There are an awful lot of quaint/scenic/charming towns in New England, but I'm guessing that if you asked a New Englander to name their Top Ten, Camden, Maine would be on an awful lot of lists.
Camden is just lovely. And not surprisingly, well-to-do and high-end with a roster of famous well-to-do and high-end residents.
Dr. Benajmin Spock, the baby doctor, lived there. Historian Daivd McCullough had a house there, too. Music man Don "American Pie" McLean lives in Camden. As does author Richard ("Empire Falls") Russo.
Who can blame any of them? If I had the money and was looking for Home #2, I'd likely not do the sensible thing and get a place in a warmer clime, but look North.
Another high-end, well-to-do Camden personage is Lisa Gorman, widow of Leon Gorman. Gorman was the president of L.L. Bean, and got his job their the old-fasihoned way. Leon's grandfather was the O.G. of L.L. Bean, Leon Leonwood Bean.
As befits one of the Beans of Maine, Lisa Gorman has a lovely home on the water. Just up the hill there's another high-end, well-to-do resident with a lovely home, but one, thanks to Lisa Gorman's trees, lacking a fabulous waterview. (Those damned trees!)
Amelia Bond and her husband are out-of-towners. And way out-of-towners at that. The Bonds' homebase is St. Louis, Missouri. That's where Amelia used to run the St. Louis Foundation "which oversees charitable funds with more than $500 million in assets." Not to be outdone, her architect husband Art Bond III comes from an ancient and esteemed Missouri family, and is the nephew of long-time Missouri Senator, Kit Bond.
The Bonds, it seems, were none too happy with their view. So they did what any other amoral, immoral, entitled, and sneaky folks would do. They improved their view by poisoning Lisa Gorman's view-blocking trees.
To make matters worse, the herbicide used to poison the trees leached into a neighboring park and the town’s only publc seaside beach. The state attorney general is now investigating. (Source: Boston Globe)Even more galling:
When the trees and other vegetation began dying, Amelia Bond told Gorman in June 2022 that the trees didn’t look good and offered to share the cost of removing them, Gorman’s lawyer wrote in a document.
Rather than accept Bond's "offer," Gorman went ahead and had her dying oaks tested.
Turns out that the oaks weren't just dying off of natural causes. They'd been poisoned with Teuthiuron, the same herbicide that, back in 2011, an overzealous Crimson Tide fan had used to destroy the iconic oaks on the Auburn campus where Auburn fans always gathered to celebrate big football wins. Like the one they had in 2011 when Auburn beat arch-rival Alabama..
Oh, that Tebuthiuron.
Amelia Bond, perhaps thinking that her tracks would have been covered, purchased the herbicide back home in Missouri. (How are there still people out there who don't understand how searches are conducted these days?)
Anyway, the Bonds got an improved waterview. But when the poisoning came to light, they ended up making a $1.5M settlement with Lisa Gorman. Plus:
They paid $4,500 to resolve Maine Board of Pesticides Control Board violations for unauthorized use of an herbicide that was applied inappropriately and not allowed for residential use, $180,000 to resolve violations with the town, and another $30,000 for additional environmental testing, according to documents.
There may be other charges as well, as:
...the chemical has leached into a neighboring park and beach, leaving the Bonds potentially on the hook for further monitoring and remediation, and Maine’s attorney general has agreed to further investigate the incident.
It should be noted that the Auburn oak-poisoner ended up in prison for a few months, which is something I suspect society-gal Amelia Bond doesn't want to see happen to her very own self.
The Bonds have a lawyer who insists that the Bonds ”continue to take the allegations against them seriously. They continue to cooperate with the town of Camden, state of Maine and the Gormans, as they have done over the last two years.”
BFD. What were they thinking to begin with? Who decides to poison a neighbor's trees, and ruining a park and beach while they were at it, to begin with? What kind of people would do that?
And what kind of people, after they'd done the heinous deed, wouldn't remove themselves from the scene of their crime? It's not like there are two-sides to this one; the residents of Camden are pretty much unanimous in their anger at the Bonds and support for Lisa Gorman.
I doubt that the Bonds can step toe outside of their house without getting stink-eyes, side-eyes, muttered comments, sneers. All well-deserved. And extra on the stink-eyes because they destroyed Lisa Gorman's trees. Those oaks on her property may not have been as iconic as the Auburn Oaks, but if there's anything from Maine that screams iconic, it's got to be L.L. Bean.
At least the Bonds aren't carrying on like Alan Dershowitz, who's been whining up a storm since he started getting snubbed by his neighbors on staunchly-liberal Martha's Vineyard after he started acting as a gold-star apologist for Trump. (Being an A-lister with Jeffrey Epstein didn't help, either.)
Anyway, I hope the Bonds are enjoying their ill-gotten view while they can. I really can't imagine that their house won't be for sale at some point. Guess they'll be able to advertise it as having a better than million dollar view.
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