Gary Lawless of Gulf of Maine Books makes a number of good points in his June 16 letter to The Times Record. Chief among them is his sense that the current plan for the downtown sidewalk project, which involves removing several prominent trees, is based on an engineering model that ignores the impact the results will have on our Maine Street landscape. Lawless counters this misguided plan with a request that the renovation of our downtown walkways be treated as a community project, with the community’s participation. We are talking about the center of our town, after all. In re-imagining what Maine Street will look like for years to come, we should be concerned not only about what will be under our feet but also what will surround us as we make our way. The design for this important project should be drawn from all of our voices.

Sandy and Lucille Stott,
Brunswick

Don’t you dare remove those beautiful trees under any circumstances! It seems to me that town officials are out of touch with residents. We need property tax relief, not a sidewalk boondoggle.

Taxes on my small property have gone up from $1,000 to $4,000 in just a few years. I’m surprised there isn’t an uproar by now. It can’t continue.

I’d like to see an audit of the towns’ finances. Where is all the money going? What did Brunswick officials do with  the  property reassessment income? How much is flowing into town coffers from  leasing Brunswick Landing? When do we get some relief?

Stop spending money on nonsense. Save it and start returning it to us.