To the Editor:

The last real estate transaction that was slightly irregular isn’t the first time the city of Bath has had a secret real estate transaction. Years ago, the Bath Water District sold property to Bath Iron Works out by the Harding Plant.

This piece of property that only few saw or even knew about was a beautiful piece of land in east Brunswick. When BIW bought it from the Bath Water District, the land was never advertised for sale to the public, as it should have been. BIW was the only one that wanted the property because there was no one else who knew the property was up for sale. It was sold for next to nothing. Abraham Lincoln was right: “You can fool some of the people all of the time.”

BIW cut down at least 100 impressive pine trees between the Herding Plant and Bath Road so they could store their snow in the winter.

The location where they store the snow now drains into Thompson’s Brook, which used to be a source of drinking water for Bath and Brunswick.

Why it was sold to BIW was quite evident: They needed the property to store snow. But if this property were advertised to the public, I’m sure there would have been numerous interested buyers. BIW got the land because the majority of the people on the Bath Water District Commission and others involvbed in the sale were BIW employees.

I will leave you with this thought. A lot of people believe the corporations are big enough to buy some towns and cities. “All power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Walter T. Reil
Brunswick