It's kind of long, but it will tell you why this website exists.
1. Enforce the zoning
When the Maine Maritime Academy’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to purchase Abbott House, they also voted to potentially violate the Castine’s zoning ordinances. We fully support the Town’s legal action to prevent the Academy’s expansion into Castine’s residential zones. This issue strikes at the heart of the basic democratic right of a small town to govern itself for the good of its residents and to have its laws and ordinances obeyed.
2. Re-allocate money
In spending $1,450,000 on a second president’s house that may require upkeep of at least $80,000 of taxpayer dollars a year, the MMA Board of Trustees and Administration acted with fiscal irresponsibility and squandered money that would have been better spent on renovating classrooms and other properties, adding to the number of student scholarships, increasing teacher’s salaries, or creating solutions to their space problems within their institutional zone. Maine’s taxpayers should not support such a misuse of their tax dollars. We support communicating this message to all those in state government who exercise responsibility over the MMA budget.
3. New Rules
We support re-examining all of Castine’s zoning ordinances and if necessary, re-writing them in such a way as to explicitly prevent any further expansion of the Maine Maritime Academy into Castine’s residential and commercial zones. Castine's most valuable asset is its heritage - its lands, open spaces, woods, beaches, limited resources, streets, houses, history - and it must be protected.
4. New Relationship
In this action and in past actions, the MMA Board of Trustees has acted unilaterally and in secret, making decisions that affect the quality of life for all residents in Castine, but without first consulting Castine’s residents or town government. We advocate and will take action to create a new relationship between the Town of Castine and the Maine Maritime Academy. In this new relationship, the Academy must
- be forthcoming, open, and truthful in its communications with the town
- collaborate in good faith with the town in working on any and all issues that affect the quality of life for all the residents
- make itself accountable to the town for all those actions that affect the health, heritage, property, and future of Castine’s residents
- face
the fiscal and political consequences of not behaving in
this manner.
5. Accountability
We support accountability both for the Academy and the Town of Castine and to that end recommend a standing committee, equally composed of town residents and Academy students/faculty/administrators/or trustees who will openly address problems that arise in the future between the Academy and the town’s residents and taxpayers. This committee will have the power to recommend solutions and will also be able to submit problems to binding arbitration to find equitable solutions.
How it all started
The purpose of this web site is to provide information to all Castine residents and taxpayers who are concerned about the illegal expansion by the MMA Board of Trustees into Castine's residential areas.
This campaign started as a reaction to the MMA Board of Trustees purchase of Abbott House, formerly known as the residence of the Foote family and most recently Deborah Pulliam. The MMA Board's actions have resulted in creating a strong opposition among Castine's residents and taxpayers, not only to this purchase but to any further violation of Castine's zoning ordinances and expansion into Castine's residential areas.