“In the 1960’s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.” Author unknown.

Lane/Tommy: Prozac is a drug used to treat depression and we feel a whole lot of despair coming down our financial turnpike. Are you feeling down and out because the price of just about everything is going sky-high coupled with a sinking feeling that your next pay raise just got flushed down the $2 million plus sewer extension from Westbrook to South Windham?

Lane: Don’t worry, be happy that the possibility seriously exists you will not only have to worry about the cost of the upkeep and repair of your septic system, our elected and appointed officials might soon burden your wallets when someone in South Windham flushes their toilet. I would recommend taking a Prozac before reading any further.

Tommy: Can you guess what could have a significant impact on Windham taxpayers? The $2 million plus cost of the sewer extension will not only affect the ratepayers who flush into that pipe, it now is apparent that the majority of the cost will be borne by Windham taxpayers with septic systems.

A councilor recently stated that the extension was necessary because raw sewerage was being forced into the Presumpscot River because of storm water runoff. It was not Windham’s runoff. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection cited Gorham three times for that problem because Gorham’s runoff went into the Little Falls treatment plant. Who do you think was on Prozac?

Lane/Tommy: Council Chairman John MacKinnon stated in a reply to a letter from us about Keddy Mill that among other things the revitalization of an economically depressed area is needed to provide safe, affordable housing in a community that desperately needs it. With the housing market in turmoil and Maine leading the

nation in the percentage of foreclosures, one doesn’t have to a genius to wonder why the condos are not already under construction because in today’s real estate market, are $500,000 condos really affordable? Oh no, where’s the Prozac?

Lane: MacKinnon also stated that the redevelopment of the Keddy Mill site was necessary because the site has the potential to cause serious harm or death because of its dilapidated condition. Why did the town of Windham allow the mill site to become so hazardous?

Why didn’t past leadership in Windham take an active path to prevent the present problems at the Keddy Mill site? Did they take too much Prozac?

Tommy: There is no doubt that the Keddy Mill site is an economically depressed area. It has to be dragging down adjacent property values, which places a greater property tax burden on the rest of Windham. As we are not bungling bureaucrats, hindsight tells us that the previous Windham Town Council should have never approved the $2 million plus sewer extension.

We can now see that it would have been cheaper for Windham to tear down and clean up the Keddy Mill site and build a nice community park. That alternative would have been a bargain compared to all Windham property owners eternally paying for the sewer extension. Yikes, we just ran out of Prozac.

Lane and Tommy of Windham have a strong belief that the shock that your heart receives because of an astronomical increase in taxes renders Prozac useless. They recommend a defibrillator instead of Prozac because your very life might well depend upon it.