by Jonathan Thomas
Deer Isle voters voted for the status quo in local affairs, but voted 44 to 22 to support a resolution to change the national government’s policy of spending for wars in the Middle East at Deer Isle’s annual town meeting on March 1.
The unopposed incumbents were all reelected. Neville Hardy received 184 votes for first selectman/assessor/overseer of the poor. Five write-in candidates got one vote each.
Myra Lorraine Weed received 195 votes for tax collector/treasurer, as did Rebekah Knowlton for clerk/registrar of voters.
Incumbent road commissioner Paul Gray, who had not filed nomination papers to have his name on the ballot, received 58 write-in votes. Eleven others received between one and four write-in votes each. Gray said on March 2 that he had not yet decided on whether to accept reelection for another term. He said that he planned to meet with the selectmen at their March 4 meeting to discuss the matter.
In the election for the two seats on the CSD school board, Deer Isle residents Mark Cormier and Walter Kumiega III, whose names were on the ballot, received 147 and 154 votes respectively. Stephen York of Stonington received 30 write-in votes. Thirteen others received single write-in votes. With Stonington’s votes, Cormier and Kumiega were reelected to their seats on the school board.
Eighteen absentee ballots were among the 198 ballots cast. The town meeting officially began at 7:20 a.m., with Loring Kydd being elected moderator. Voting for the candidates continued until 11:30.
Kydd called the business portion of the town meeting to order at 2 p.m. as the crowd which grew to approximately 75 took their seats in the Deer Isle town hall.
The meeting proceeded quickly through article 53 during the first hour with all articles passing as recommended, with occasional questions, and little or no opposition. The article containing the largest increase, $8,650 to fund additional hours for the deputy treasurer/
collector, was passed with no discussion.
Article 54, to raise and appropriate a total of $54,500 for health insurance for eligible employees, sparked the first controversy. The amount was an increase of $2,500, or 4.8 percent over the previous year. First Selectman Hardy explained that it provided for full coverage for seven employees: the three selectmen, the treasurer, clerk, road commissioner, and transfer station attendant. These employees have the option of adding coverage for family members at their own expense.
Phil Glaser moved to amend the motion to reduce the recommended total amount by 25 percent, observing that in his view fewer and fewer employers, both public and private, provide full coverage to their employees. In the discussion that followed, one person said that this was “too big an issue” to take up on the floor of the town meeting without previous consideration. It was suggested that such a change could be studied in the coming months and taken up again next year.
In a written ballot taking about 20 minutes, the motion to amend was defeated (7 “yes” votes to 57 “no” votes). The original motion for full funding of the designated employees’ health insurance was then passed by voice vote.
The remaining 19 articles were passed in the following hour, with adjournment at about 4:25 p.m.
After the moderator read article 57, to raise funds for town equipment, Hardy asked that the printed recommendation of $15,000 be changed to $35,000. He explained that the full amount would not be spent, and that the unused funds would be used to replenish the depleted surplus account next year.
Article 73 was a resolution requesting that Congressman Michael Michaud “oppose all legislation before the U.S. Congress that provides further funding of the U.S. warfare and U.S. military occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, [and to] take strong and forceful action and to influence the full U.S. House of Representatives to terminate the funding of these operations.”
Dud Hendrick, sponsor of the article, read from a two-page statement in which he identified himself as a Vietnam veteran who volunteered to serve there. He said that for a short while after his return he continued to support that war. However he later concluded that, “like Vietnam, our present wars do not…make us safer and in no way do they serve our interests.”
After citing the cost of wars in dollars, in lives, and in the country’s unmet domestic needs, Hendrick urged that the article be passed, even though “largely symbolic,” as a step in influencing the U.S. House, the body with the authority to stop funding the war effort.
He was followed by several other speakers, including Deb Suran and Marcia Kola, who urged support for the resolution.
Karen Galella, who did not get a chance to speak before the discussion ended and the vote was taken, told Island Ad-Vantages after the meeting that she was one of those who voted against the article.
Identifying herself as the daughter of a U.S. Air Force veteran, and one who does not agree with the current wars in the Middle East, Galella said that ending military funding would be harmful to the troops on the battlefield for several reasons. (See Gallella’s letter to the editor on page 4.)
During the meeting, members of the First Congregational Church of Deer Isle served coffee and refreshments as a fundraising activity.
Hardy said later that third selectman Lew Ellis had been unable to attend because of health reasons.
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