Reflections is written by Island Institute Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.
It was two hours into a meeting that normally runs a tight 90 minutes when a selectboard member asked to lower the temperature of the room. He wasn’t talking about the thermostat.
At a recent Damariscotta Select Board meeting, the public heard a proposal for a joint public works department between Damariscotta and neighboring Newcastle. Both towns have been working together to visualize what services, logistics, and multi-year financial models might look like for such a project, including shared snowplowing.
As attendees shared their concerns, it became apparent that opposition to the joint department was based on the idea of Damariscotta residents paying taxes towards Newcastle projects.
My fellowship working with the town of Damariscotta to implement its new comprehensive plan began this September. I hadn’t known about “home rule,” Maine’s constitutional authority allowing towns to make decisions on matters that don’t conflict with state or federal level policy until I moved here.
Home rule established a sense of place and pride … strong enough to encourage both community residents and their town officials to participate…
Yet with the public works departments, home rule was alive and well, keeping towns politically and financially distinct, but also valuing local voices.
At this meeting, the Damariscotta and Newcastle town managers explained what collaboration could mean, while residents whose families have lived here for generations also voiced their concerns. Although I would have loved a clear-cut answer, home rule didn’t dictate which view mattered more. Instead, something far more important came to light: that home rule established a sense of place and pride in Damariscotta, strong enough to encourage both community residents and their town officials to participate in the civic process.
To be clear, I am neither supporting nor opposing the proposed shared department. I don’t have enough context yet. I haven’t seen the complete financial calculations, and I understand how the numbers might not work. I also recognize that I haven’t wintered here and haven’t yet spun my tires in the snowpack.
I am, as some say, from away. Would I have to work against that label for my entire fellowship? But what if I worked with it instead?
The phrase itself leaves out something vital: a person might indeed be from away, but where are they now? I am writing this at my desk in the Damariscotta Town Office. I walked here from my apartment downtown, waving hello to the heron which fishes in the river below my window. I’ll return my books to Skidompha Library on the way home.
I am from away, yes, but I came here not only because I saw potential in Damariscotta and its comprehensive plan, but because I saw the potential in myself to find a home and to truly love this place.
I realized that everyone who showed up to that contentious meeting had already achieved that potential. Both town staff and residents spoke clearly and with conviction, but what really mattered was that they were speaking at all—that they loved their home enough to advocate for it, and to participate in public engagement. Perhaps that was another basis for home rule; perhaps that was a way I, too, could call Damariscotta home.
The select board decided to explore a joint public works department. It may or may not come to fruition, but I’ll have the privilege of finding out. I’ll keep showing up at meetings in this new home, and learn from my new neighbors because I might be from away, but I’m here now.
Emerson Wesselhoff works with Damariscotta’s town manager and town planner implementing the recently passed comprehensive plan. She also works with Newcastle and Edgecomb.
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