Southern Maine Republic

A Windham councilor lists 6%, 4% and 2% increases, then calls it "a flat budget." 👀 The town's own numbers: total budget up 10.1% to $55.8M. 📈 Want a Yes? Explain the increases. Don't lecture voters. 🗳️ 📬 Get the Weekly: somerepublic.com/weekly

Windham voters said NO three times. 🗳️ Now Council Chair Mark Morrison wants voters warned that a No vote "could cost the town another 10 grand." 💸 Voters don't cost $10K. Re-running rejected questions does. That's the council's fault, not yours. 🏛️ 📬 Get the Weekly: somerepublic.com/weekly

🏛️ Gray's meeting was about a local censure. 📝 Anne Gass turned it into a Trump rant. 🙄🤦 Residents showed up for town business and got national talking points about "blatant corruption." 🎭 Johnson's email was out of line, but this is how the left makes every local fight about Trump. 🍊 📬 Stay sharp, Maine: somerepublic.com/weekly

👮💙 While activists and the media pile on cops, York resident Christine Brown stood up and said what most of us think: "I love this police department." 🙌 No defund talk, no apologies. Just a citizen backing the people who keep her town safe, closing with Joshua 1:9. 📖🇺🇸 📬 Common sense lives here: somerepublic.com/weekly

🚑💸 York taxpayers keep getting handed a bigger ambulance bill, and the numbers keep moving. 📈 Robert Palmer has had enough: "throwing good money after bad." 🔥 Voters capped it at $500K. Palmer is drawing his line at $350K before they come back for more. 🛑 Somebody has to say no. 🇺🇸 📬 Follow the money with us: somerepublic.com/weekly

🗳️ York voters WON. 3,962 to 3,579. 🏆 And Town Hall's answer? "Not currently effective." 🙄 Nothing stops them from honoring the vote today. They're choosing to stall over a charter technicality until an amendment vote forces them, probably in May. ⏳ Your vote counts... when it's convenient for them. 🤡 📬 You're not alone. Get the Weekly: somerepublic.com/weekly

Only one South Portland board member was worried AI might stop kids from thinking. 🧠 “What if our kids can't think?” 🚨 The left will fight AI and the data centers. A pause so kids learn to think first? Rejected 4-1. Feller was absent. The student reps said no too. 🇺🇸 📬 A weekly look at what they actually said 👉 somerepublic.com/weekly :3

“You work for and at the will of the voters, not yourselves or your outside interests or your nonprofits.” 🗳️🚨 🎙️ Bangor resident Steven, first meeting of the new council: three months or less for a one-to-one needle exchange only. “Be like Brewer.” 💉🇺🇸 📬 You’re not alone. Get the Weekly 👉 somerepublic.com/weekly

She read a councilor’s call out loud… and called it a threat. 📞🚨 🎙️ Mary Daily at Scarborough Town Council: “Sounds like a threat to me and it sounded like a threat to everybody there.” 😬 That bait is what flipped Doherty from yes to no. 🥊🇺🇸 📬 Want the next one in your inbox? 👉 somerepublic.com/weekly

Abolish ICE… because of a $152 broken license plate light ticket? 🎫🤔 🎙️ Nancy Glover, 77, at Scarborough Town Council: “Preferably ICE should be abolished.” 🚫 📵 “Officer Flynn is doing his best to keep Scarborough safe from old ladies with cell phones and broken license plates.” 😏🇺🇸 📬 Stay in the know 👉 somerepublic.com/weekly

Activists bait a Scarborough councilor… and he flips to NO. 🥊🚨 🎙️ Scott Doherty on ICE ordinance 26-085 (passed 6–1): “I was gonna be for this. I was in complete support of it until a few minutes ago.” “If you try and play dirty, it doesn’t work for you.” 🇺🇸 “I feel like I’m on the show The View, and I’m the token Republican.” 🤷 📬 You’re not alone. Get the Weekly 👉 somerepublic.com/weekly

“Kids playing with needles.” Feces in doorsteps. A Biddeford small-business owner tells council downtown needs real help. 💉🚨 🎙️ Kelsey, Ward 5: “We need money, we need staff, we need real investment… and we need real sustainability.” 🧭 “Attitude reflects leadership.” ❄️ “It makes me sick to my stomach when people are cold outside on the street.” 🇺🇸 📬 Stay in the know 👉 somerepublic.com/weekly

Biddeford confirms a new city manager… no pay talk on the mic. Then a Ward 5 resident reads the contract aloud. 💸🚨 🎙️ Kelsey: $215k, 24 vacation days, insurance, $600/month car allowance… and a six-month lump sum if they fire her without cause. 🏠 “I can barely afford my apartment but apparently I can afford to pay two hundred thousand dollars.” 😳 🤖 “Do we ask Chat GPT to write the worst contract ever?” 🇺🇸 📬 You’re not alone. Get the Weekly 👉 somerepublic.com/weekly

SoPo's school board chair: walking your kids to school = "what privilege is." 🤔🚸 💵 Privilege here is about money and class way more than race. 🛡️ Wanting to be safe in Maine isn't racist. Crime is up. 📈 🚗 She drives a friend to work because he's scared. If he's here legally, what's he got to fear? 🤷 🍽️ Dinner with the neighbors? ✅ Anyone can invite anyone. Welcoming illegal immigration? ❌ 🇺🇸 📬 Know what your school board said before your neighbors do 👉 somerepublic.com/weekly

6 councilors voted to scrap the Rec & Conservation Commission. 1 dissented — and got shut down. 🤐 🎙️ Westbrook resident Matthew Brunner: "I would hope to hear an apology publicly to her tonight… if it's not going to come from someone on the council, I'd like to apologize to you." 🙏 🗳️ Dissent isn't disloyalty. 🇺🇸

York senior parking pass: $20 ➡️ $80. "It didn't double, it didn't triple. It quadrupled." 😳 They used to buy 3 passes and eat out weekly. This year: zero. Local businesses pay the price. 💸

🤡 Asked why he told the board in August they were "all set," Augusta Supt. Mike Tracy: "Maybe I was more hopeful than I should have been." 💸 His fix? "Maybe 10 or 12 more positions." 🧮 Do the math: 791 absences ≈ 4–5% of staff a day. That's normal. Plan for it. 👀

🚽 South Portland's own lawyer said ICE using a city restroom was fine under the ordinance. Councilor Misha Pride: "I don't want them using our restrooms." 🙄 Amended to "for any purpose." Passed unanimously. 🤡 School Board Chair DeAngelis admits it "does not change what ICE will do on the streets." 🤷‍♀️

This is such a wild story! Be careful out there.