In Palermo, Maine, they'll soon be debating what to do about barking dogs. And in 10 Vermont towns, voters will decide whether to endorse a statewide moratorium on genetically modified crops. It's town meeting season in northern New England; not the faux events of presidential primaries, but the meat-and-potato confabs that set bylaws and budgets. But, as with presidential primaries, there are often careful strategies at work. Organizers of GE-Free Vermont are using town meeting resolutions to leverage legislative action on genetic modification; three related bills are in play in Montpelier. It may be conventional wisdom that if you want, say, a bigger school budget passed, you're better off holding a vote on the town meeting floor -- where your neighbors can get a look at how you vote. But in Palermo, population 1,200, there'll probably be a secret ballot on the so-called "Howling Dog" ordinance: "Peer pressure," says the animal control officer, Pete Cote. "If someone next to you feels real strong about it, but you feel in the opposite direction, you might not feel free to voice your opposition." No matter, says Cote: "It's the only show in town in March."BOILING MAD: New England's maple sugarmakers are finding themselves in the middle of an intrigue that touches on international trade and the ethics of big-box retailers. Last week we noted the busting of BJ's Wholesale Club in New Hampshire for selling lower-grade syrup in Grade A bottles. The Massachusetts Maple Producers Association has lodged similar complaints against Trader Joe's in Hadley, but Massachusetts has no laws regulating maple syrup classification. Syrup is graded by color and flavor from Grade A Light Amber, the costliest, down to Grade B and a commercial grade sometimes used in curing tobacco. "Large packers buy barrels of B grade and even commercial grade and blend this with various A grade syrups to achieve the grade, and, ostensibly, the price point, that some of the large retail chains specify," notes Dick Uncles of the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food. Sugarmakers have voiced concern that the misgraded (and off-tasting) stuff will turn consumers off the real Grade A syrup. The source of all this syrup is Quebec, which exports its huge surplus. "I don't have any problem with the stores buying cheap Quebec syrup or selling it cheap," says Mass Maple coordinator Tom McCrumm. "What I have a problem with is calling it something that it isn't. People buy that stuff for $6.99 a quart, I'm selling for $14 a quart, and they think I'm ripping them off." For the real thing, go to: www.massmaple.org, www.vermontmaple.org, or www.nhmapleproducers.com.A LITTLE LIGHT LARCENY: Also at war: Michigan and Maine. Well, not really. But sorta. It started last April 1 when Tim Harrison, president of the Maine-based American Lighthouse Foundation, announced that Boon Island, home of New England's tallest lighthouse, would secede from the union to become the Republic of Boon Island, "A Totally Corrupt Government." It was, of course, a gimmick to raise $150,000 to restore the 152-year-old lighthouse, about 6.5 miles off York, Maine. (For 25 bucks you get a passport, a card for a nonexistent library, and a CD about the island's history; $100,000 gets you the presidency.) Not everyone got the joke, but the brouhaha has raised $22,000. Some Harrison observers in Michigan got in on the hoax by threatening to seize the lighthouse, move it to the Great Lakes, and turn it into a tourist destination. "We haven't gotten any help from the state, so maybe we should let them move it there," Harrison says. He sounds serious. B. J. Roche, who writes from Western Massachusetts, can be reached at peaks@globe.com
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