Dear Editor:
Despite heavy and pointed criticism from many Alna residents, on Jan. 6 Alna’s selectmen signed a settlement agreement with Jeff Spinney allowing him to keep the permanent boat launch he built in the Sheepscot River two days after Christmas.
They did this knowing that the abutters and other opponents of Mr. Spinney’s project would continue to oppose this project through multiple pending appeals.
The Alna Planning Board had denied a permit for that same motor boat launch on June 29 and July 27. Those denials were upheld by the Alna Board of Appeals on Oct. 16.
Seven days later, on Oct. 23, the selectmen (one of whom is Mr. Spinney’s wife) appointed two new members to the Alna Planning Board who had made repeated public statements in support of Mr. Spinney’s project, one of whom served on the Board of Directors for Mr. Spinney’s Golden Ridge Sportsman’s Club.
Mon, 12/21/2020 - 4:15pm
Dear Editor:
This fall the Alna Board of Selectmen appointed three new members to the Alna Planning Board. One of the selectmen had publicly stated that that no Planning Board appointments should be made from the body of citizens who had expressed public opinions on Jeff Spinney’s controversial proposal to construct a motorboat ramp into a pristine stretch of the Sheepscot River. As it turned out, two of the appointees the selectmen made had expressed written support for the proposal and at the time of the appointment, one of those two appointees was a director of the Golden Ridge Sportsmen’s Club, a co-user of the proposed motorboat ramp. Then, two weeks ago, these two new appointees approved Spinney’s newest motorboat ramp proposal after the previous Planning Board had failed to approve an essentially similar one. To an outsider looking in, it appears as if the “fix” was in.