Frenchboro’s mail problem
Eleven days ago, we asked for help re-establishing regular mail, package and goods delivery to Frenchboro. Since then, no progress has been made in finding a suitable solution to the issues created when Louis Hopkins opted to not renew his longstanding carrier contract with the U.S. Postal Service over conflicts with a postal supervisor.
The mail carrier contract for Swan’s Island was awarded to another provider for six months, and a separate contract was posted for Frenchboro (no applicants as yet). Postal service officials finally spoke with our federal legislators last week, telling them that the postal service “saw no problem with the solutions they have put into place.” We can tell you unequivocally that Frenchboro and Swan’s Island do in fact see problems with those solutions.
Frenchboro is now receiving mail on Wednesday and Thursday only. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would realize that twice-a-week mail is a problem, not a solution, and that having incoming and outgoing mail solely on the two days when residents can get back and forth to the mainland on the ferry might not be a good solution.
Thankfully, our non-U.S. mail deliveries are still occurring solely due to Hopkins’ dedication. The concern on both islands is that those contracts alone will not provide a living wage, becoming too much of a burden to continue.
Once again, we are begging for a realistic approach to these issues, as the bureaucratic solution we’ve been provided simply does not make sense.
David W. Lunt
Rachel Bishop
Frenchboro
Maine full of volunteers
The BDN’s full-page list of volunteers in the April 12 edition is a terrific reminder to thank volunteers at every opportunity. I know and appreciate that the list of super-volunteers is actually far longer than any newspaper could print.
Among names not on the list are hundreds of members of volunteer fire departments in towns all over Maine. Some volunteers are paid a stipend when they respond to incidents, but not for the hours of training, station care and other tasks.
Towns like Orland do not pay fire department volunteers for response to fires, vehicle crashes, ambulance and police assistance, and other community emergencies — many members are true volunteers for hundreds of hour each year. Some towns also have volunteers who are certified first responders who arrive before a far distant ambulance. They provide immediate aid or comfort to 911 callers.
Our state is full of folks willing to help others.
Sharon Bray
Orland
Truth about case managers
In his April 14 BDN column, Chris Busby states that case managers are coerced by nonprofit agencies into keeping their clients dependent. He bases this unfounded conclusion on the word of one anonymous former case manager, with minimal experience in the field, who felt coerced by one nonprofit agency.
Mental illness is a complicated issue. People with mental illness see a variety of providers — psychiatrists, counselors, family doctors, substance abuse counselors. Case managers coordinate these services and make sure all the providers are talking with each other. For example, working with a family doctor so he or she doesn’t prescribe opioids to someone recovering from addiction.
Case managers hold regular meetings with clients and all their providers to make sure everyone is working on clients’ goals. The providers and clients are a team. If a client doesn’t want a case manager, he or she doesn’t have to have a case manager. It really is that simple.
Case managers have to be licensed social workers. Social workers have a strict ethical code they have to follow or they lose their license and job. More importantly, everything has to be ethical, aboveboard and honest, otherwise people don’t get better. There is little financial reward to case management, but great personal reward in seeing people recover.
Busby should have done more research before he decided to besmirch the reputation of hundreds of hardworking professionals.
Jim Alciere
East Machias
Community Connector Day
We’re used to Earth Day activities focusing on climate change, fossil fuels versus renewable energy, melting glaciers and rising waters, and other issues facing our planet.
On the other side of the sustainability coin is the need to promote the viability of our local communities. The social fabric that binds us needs caretaking, too. If we don’t tend to it, we can get burned, just as surely as from a rip in the ozone layer.
Essential services many of us take for granted are not accessible to all of us. Adequate transportation is one of these needs. For those without cars, our bus system’s limited hours make it challenging for many, impossible for some, to procure basics as fundamental as employment.
That is why Bangor’s 2016 Earth Day will focus on our own Community Connector. It is a system so basic that we take it for granted, yet it is vital to our community’s vitality. The Community Connector is our region’s public circulatory system, getting many of us where we need to go.
Transportation for All, a campaign promoting improved bus service in our city, invites everyone to Pickering Square from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Earth Day for a family-friendly festival starring the Community Connector. The event will be an opportunity for all of us to have fun while taking care of our planet and the community connections that sustain us. See you there!
Dennis Chinoy
Bangor
Too young to smoke
Like states laws establishing 21 as the legal drinking age, the proposal before the Portland City Council to raise the legal age for tobacco purchases to 21 makes good sense. But for how much longer must men and women younger than 21 be allowed to die for their country?
Travis Wallace
Greenville Junction
Bible of love
After reading Michael Heath’s April 14 BDN OpEd about repealing Maine’s gay rights law, I was pretty worked up and frustrated with his thinking. Heath should read Stephen Wiggin’s April 14 BDN letter to the editor about the Bible’s message of love. Thanks to Wiggin for spelling it out the way I and most people in today’s society see it.
Sharie Laveway
Ashland