Stupak for Penobscot register of probate
As a practicing attorney for more than 33 years, I have been more than pleased with the service Renee Stupak has given to my law firm. Stupak and her staff are efficient, pleasant and expeditious. Her election as register of probate for Penobscot County would serve the county’s residents well and ensure continued outstanding probate services.
Voters will have a chance to decide whether to re-elect Stupak on June 14.
Patrick E. Hunt
Island Falls
Men domestic violence victims, too
We all hear about men abusing women. What about the men who are being physically, mentally, verbally and financially abused by women? If they even try to defend themselves, the situation turns against them.
There are two sides to every story, and the people involved should start listening to them. It’s time for an eye-opening reality check. Abuse is abuse, no matter if it is men or women causing it.
Ellen Dayton
Bangor
Sunday Telegram article inaccurate
I’m writing in regard to a June 2 BDN article about the legislative investigation of the Maine Warden Service’s undercover operation that took place in the town of Allagash and was the subject of a lengthy article in the Maine Sunday Telegram.
I wish I had the same foresight as Col. Joel Wilkinson of the Maine Warden Service to only respond to questions from Colin Woodard in writing. Although I spent much time answering questions about that undercover investigation, as it related to the involvement of North Maine Woods Inc., Woodard never included the facts behind what took place, which I clarified for him orally.
From my standpoint, I can relay that much of the information in the Sunday Telegram article was inaccurate and harmful to all involved.
Al Cowperthwaite
Executive director
North Maine Woods Inc.
Ashland
Share the road
I went for a 32-mile bicycle ride Sunday and was passed more than eight times by drivers who decided to pass into oncoming traffic, causing three of the oncoming vehicles and myself to have to leave the pavement to miss them. This is illegal and dangerous behavior.
If you have forgotten everything you learned in driver’s education, let’s refresh. It is only OK to pass when you can do so in a safe manner for everyone concerned. Under Maine law, “a passing vehicle may be operated to the left of the way’s center only when the left side is clearly visible and free of oncoming traffic for a sufficient distance ahead to permit overtaking to be completed without interfering with the safe operation of an approaching or passed vehicle … the passing vehicle must return to the right before coming within 100 feet of an approaching vehicle.”
A passing vehicle may not drive to the left of center “when approaching the crest of a grade or on a curve where the operator’s view is obstructed for a distance as to create a hazard if another vehicle approached from the opposite direction.”
Passing vehicles under the law also must maintain at least a 3-foot distance from bicycles.
Please, remember to give bicyclists some space; it’s a matter of respect and law.
Thomas Bickford
Orono
Waterfront Concert noise a nuisance
There may have been only six noise complaints about the Dierks Bentley concert June 4, but I started hearing the driving beat and wailing lyrics around 2:30 p.m., and they continued well into the evening. Even with my windows closed, it overpowered my radio and TV. I still was hearing it when I went to bed, even with the bedroom windows closed at 10:30 p.m.
I went to a graduation party from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Mt. Hope Avenue, north of Quirk Chevrolet, and couldn’t even escape the concert noise there.
The cedar fencing installed last month, while more attractive than the hurricane fencing and ragged blue tarps, did little to mitigate the noise and now totally blocks any view of the waterfront from Railroad Street to Tim Horton’s on Main Street. You’d never know there’s a river or park there. Why does it have to extend well beyond the concert venue all the way to Tim Horton’s?
There may have been only six complaints, but perhaps that’s because the futility of complaining is finally sinking in — the realization the city just doesn’t care about their abandoning of the quality of life in the West Side Village, as long as the money is coming in.
It’s a situation similar to the Bangor High School students and families having to travel to Orono to graduate because the Cross Insurance Center had other commercial activities displacing them.
Michael P. Gleason
Bangor
Fiber-optic network not feasible
Last year, the town of Rockport, along with Rockland and Owls Head, commissioned an $82,000 study to examine the feasibility of expanding its gigabit fiber-optic network to each residence and business in Rockport.
The study found it would cost $7.9 million for Rockport alone to build out the fiber-optic network to each residence and business. The 1 gigabit per second service would cost $70 per month, if all residences and businesses in Rockport subscribed.
A survey of Rockport residents found that 85 percent of respondents would not pay $75 or more per month for a service 10 to 100 times faster than their current service. Moreover, more than 60 percent said they would not pay more than $45, and 17 percent would pay nothing at all.
The likely low adoption rate would substantially increase the per month cost of the service or would require a subsidy.
Perhaps tellingly, the other partners in the study, Rockland and Owls Head, dropped out of the project. Nonetheless, Rockport is proposing a $300,000 follow-up engineering project to design what the feasibility study clearly showed the vast majority of residents do not want.
I urge residents to attend the town meeting at 7 p.m., June 15, at the Rockport Opera House and raise your hand against the ill-conceived and wasteful engineering study designed to satisfy few but be funded by all.
Bob Jackson
Rockport
Election notice
The Bangor Daily News has stopped accepting commentary related to the June 14 primary election. Not all submissions can be published.