Monthly Archives: March 2009
Shapleigh Vote video
Democracy in Action! Citizens vote 114 to 66 for rights-based Ordinance.
Radio coverage of the Shapleigh Ordinance vote (audio)
“RadioActive” program on WERU, March 5, 2009 (12 min.)
[audio:WERU_05MAR09.mp3]Free Speech Radio News, March 2, 2009 (2 min.)
[audio:FSRN_WERU20090302.mp3]Nestle: Remove your test wells from Wildlife Management Area (letter)
Shapleigh citizens have spoken once again by banning large scale water extraction for resale outside of Shapleigh. By our vote on Saturday, February 28, 2009, we also rejected the Board of Selectmen’s support of Nestle Waters/Poland Springs over that of it’s citizens.
Residents have consistently made it clear that they want their Constitutional Rights to take precedence over a Swiss conglomerate (Nestle/Poland Springs). We believe Nestle/Poland Springs is completely and exclusively responsible for causing this year-long distress to our town’s residents. By its behavior Nestle has shown us, in Shapleigh, what other small towns in the U. S. already know (e.g. Fryeberg) about this foreign corporation whose values are not those of Maine people. They use our regulations, or lack of, for their financial gain. Town officials have shown that they do not understand they are suppose to represent the people who elected them to public office.
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Federation of Canadian Municipalities Votes to Kick out Bottled Water
Resounding Victory for Public Water
Bottled water’s time is up and the tap is back!
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), representing more than 1700 municipal members from across the country, passed a resolution encouraging municipalities to phase out bottled water on municipal property. Municipalities across the country are expected to shortly take action on bottled water.
Shapleigh voters have ‘won,’ for now
York County Journal Tribune, March 3, 2009
In seven minutes Saturday, the residents of Shapleigh made history.
Regardless of one’s views on industrial water extraction for commercial purposes, the 114 to 66 vote to establish Maine’s first rights-based ordinance was aggressive and remarkable.
Proud to live in Shapleigh (letter)
We are so proud to be counted among Shapleigh’s Citizens, and especially among those voters that were at the Citizen’s Town Meeting this past Saturday, February 28, 2009.
Shapleigh (ME) closes tap for water companies
Residents ignore the Board of Selectmen’s position and vote to stop Poland Spring – and others – from harvesting their water.
By Edward Murphy, Portland Press Herald (March 1, 2009)
Gov. Crist (FL) wants to stop free flow for bottled water
By MARY ELLEN KLAS, Miami Herald (Mar. 03, 2009)
In a rural North Florida town where the water tower bears the motto ”Tiny but Proud,” residents have a big secret: They give the cold, clear spring water that bubbles up from the aquifer below their soil to the nation’s largest bottled-water company — for free.