This is not a joke, I am dead serious.

The same kind of dead as your private property rights will be if the amendments to Rockport's town ordinances are somehow approved by our residents on November 3.

If you are interested enough, you can either go to the Rockport Town Office during operating hours (!), or wade through these steps on the Rockport town website.  Don’t bother to use the search engine of the town website, it has been ineffective for years.

Go to the town website

Cick on "menu" in far upper right corner

Click departments

Click town clerk

Click elections

Dan Dunkle wrote a relevant article for the Midcoast Villager on this fiasco, dated September 18, 2026.  In that article, he states Chair Denise Munger argued this (the vote) was not aimed at limiting anything specific to Short Term Rentals (she means Vacation Rentals). It was a blanket policy affecting all rentals, not just Short Term Rentals (Vacation Rentals).

In that same article, another Select Board member, Samantha Appleton, states her concern regarding the fact that the amendment would be voted down at the polls due to a recent town vote that was very clear on the wishes of our residents.

Now several of the Select Board members want to act in the role of pater familias. They want to protect residents. What a joke. 

We all overwhelmingly voted against these regulation a few years ago. At the time, a local private business that inspected contracted rental units had proposed services to the town to perform the required safety inspections of all units in town. Nothing came of this, given that voters expressed their “no” vote at the polls, defeating the proposal rental ordinance by 70 percent.

In an area where million dollar homes are considered everyday, do you, the owners of such homes, need to be reminded to have all relevant insurance?  It is downright insulting!  The police records prove us right, but the Select Board, with NO research and documentation, proceeds unperturbed.

I urge you to become involved in this controversy and assault on our rights as property owners, and to vote NO to this proposed ordinance Nov. 3, or by mail-in ballot before the election.

If you would like to be part of our voice, email me at vjsvmd@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Marsha Steinglass lives in Rockport