On May 4, I attended a public hearing of the Gorham Planning Board regarding the sale of a huge parcel of town land to Amazon, which wants to build a massive 146,280 sq. ft. warehouse that will operate 24/7.

The board — so bedazzled by Amazon’s $4 million purchase offer and promises of economic enrichment for the town — moved forward with that offer last year without soliciting community feedback or researching this proposal’s real, multi-level impact. The public response has since provided abundant, persuasive data that anticipates, instead, Amazon’s negative impact on Gorham and neighboring towns.

The recent four-hour showdown, attended by an overflow crowd made up mostly of dissenters, afforded an opportunity for our town government to gracefully rectify an honest, well-meaning mistake. Gorham could abandon the contract with Amazon in favor of, for example, a multi-use development of that same parcel. 

The Amazon gang offered a smugly perfunctory presentation, droning off a flurry of numbers and slick graphics. Did this indicate a surreptitious “done deal” with the town?

Then, the few pro-Amazon speakers merely parroted Amazon’s pitch propaganda. However, the vast majority of speakers, hailing from diverse backgrounds, each added to the arsenal of hard facts, statistics and impassioned personal impact statements demolishing Amazon’s specious claims by showing that allowing this facility would, in reality, prove disastrous for our tax burden, economy, infrastructure and ecology. 

In siding with Amazon, our town government will have failed to listen to its citizens — despite having heard repeated evidence.

Nadia Margolis
Gorham