In response to a recent column by Elizabeth Peters, I’d like to remind her that singling out fellow Winthrop town councilors and members of the community is bad policy and wrong.

Now that we’ve heard her evaluation (“Mooring rules in Winthrop about safety, public access,” Feb. 18), there is room to add to this misguided attempt to hide the fact that nobody knows what is going on in town with moorings, conflicts of interest, and the Turkey Lane quarry.

An ordinance passed by the town prohibits moorings that don’t have at least 50 feet of shoreline property. The penalty for having an illegal mooring is $5,000 a day, though no fines have been issued. A deal was made in East Winthrop on Cobbossee Lake for 22 residents without shoreline property. No one involved can answer why the rule applies in one lake and not another.

Peters ran for Town Council to improve conservation and in 2015 posted a photo of a single mooring in the most southern cove of Maranacook Lake. This area is larger than two football fields. According to Peters, she has “no skin in the game’’ and goes on to lament the safety of the recreational canoes and kayaks that will be unable to navigate around moorings. If these enthusiasts are unable to safely paddle around these stationary orbs, it’s probably not safe for them to be on the lake alone.

She states that fishermen can no longer cast a line from the shore due to moorings. Any fisherman who can cast out to where the moorings are placed should be auditioning for Bass Masters.

No question, there is plenty of room for everyone to enjoy the beauty and recreation on a 7-mile-long lake.

While preaching to provide “equal access for all people,’’ Peters has boundaries that dismiss anyone who moors a boat in shallow waters in a little-traveled area beyond Norcross Point and the shore that disturbs this “sensitive aquatic area.” Access to Maranacook Lake should always include Winthrop residents, especially taxpayers, at no cost.

Last week, seven moorings poked through the ice, certainly visible for snowmobilers, who come from all over central Maine to fish on the lake year-round and drive their snow machines without supervision or an ordinance. We don’t have an ordinance on snowmobiling, because the town doesn’t own the lake.

While the mooring ordinance has become the most contentious talking point in town, it also has brought out other troubling issues. A rescue/fire boat was purchased for $125,000 to be paid over a series of years. That is an impressive rescue/fire boat for a town of less than 6,000 residents when Sabattus recently purchased a rescue/fire boat for $50,000. No one with knowledge of Winthrop’s boat purchase can say if the rescue/fire boat went out to bid.

What the town needs to monitor the lakes is a mooring officer, who will be paid the princely sum of $25,000 a year. Is this a four-month position? What would a mooring officer do when the lakes freeze over?

The more one digs into town dealings, the more the mooring ordinance stinks.

Allegedly, a brew pub at the end of the lake wants to remove the moorings to make room for a docking system so boaters can come and drink for the day or worse yet, drink into the night and board their boats in the dark.

The mooring ordinance is the initial step in a Conservation Plan that includes federal money and additional parking at the American Legion. If you haven’t heard about the Conservation Plan, join the club.

Here is where the Conservation Plan gets tricky. The chairperson of the Town Council apparently has a conflict of interest in a docking system for the brew pub and ultimately creating a marina at the southern end of Maranacook Lake. Still, she voted for the mooring ordinance after saying she would abstain.

Peters voted to remove the moorings for the sake of conservation. How could she also condone constant boat travel to the pub and eventually a place to gas up a boat?

The mooring ordinance should have gone to the voters. Too many executive sessions blocked out the voices of town members — another nasty no-no that created hard feelings.

There is more going on in sleepy Winthrop. A quarry on Turkey Lane is operating and it doesn’t appear all the permits have been approved. Since the dust from an open pit is above the middle and high schools and town center, the dust must be considered a health risk. Still, the trucks are rolling out of the Turkey Lane daily and no silt fences are around the pit.

Outgoing town manager Jeff Kobrock played the victim. He claimed he was “bullied and felt unsafe” due to the ongoing mooring controversy. No harassment reports have been filed with law enforcement.

This is the same town manager who had two town clerks resign for workplace harassment. Unfortunately, these two women, one who worked for Winthrop almost 20 years, cannot respond due to a non-disclosure agreement.

Winthrop needs transparency. Let us find a way to work out the differences so everyone can use the lakes responsibly. Let the residents vote on the mooring ordinance and stop these adverse decisions that benefit a few. Open the books on the Turkey Lane quarry.

Finally, hire a progressive and honest town manager to serve all residents and not the whims of the Town Council.

Jerry Lauzon, a former journalist, has lived in Winthrop since 1987 and on Maranacook Lake since 1991.

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