To the editor:

I read the front-page news about the boat ramp plan for the Old Bea's Sandwich property in Methuen and had to write you to set the record straight.

The people who live near that site are not opposed to it becoming a park/boat ramp, as City Councilor Deborah Quinn might have you believe. Her comment in the paper was, "The river belongs to everyone, not just the 10 people that live across the street from it."

This comment is inaccurate and very misleading. She knows we have legitimate concerns, including parking, lighting, a timetable for the opening and closing, a gate and police patrolling. We don't want it to end up like the old boat ramp (beside the I-93 bridge) did with stolen cars being dumped, drug users shooting up, and hookers doing business.

The neighbors know that they do not own the river just because they live across street from it. But, they know that they will own the problems that come with an ill-laid plan.

Ms. Quinn knows that our concerns are a matter of public record and she could easily review them at any time and should have before she made such comments in the paper. This is just another example of her misconstruing the facts and her inability to see what the people who she represents in the West End really want.

I have gone to every meeting to state my concerns about this issue. At each meeting I have stated that it would be nice to have a park/boat ramp there if it was done the right way with some rules and regulations to govern it, so it does not become a problem like the old one did.

Councilor Quinn needs to listen to the people and not berate them because they have some legitimate concerns that she is unprepared or incapable of dealing with.

The boaters that would be using the ramp are not the problem. Most of them are respectful, law abiding good people and would greatly benefit. But I have lived in that area for near 40 years and have seen what happened at the old boat ramp because there were no guidelines to govern it.

When she started this motion to build a park/boat ramp there a few years ago, she had asked that the people who live in the area get involved. She knew then that we were going to be the ones that had to live with the decisions that were being made and our input was of great value to the committee.

After working with her to make this a project that would be of value to the city, the neighborhood and the boaters that would use it, I find that she had her own agenda and was just pacifying the neighbors. Ms. Quinn who do you think you're fooling? We, the people who live across the street from the river are not stupid, as you believe us to be.

I say SHAME ON YOU.

Richard McCann

Methuen