03/27/2026
‼️Hello friends and supporters of The Roma Farm,
We’re going to be very real about what’s happening to our family right now.
Many of you saw the article about us in the Portland Press Herald, and the support we received meant more than we can put into words. What most people don’t know is that behind the scenes, the Town of Raymond had already voted to take us to court.
We have now officially been served.
Todd and I live on this property. We care for it, maintain it, and have put years into preserving it. We have coached kids in this town, and we are raising our own children here. This is our home.
And yet, we are now being sued over what the town claims are land use violations.
There is no clear ordinance in Raymond that prohibits what we have done. We have hosted small, private gatherings on our property while being present the entire time.
This all started from a complaint by one neighbor.
Since then, this has escalated into something that has been financially and emotionally exhausting for our family.
Before this ever reached court, we went through the Zoning Board of Appeals process to defend ourselves. During those meetings, no clear ordinance was ever cited showing that what we were doing was a violation. No clear evidence was presented showing that what we were doing violated any specific ordinance.
Instead, the narrative shifted to portraying our home as a large-scale event operation, which is simply not true.
After those meetings, we repeatedly asked the town a very simple question: what exactly is the land use violation, and where is it written?
We never received a clear answer.
We also never received any fine, citation, or formal determination following those meetings.
Months went by.
We even hosted another small family event using the same setup that had supposedly been a violation and received no violation at all.
At that point, we formally asked the town to either identify the ordinance we were violating or return the money we had spent defending ourselves.
Instead of answering that question, on October 24, 2025, we received an email from an attorney containing a “consent agreement” regarding our property.
There was no explanation, no record of a vote, no documentation showing who authorized it, and no indication that it had been approved by any governing body.
We had never even heard of a consent agreement prior to that email.
The document itself required us to give up certain rights to our own property, limit how we could use it, and accept conditions that would permanently affect our land.
Because of that, we asked a very basic question: who authorized this?
We filed a formal request for that information.
We followed up multiple times.
We were told it would take extensive time to produce an answer and were required to pay a $100 deposit.
Instead of receiving a simple answer, we were forced to file in Superior Court just to try to obtain that information.
The town hired attorneys to fight that request.
A judge ultimately directed us to pay the $100 and the information would be produced.
We paid it.
Weeks passed.
What we received did not answer the question. Instead, we were given large amounts of unrelated emails, including our own communications and complaints from a neighbor.
There is still no documentation showing who authorized that consent agreement.
At the same time, the town is using taxpayer dollars to defend withholding that information while also moving forward with a lawsuit against us.
We believe that should concern everyone.
At the same time, the town has been actively trying to create new ordinances around short term rentals and private events. Many of you have seen that process unfold.
So it raises a serious question: how can we be in violation of something that the town itself is still trying to define?
All of this has been happening while we are raising our children, caring for our home, and trying to move forward through very real personal challenges.
We are now facing a court date on April 7th in Bridgton District Court.
We are handling this on our own.
We are sharing this because people deserve to understand what is happening. Not just to us, but what could happen to anyone when there are no clear answers and no accountability.
We are not giving up. But this has taken a real toll.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us. It truly matters.
❤️Jess & Todd
