Your blog post

My post content

Good Evening,

Last week there were two important meetings regarding the future of the Bath Golf Course. On Wednesday evening the City Council considered the two components of the citizens’ initiative to prevent cluster housing on the golf course. The first was a request for a moratorium on the issuance of any permits. After hearing from several people in favor of the moratorium, and from Sam Hamilton of the Portland law firm Eaton-Peabody who was representing Sean McCarthy and spoke against it, the council voted unanimously against the moratorium. However, as to the petition itself they had little choice but to accept it and schedule a pair of public hearings. Thanks to herculean efforts by Alicia Romac and several others, the signature gatherers had gotten 777 verified names, more than enough to meet the legal threshold. The entire City Council meeting was recorded and is available streaming here: https://cloud.castus.tv/vod/bath/?page=HOME

There are two very important public hearings coming up next month regarding the citizens’ petition. The first is before the Planning Board in early January, followed by a City Council Hearing on the 17th. The City Council has the authority to implement the new zoning ordinance, but they are likely to kick the can down the road to the June election to let the voters decide. If you can attend only one of these, please plan to be there on Wednesday evening, January 17 at 6 PM. City Council chambers are at 55 Front Street.

On Thursday evening we hosted a membership meeting at the Winter Street Center where a moving letter was read aloud from the Aaron Thiboutot family. Aaron has been in poor health most of his life and spoke passionately about how important the golf course has been to him personally. You can VIEW AARON'S LETTER HERE. Unfortunately, Aaron was admitted to Maine Med yesterday. I have his room number and I will be visiting him Wednesday. Please email me if you'd like to drop by during his hospital stay. I'm sure he would love the company.

Our membership rolls continue to grow at a satisfying pace, with 14 new members joining at Thursday’s meeting, and more coming in every day. We are now well over 100 dues-paying members, and our bank balance, though modest, is slowly growing. We anticipate several thousand dollars of expenses in the coming month for legal, accounting, and technology services, so we are focusing now of fundraising.

In that regard during the past week members of our board have been meeting with community leaders, getting them on board as members and setting the stage for major contributions once our 501(c)3 tax-exempt application is submitted. It is a complicated application, and has taken longer than originally expected, but it should be completed within the next few days.

The board has done well and should be commended on the time and effort they put in every week. I can speak for them when I say your positive feedback helps immensely and we thank you for that. But we need volunteers! If you are familiar with Google or Office products and know your way around a computer please contact me. It would be only an hour or two a week.

We now have a credit card processing account with Square Up which will allow for greater flexibility and fees are lower than Venmo. The system is up and running. Please join if you haven't already and forward this email to those that may want to be a part of this cause.

Lastly, on a personal note, it was a difficult week for me. I informed Sean that I won't be returning to the pro shop next year. Sending that text made it feel real for me. And it was bitter sweet, because I enjoyed working there. It was always a pleasure greeting the golfers in the AM. The paycheck was just an incentive to get out of bed at 5:30. I may be found behind another pro shop counter if Resurrection Golf is successful with their plans. I am dedicated to following this through until we've run out of options.

Sincerely,

Billy Turcotte, on behalf of the Board of Directors