Monday, May 28, 2007

Slow But Sure

After a hiatus of a few weeks, I finally have the website online that is intended to serve as the primary access point for this blog. The new site is mountdesertisland.net, and among many other things of daily interest to those living on MDI, it contains a direct link to MDI Blog.

I have been asked for some additional information about the kinds of topics that might be discussed here. Of course, there are a great many of them, but here are 3 or 4 to get things started (although I know it will take some time for people to find this forum).

1) How can we best protect and build a viable, year-round community of working families on Mount Desert Island in the face of soaring property values caused largely by demand "from away"?

2) What can be done to help new residents and native "Mainers" better understand each other?

3) Acadia National Park does a great job protecting the environment on their half of the island, but how do we protect the other half?

4) MDI presently is governed by 4 towns with almost all municipal services duplicated 4 times. How do we combine these services to achieve cost and operational efficiencies while at the same time overcoming strong resistance to the loss of "local control"?

See how easy and fun this can be? Weigh in and let's hear your thoughts!

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

A Beginning

This is the first post in what I hope will be many over upcoming months and years. You are invited to suggest issues for discussion and to add your comments to issues suggested by others. We hope that you find this blog useful and informative.