and to retire in. Our school is known for the good education it provides and our community for the rural, natural environment. We have many wonderful people. We are nearing completion on a $1.7 million rood, air quality and structural improvement project at our elementary school, which I was very active in and strongly supported, and I was equally critical at times.

The hard work of the councils and past and current management has shown positive change in the infrastructure of our local roads – they have improved considerably. The roads leading to and from Pushaw Lake now allow most residents to travel somewhat comfortably and safely. Our council has dealt with a serious water contamination issue in the area of our town office that was left over from a former military site that occupied the facility we now use as a town office. The Army Corps of Engineers has assured us that they will attempt to resolve the issue. This is reassuring to the area residents that are impacted. Our Parks and Recreation Department serves hundreds of residents and visitors to our town, and on June 29-30 we will celebrate Glenburn Days, a very large festivity for our town and visitors.

Glenburn has many social groups such as our American Legion, Senior Citizens and Snowmobile Club, The Westside Community Club, Grange, PTF Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Brownies, food pantry and our local church, that all provide support to our residents. We have seen increased attention and awareness to Pushaw Lake, our most valuable natural asset and watershed. Our emergency services department is growing and looking to the future. A professional fire department and ambulance service combined with quality law enforcement assures that our residents and those that travel through Glenburn are safe.

Glenburn has seen a tremendous increase in residential growth. We are looking at the need for a new municipal office as we have outgrown ours and there are many problems with the facility, we want the townspeople to have a functional town office to fit their needs for the future. We now have a small postal substation. We have studied the possibility of an industrial park in Glenburn, there are however few geographical locations in our town that would allow any heavy industrial base to alleviate the tax situation created by the needs of a rapidly growing community. Any thought otherwise is a misconception.

The above services and future needs require our council, school board, planning board, and recreation board, employees and residents to all work very long hours to help Glenburn stay a positive, quality town. Despite my outspoken views on the impact of higher taxes to many, I believe that if our Legislature and federal government can’t or won’t find ways to fund their mandates upon us, we have to gain local control and keep our taxes and costs down.

Hudson is a lovely, warm community. I visit there often. But, I will choose to live and stay in Glenburn.

Kevin Paschal lives in Glenburn.