Letter to the Editor: ‘Driving Doughnuts’ on Phoebe’s Front Lawn is Appalling Act of Vandalism, We Don’t Need ‘Anti-Booksters’ in Old Lyme

To the Editor: 

Have you visited the newly renovated Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library? Mostly completed by springtime, with hours and access slightly impacted by COVID; I’ll relate the reaction of my four-and-two-thirds-years-old grandson, Hunter (he’s very precise), who has been a regular, occasional visiting patron of the library for nearly two years.

“Wow! This is cool!”

Then, Phoebe’s Garden of native plants, really a small meadow, was on the Pollinator Pathway; and, I believe, the future site of a perennials’ garden. We dedicated the Witness Stones Project, recognizing some 14 African-Americans, who were once enslaved along what is now Lyme St.

Unfortunately, as we saw the landscaping plan progress into October, someone apparently just couldn’t resist driving up onto the newly hydro-seeded wet and muddy front lawn area, “doing doughnuts”, and leaving deep ruts. I can’t begin to express how I feel about that act of vandalism.

Come on, people! We’ve heard from anti-vaxxers and anti- maskers over the last few years. Is the new Old Lyme term “anti -bookster”? I can live without that, too.

Sincerely,

Thomas D. Gotowka,
Old Lyme.