The plastic bag ban at large stores passed by Waterville voters at the polls last November is getting rehashed needlessly at the expense of Waterville taxpayers (“Waterville plastic bag ban opponents file more specific argument in appeal,” March 21).  According to a recent article, $9,500 has already been spent and a predicted total of $20,000 in taxpayer money could be wasted on an ill-conceived challenge to votes cast by Waterville residents.

At this point, with every single vote recounted, and every questionable ballot revalidated, shouldn’t the people who are challenging these votes pay for the review themselves? Instead they are asking Waterville taxpayers to foot the bill for a vote by vote review of 75 already validated ballots cast in November.

We understand that the bag votes were validated by Patty Dubois, city clerk and registrar of voters. Then the Maine Supreme Court “concluded that the ballots are no longer challenged and that the matter has been resolved,”  and now we are being forced to pay for yet another validation process?

Oh, also, of the stores affected by this plastic bag ban, according to the March 16 Morning Sentinel, it is clear that Hannaford supports reducing the impact of single-use plastic bags as well as the results of this vote, Save-A-Lot already charges shoppers 10 cents a single-use plastic bag, and Shaw’s is in favor of taking care of our environment.

Good grief, the people of Waterville have spoken. Let’s get on with implementing this vote — and take a small step to improve our environment and community.  We offer sincere thanks to all the volunteers at Sustain Mid-Maine who brought the plastic bag vote about through many hours of outreach to the public. Please let your town council representative know that you don’t want your taxpayer dollars to go towards this wasteful and expensive effort.

 

Emanuel Pariser

Lea Girardin

Waterville

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