“The person who doesn’t know where his next dollar is coming from usually doesn’t know where his last dollar went.”

Unknown author

I wrote in last week’s column that Central Maine Power incorrectly billed new customers only for one month of electricity, and that it was possible that ratepayers would have to make up the difference. The company and Maine’s Public Utility Commission are now stating that will not be the case. I still recommend hanging on to your wallet because at this point who knows what’s going to happen. Just remember CMP is still being investigated for possibly over-billing customers and to this date no one knows why or how much.

Since I mentioned money, I’ll jump right into another story. The Windham Town Council should have discussed during the Dec. 11 meeting extending the time frame on a town loan to the Windham Economic Development Committee. This loan originated in 2009 (if I am correct) for land on Anglers Road in Windham that had been for sale for some time by a developer. Part of the problem was the fact that Anglers Road did not intersect with Route 302 directly across from White’s Bridge Road. That has since been corrected, but I sense there was a promise of economic development if that happened. Somehow I also sense there is a reason that the WEDC is pushing for sewer for North Windham, which is something I am fine with only, and I do mean only, if that isn’t another tax burden on Windham residents caused by the WEDC or the town.

I had to mention tax burden because Windham, the best I can tell, has three town councilors who believe our wallets are bottomless. Hence they can borrow or bond hundreds of millions of dollars in order to erect their version of a Taj Mahal or, who knows, something far more extravagant. I really don’t care who builds what as long as they alone are the ones who pay for it. Residents were bamboozled by a sewer project in South Windham, and I certainly don’t want that to happen again. You see what scares me here is that I believe, with reason of course, that the Windham town councilors have split into two separate groups that have absolutely no love for one another and probably never will. Until one side or another breaks the laws that guide them, since Windham’s Town Charter doesn’t include a provision for a recall of elected officials, citizens can only sit by and watch the councilors beat on each other. So far it has pretty much been a one-way fight.

I now move on to the Town Council meeting of Dec. 4, where there was some confusion as to how the agenda items were set up for that meeting. I could be wrong, but it appears to me the interim town manager changed the order of the agenda items and some town councilors actually noticed it. For instance, ever since I have resided in Windham, councilor comments and then the town manager’s comments come after public participation. Well, that just didn’t happen during that meeting and I really hope things return to usual for future meetings. What works well for Windham should stay in Windham.

Other than Windham being in a state of crisis of one type or another, let’s all hope things improve with Windham’s political climate. For instance, I would hate to vote against a community center for Windham but when only 20 or so citizens show up for a meeting about it it shouldn’t be noted as a great turnout because there are over 18,000 or so people residing in Windham.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham believes Windham shouldn’t look like Falmouth or Scarborough.