Another perspective on Orient tax issue

To the editor:
    I feel I must offer yet another perspective on the Orient tax issue. My family has had a camp on East Grand Lake in Orient since the early 1970s. The late Justice James Archibald sold my father our frontage and land from his own and gave my family a priceless gift. We have done nothing but lovingly maintain our Ward log cabin since then. We have seen our tax bills and our assessed value rising along with everyone. We are not “from away” but, as non-residents, we have always paid our bills without complaint with very few town services to show for it.
    We have been told more than once that if you can’t afford your camp, then just sell it. Or “take your profits and quit whining.” The problem is that our camp is not for sale. It is a place that binds family together; it brings siblings and their families home. It has taught generations of my family respect for wind, water and nature, and how to have unlimited fun without unlimited channels. It may irk me to pay taxes on what someone is willing to pay for our place, even though it is not for sale, but my family will do it. Without complaint,
    That being said, I like to think the best of people and that malfeasance is not rampant, but to have to vary the mill rate 75 percent to get things covered seems like budgeting in reverse. It seems that they figure out how much is needed and then tax accordingly instead of budgeting within means. I may be off base but such fluctuations raise questions in such a small municipality with such a large seasonal tax base. If our camp becomes unfeasible due to taxes, and my son can’t teach my grandson how to pull a two and a half pound smallmouth out of where he knows they are – that will be a crime.
Garth B. Bean
Hodgdon