I read with some dismay the “No NIMBYism Here” letter in the April Issue of Norfolk Now. I had planned to send in my thoughts after seeing the March article about the Mountain Inn’s zoning request for a bakery cafe, but never got around to it. I grew up in Norfolk in the 1950s and ‘60s. My mother’s family had started coming to Norfolk in 1934. I still return “home” twice a year from Montana, where I have lived many years. I do not pretend to know all the information about the bakery issue, but I have some thoughts.

Lots of people don’t like change. Believe me, Norfolk has always been largely about how it always was. This issue seems to be totally a good versus bad, right versus wrong, black and white issue, but why is this the case? Before I retired, I had a job that required us to look at an issue from every angle, negotiate and compromise when needed. Why is this an all-or-nothing issue? Can other options be considered? Hours and days of operation? Access and parking? Takeout versus sit-down? Why the anti-individual case consideration with regards to development in Norfolk? When a residential zone was established, perhaps some options were not foreseen. It never hurts to go back and revisit what has been done in the past. 

For years Norfolk residents have lamented the lack of affordable housing and the shrinking student population of Botelle School. It seems to me that perhaps the huge lack of business opportunities has something to do with this. Station Place is pretty full. There were folks who were against the Berkshire Store. Gone are the days of only a handful of cars in the parking areas. To suggest that the Hub would be a comparable gathering place to a little bakery is ludicrous. Do I miss the Curtiss dairy farm? Charlie Mubarak’s grocery store? The soda fountain where the Woodcreek Bar & Grill is now? Of course I do, but life marches on and sometimes we must change to survive. As an amateur history buff, I know that part of Norfolk was industrialized in the 1800s. Do people want factories along the Blackberry River again? Probably not, but it seems to me that Norfolk is a good place for what could loosely be considered cottage industries and not a place unwilling to consider anything new or different.

Vicky MacLean
Ronan, Mont.