What can the Augusta Planning Board be thinking? Could not one line of trees be left to protect the Eastern Avenue retail business Saltbox Primitives? The character of the store has been harmed by this raw, exposed site, when retaining one line of standing firs would have been so doable.

Think about what has happened. A cheap import store has negatively affected a 12-year-old solid business that paid taxes during the recession, and which primarily makes its goods in a wood shop here in Maine.

Shame on Augusta. Has the city not learned from the destruction of tree-lined Western Avenue into the ugly strip is today? How can this be “planning”?

Judy Powell

Whitefield