What if towns met to solve challenges?

Different towns, similar challenges. A proposal for formalizing collaboration among elected officials.

By Peter Neill

One way to imagine change is to ask, “What if?”

What if our community of area towns, however unique and still deeply defined by mutual geography and related interests, were to examine what might work better for us now as an integrated, collective response to common needs?

There are several successful local examples that demonstrate such efficiency and condition: Healthy Acadia, a non-profit social service agency serving Hancock and Knox counties with programs of aging, substance abuse, health services, food, and other needs; mutual aid agreements between fire departments that augment training, capacity, and response to fire and rescue events; Peninsula Ambulance and Life Flight, that accelerate immediacy and transport of medical emergencies to health facilities; Peninsula Tomorrow, a monthly informal meeting of local residents and interested citizens seeking solutions for problems such as disaster response, weather emergencies and recovery planning, erosion control, innovative housing solutions, and other needs. It is a voluntary meeting.

All of these address existing and future needs. In each case, the discussion directly pertains to the community leaders asking themselves, “What if?”

Several years ago, I attended a public meeting of selectmen from Stonington, Deer Isle, Brooksville, Penobscot, Sedgwick, and Blue Hill. I can’t recall the specific issue, but I do remember the special feeling among the officials and public gathered. There was an awareness that such a meeting may have never happened before, and that the potential for shared experience and cooperative outcome was present. Such a meeting seemed unique.

What if such a meeting happened twice a year, with local elected officials well represented, and with an agenda of shared problems and possible solutions? What if those towns collaborated on a unified study of water resources to address the ever-increasing drought and diminished water available to the area for drinking, agriculture, and public health? What if those towns merged their hurricane response plans to maximize speed and success in meeting the pain and destruction of violent extreme weather? What if those towns coordinated the purchase of road salt, administrative supplies, maintenance, and access to the shared advantages of alternative energy supply and cooperative distribution? What if those towns considered the opportunity of an overlay of strategic plans and future development in anticipation of, instead of reaction to, future and possibly controversial events? 

What if we stopped each town thinking of itself as an island, apart and engaged only within? What if we shifted our perspective to the reality of our wants and needs as an archipelago, each entity with its own specific character, each further secured by the intelligence, foresight, and willingness to understand that without “what if” thinking we will be faced with the disappointing,  evermore difficult prospect of going it alone. 

What if? 

–Neill is an author, journalist, editor, and non-profit manager focused on maritime culture, education, and advocacy. He is the board chair for The Rising Tide.