Littleton Selectboard Member Marghie Seymour was talking about affordable housing in the Littleton area when the dreaded comment came pouring out of her mouth.

She said that if the town builds a lot of affordable housing in Littleton, "there is this idea that a boat will land in Miami and a truckload of Haitians will move in."

After that verbal discharge, comments and chains of e-mails went stirring around the Granite State, making it all the way to state officials with help from Herb Lahout, owner of Lahout Property Development. Lahout distorted what Seymour said and was told by one of his co-workers, Heidi Hurley, who attended the meeting, that Seymour said, "We don't want a boatload of Haitians moving into Littleton."

Last week, Lahout called on Seymour to resign immediately. Present at the meeting was resident Mary Daly, who said that Lahout relied on false information to make his serious accusation that Seymour was a racist.
Lahout admitted that his e-mail was not what Seymour said verbatim but that it didn't matter because singling out one nationality with regard to low-income housing is in bad taste. Seymour went onto say that "I am sorry that my innocent comment was so dramatically misconstrued."
Seymour represents a group of abutters on Kimball Street in Littleton who are against the addition of 56 apartment units and 30 storage units to the Lahout Glen Apartments.
Lahout continues to say that he has no personal issue with Seymour and his criticism of her has nothing to do with her opposition to his project.