Harpswell Loses Land And Its Heritage
Written by Kenneth Z. Chutchian
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03 March 2010
Amy Haible cast a vote in 1998 that helped changed history, and she regrets it.
Haible was one of many Harpswell residents who, at a town meeting in 1998, voted to cede more than 300 acres of marine land to Brunswick in a border dispute that some folks say wiped out local heritage older than the United State of America.
The vote, according to Haible and a recently formed group called the Carrying Place Assembly, was based on incomplete information, a closed-door process with little public input, and emotion stemming from several confrontations between clam diggers in Harpswell and Brunswick.
The Carrying Place Assembly is trying to set the record straight, even after lawmakers rejected an effort last May to re-examine the boundary through the state Legislature.
"We're trying to correct a mistake," said Haible, a former Harpswell selectwoman who has lived in town for 15 years. "The 1998 vote was abysmal. The maps we used to make our decision were missing key places."
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