They want to pave paradise and put up a parking lot? Can you imagine for a moment that next door to the home you live in year-round, a property is bought by the New York Yankees in your longstanding residential neighborhood? Now imagine they want to put a parking lot there so that New York fans can park there. Of course this sounds so ridiculous it’s inconceivable, right? That’s what I thought! I’m using this illustration because it really doesn’t matter who or why. It’s just obviously not OK. If you haven’t heard, the Raymond Planning Board is holding a meeting at the Raymond Broadcast Studio on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at 7 p.m. to hear about yet another application by the town of Frye Island for a proposed parking lot near the ferry to Frye Island in the town of Raymond in a residential neighborhood – mine.

Isn’t it obvious that if it’s determined that a larger parking lot is required to meet your needs and you can’t expand the current one due to the location – because it’s in a longstanding neighborhood of homes – you may have to move the entire business? For example, Frye Island may need to have another ferry from another part of their island which can go to a location that can support a parking lot they believe they must have for ferry service to their township. It’s really not our business what their problems or solutions might be. We can and I believe should wish them our best as a friendly neighboring township. What is our business is that building a parking lot in our residential neighborhood in our township is not reasonable, acceptable or an option.

Please extend your support in any way you can to prevent the intrusion by this non-resident applicant who seems to persistently have the town of Raymond’s Planning Board’s attention, to build a larger and separate parking lot in the midst of our neighborhood homes. We can’t allow this potential precedent to occur for all our sakes.

Remember the song: “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Susan Gleason

Raymond