Editor:

Charging fees for parking at Fort Williams for non-Cape Elizabeth users is bad for Cape Elizabethans since it will inalterably change the experience so many of us now enjoy as private “owners”, to purveyors of a commodity to non-residents.

In charging a fee we will be expected to supply certain services, like rest rooms and trash containers, then probably concession stands. Fort Williams will no longer be a place where townspeople can extend hospitality to out-of-towners but will be looked upon as a source of income for other interests and projects desired by some. Because, despite what Barbara Bright Durgin wrote in the Sentry of August 25, 2006, maintaining Fort Williams is not “very, very expensive”. In fact, if costs of maintenance were doubled, they would still be under one percent of the town’s annual budget!

Actually the cost for maintaining the ninety acres of Fort Williams is exactly the same as that of maintaining the school grounds. Of course this amount is a drop in the bucket compared to other school expenses. At the town meeting of Aug. 14, Councilor Swift-Kayatta said that those who use the fort (mainly out-of-towners) should pay for it. She surely can’t mean that for every service, because only thirty percent of Cape Elizabeth households have children in school. Yet 100 percent of households pay the 64+ percent of the town budget that is allocated to school expenses! That is as it should be; most taxpayers have also been educated in public school systems. So too do most out of town visitors to Fort Williams welcome Cape Elizabethans to their parks and other attractions, fee free!

Ms. Bright Durgin also spoke of the hostility she “heard” about at the town meeting on Fort Williams fees. I actually was at that meeting and what I heard were over 25 people speaking with foresight, discernment, knowledge, eloquence and great love for the treasure we have. They all spoke against any kind of a fee structure and no one spoke in favor of one. And yes, they and the audience displayed a certain amount of passion that shows how strongly opponents to fee charging feel. After this testimony a vote was taken and four of the seven councillors voted against charging parking fees at Fort Williams. It was now that dissenting councilors Dill, Lynch and Swift-Kayatta thought that it would be only fair to present the question to the taxpayers via a referendum on the November ballot. Such an avenue of input was never suggested before as a solution to this question, and since the referendum will be non-binding I don’t see how it will bring the “closure” spoken of by these councilors. Sounds like it will be binding if it goes the way they want and non-binding if not!

Whatever happens, whether there is a referendum or not, whether such a referendum results in parking fees at Fort Williams or not, charging fees is a very bad idea. The experience we all now enjoy of this wonderful place can not be sold because it is spiritual and intangible, but it can be destroyed. When we do go to the polls on Nov. 7 let us all be mindful of that and the negative results of the desire to save what really is a very small amount of money for residents of Cape Elizabeth.

Emily Materson
Cape Elizabeth