MILLINOCKET, Maine — Let them sue.
Gov. Paul LePage reiterated that message Tuesday in response to Millinocket town leaders’ threat to sue the LePage administration over the governor’s decision to withhold about $216,000 in state-mandated economic relief funding.
“What can we do? If they are going to litigate, they are going to litigate,” LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said Tuesday. “We certainly don’t welcome anybody suing us, but the town is going to have to make that decision.”
The Town Council’s lawsuit threat came in response to LePage’s decision last Wednesday to allocate to East Millinocket and Millinocket $504,000 each in Sudden and Severe Impact funds, not the $720,000 Millinocket is entitled to, because he believed Millinocket leaders broke an agreement to contribute $50,000 annually to the maintenance of the Dolby landfill in East Millinocket.
Millinocket leaders denied the accusation on Thursday, the same day they received a $504,000 check. They said LePage was lying and trying to bully them out of needed state funding by illegally withholding the Sudden and Severe Impact funds.
Millinocket Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said that in a conversation with LePage on March 6, the governor seemed to dare town leaders to sue the state and threatened to pull his support for a natural-gas pipeline that would run from the Old Town area to the Katahdin region.
Conlogue couldn’t say Tuesday whether Millinocket would sue the state.
“We are exploring the possibility and we are taking steps in that direction, but we have nothing firm yet because we are still hopeful that the governor will still recognize the need to follow the law,” Conlogue said.
The council will discuss the issue during its March 22 meeting, Conlogue said.
On Tuesday, Bennett sought to distance LePage from Conlogue’s statement about the pipeline, not confirming or denying whether the threat occurred.
“This administration is not going to play this out in the media, and that statement being characterized as a threat from Mr. Conlogue is concerning,” Bennett said. “The pipeline is a crucial element to the economic development of that region.”
“The governor has proven over the past year that he is committed to the Katahdin region and doing whatever he can do to further develop the economic growth in that area and throughout the state,” Bennett added.
The state’s assuming ownership of the landfill was crucial to the state-engineered sale of the two Katahdin region mills and the restart of the East Millinocket mill, which restored 216 jobs to the region in October. The gas pipeline is seen as a key element to the mills’ survival.
Mandated by state law to go to municipalities that suffer significant property-tax losses, the Sudden and Severe Impact funds will help the towns recover from the massive devaluation of their two paper mills last year as part of the sale.
Because the Legislature’s ownership agreement contained no funding for landfill operations, East Millinocket and Millinocket leaders have been negotiating with the state over landfill-operation costs since the mills’ sale last fall.
Both towns agreed to give the landfill $50,000 each in cash or in-kind services, with the state providing $150,000, but Millinocket and state officials disagree about the duration of the payment period.
Millinocket officials said they agreed to pay for one year, while LePage said the towns and state have a multi-year verbal agreement ― a handshake deal ― to make annual payments in support of landfill operations. East Millinocket officials have declined to comment on the dispute.
Rep. Herbert Clark, D-Millinocket, said Tuesday that the landfill and Sudden and Severe Impact funding were separate issues LePage had mistakenly combined.
“He is using that [the landfill] as a ploy to get Millinocket on board with the Sudden and Severe funding,” Clark said.
Clark plans to meet Thursday with House Speaker Robert Nutting, R-Oakland, and Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, to discuss LePage’s handling of Millinocket’s state aid.
Clark has pending before the Legislature a bill that would have the state allocate $250,000 to landfill operations starting July 1 and plans to submit by Friday a new bill that would give Millinocket permission to sue the state over the $216,000 cut. Under Maine law, a municipality needs the Legislature’s approval to sue the state.
Clark has also sought legal opinions on LePage’s actions from the Maine Attorney General’s Office, the Maine Department of Education and Maine Revenue Services, he said.
“A lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle [Republicans] have come to me saying: ‘What can we do? We think what is being done to your town is wrong,’” Clark said.
He doubted that LePage, who advertises Maine as “Open for Business,” would pull support for the pipeline.
“That sends an awful signal to everybody,” Clark said. “I can’t fathom him doing it. He might think it, but I can’t see him doing it.”
I rarely agree with the Governor, but I am sick of the gimme gimme attitude of Millinocket. They don’t want Maine involved in the decision on a National Park but they sure want our money. Sorry to all whom would of been hurt but the taxpayers of Maine should of let the mills close!
It’s money the law already requires the state to pay not just Millinocket but other cities and towns in Millinocket’s position. Millinocket isn’t asking for anything special.
In Millinocket’s position means HAND EXTENDED!
Are you claiming that the town of Millinocket should simply refuse the funds to which they are legally entitled? How many other communities in Maine have received state handouts?
Pay the bill – East Millinocket is and they didn’t cry liar!
The point is Millinocket says it never agreed to continue making payments to upport the landfill, that it had agreed to one payment. So far, LePage hasn’t provided any evidence that the town agreed to do anything more.
Why would they agree to one payment?? That doesn’t make sense and I doubt the State would have agreed to that!
Because the landfill isn’t in the town and the agreement called for only one payment.
Show us the evidence to the contrary ,gov! If Millinocket is wrong, don’t just say so, show us the evidence.If all the gov claims is that he has a “handshake”, wow, what a way for the state to do business.Millions of dollars on a handshake,If you shake with this govenor, count your fingers afterwards!
that sounds pretty fishy to me. Why wouldn’t east millinocket join in on the fight instead of paying if it were not true? Goveror Lepage is right on!!
I would surmise that East Millinocket had a different agreement with the state. Also, the state hasn’t withheld funds from the town.
East Millinocket isn’t giving Lepage his $50000 either. They said they plowed the road to the dump and their police patrol the area and to them that equals $50000. They made it very clear that they where only doing this a courtesy and that the people of Maine own the dump.
They agreed to pay the difference in money.
East Millinocket is currently providing security for the site. Town employees have also been working to keep parts of it plowed. Leaders in East Millinocket say that the value of those in kind services add up to about $50,000. The town has also offered to pay an extra $5,000 this year to help with the upkeep of the landfill.
Former select board chair Mark Scally says that the town will continue to do what it can to help.
“The town of East Millinocket realizes that the landfill is not just the responsibility of just the town of East Millinocket,” he said, “It’s the responsibility of the state of Maine and generations to come. We’re the recipients of its largest and therefore we should do our bit to help out…and we will do everything we can to help out.”
http://www.wlbz2.com/news/article/192459/3/East-Millinocket-leaders-affirm-support-for-Dolby-Landfill
I have a hard time believing that with the snow fall this winter, and the say 3 visits a day for policing totals 45k. I feel those numbers are inflated when it actually cost much less so they can pay more like 20k in plowing and policing, 5k in additional money and get away with paying 25k less than Millinocket. I state this as an opinion and not facts! Just would like to see the expense report with 45k in maintenance.
It seems like a odd coincidence that the towns maintenance bill equals the amount Lepage has asked them to pay.
I don’t blame either town for trying to get the best deal for their population, and if they beat Paul Lepage then the people of Maine may very well be stuck with the bill.
Anyone could fabricate an expense report to make the values come up to what they want. I went to school for business, i know how it works. All I’m saying is, i’d like to see that expense report. Just one more thing, how did you get a copy of the town maintenance bill? Where did it say that LePage asked them to pay a certain amount? From what i recall they made an offer not LePage setting an amount. The same offer that has yet to be made public.
If they are smart. They don’t have anything on paper.
“If they are smart. They don’t have anything on paper.” You first claimed that East Millinocket maintenance bill equaled the amount asked by LePage. I asked you how you know this information and how you saw the report. You respond with the above comment. How can you know what on the expense report to back up your claim about the amounts equaling but yet come back with if they are smart, they don’t have anything on paper? Is it only me that see’s your comments as non factual?
I’m just say what E.M. said. I mentioned it because people are claiming that E.M. has paid the 50000 while W.M. hasn’t .
You can read what EM siad yourself and make your own conclutions.
http://www.wlbz2.com/news/article/192459/3/East-Millinocket-leaders-affirm-support-for-Dolby-Landfill
so true!! Great question!!
Isn’t it 50k either way? That was my understand from reading the articles is that East is pay 50k through plowing and policing and whatever the difference was they were to cut a check to the state for the remaining balance to 50k.
It appears there was no deal except in Paul Lepage’s fuzzy mind. Here is a link to the video of the East M. spokes person explaining how it is the state of Maine who owns the dump and that E.M. will help out as a courtesy and not as a contractual obligation.
http://www.wlbz2.com/news/article/192459/3/East-Millinocket-leaders-affirm-support-for-Dolby-Landfill.
I read that a few days ago. It doesn’t state that East is paying anything after this year either. East offered 50k in services and 5k. Millinocket offered 50k and we have articles after articles on BDN saying Millinocket broke agreement. Makes me wonder what so called agreement there was. If it is true that LePage is ok with the 50k +5k from East and that is where the landfill is located but not owned by the town. Now why would it be expected that Millinocket pay more than East?
Just 5000 and no long term agreement,
The fact that East Millinocket is paying their bill proves nothing about the legitimacy of LePage’s claim that Millinocket owes anything — or that witholding other funds is the appropriate response for LePage to take.
I don’t think the words “dialogue” or “compromise” are in his vocabulary. I wonder if he’s ever admitted to being wrong — even once.
East also has not said that whey would pay beyond this year. Chairperson said no comment?
If legally entitled; then Millinocket should sue. End of discussion and move on.
“Hand extended” because the state owes the town that money.
So basically you think the governor does not have to obey the law? Exactly what “gimme” do you think we have gotten?
Pay the bill – East Millinocket is!
You think Millinocket should pay because East Millinocket is? Have they produced their annual payment agreement in writing? As a Millinocket taxpayer I want to see it in writing where I am libel for this payment. Is that too much to ask?
Union run Towns make for a “VILE” Bunch.. Unions know what contracts are fer sur.. Union Contracts kill the mills in Maine. Next time you ask for help in keeping the mills open, we will salavage them, buildings and all. You can survive on the tax base of 30 thousand dollar homes..
These are far from “union run towns” and whatever else your trying to claim is ludicrous at best. Sounds like you should just sit this conversation out.
If Millinocket was a “union run town” there would probably still be work for the people of Millinocket….
David, to put it simply, this is one of the most ignorant things I’ve seen in this comment thread — and if you really believe that Unions are a problem you’re terribly misguided and most likely vote against your own interests. AKA, you more than likely voted for the intolerant and greedy swine in the Blaine House right now. It’s good to see what LePage’s approach to keep the people of Maine first really looks like, as if the town of Millinocket hasn’t had it rough enough over the past decade. Your fellow citizens are such a “VILE bunch” for demanding money that is rightfully theirs as far as anyone can tell at this point — if the town agreed to the deal LePage says they agreed to, where is his proof?
The proof is that East Millinocket is paying their fair share and not yelling liar instead! Why does Millinocket always feel they are entitled to the taxpayer’s money? And by the way other communities have had a rough decade so quit your whining!
Ah yes, the quit your whining and pick your self up by the boot straps argument — everyone says that till they’re the one who needs help. And how is another town’s payment proof of a written agreement between Milinocket and the state, genius? The amount of money they are OWED, is the same amount that would be payed to any other town, so stop acting like it is just one town with its hands out as the state fund mandates that amount for each town. I’m not from Millinocket, nor do I live or spend any of my time there, so I am hardly whining, I just don’t support a leader who accomplishes business by holding towns and the people in them hostage to his demands and I support those who live in the state with me — so quit assuming that whenever someone demands reasonable answers or supports others in the state who feel wronged it is just them whining. If they signed an agreement and missed a payment, so be it, then they should pay — all I’m saying is he need to provide the evidence that an agreement was reached outside of just his word.
as rough as the Millinocket area? I doubt it
Millinocket attempted to pay their share, the same amount that East paid and LePage refused the amount. Maybe East should pay $10,000 for the fire works over the 4th. I mean we have the location, we do all the maintenance, clean up, and policing. From my calculations that is 10k, The point your missing with everything is East paid an amount of in kind and some cash of 50k. Millinocket offered the same amount and was turned down.
You are no David. Far from it.
You post here alot and say nothing of any sense or value.
I am reminded of the line from the musical, Evita, “she didn’t say much but she said it loud”
No, it is completely understandable and a very reasonable request as you are one of the taxpayer’s who will be footing the bill, cliffordmc, and that’s exactly why LePage doesn’t get it — he knows not the meaning of the word reasonable as evident by him acting like a child and using idle threats to try to get citizens to just go along with whatever he says while he rear-ends them.
I respect your opinion but if East Millinocket was paying all their bills why would it appear that your selectmen where angered at the Public Works director for not plowing the landfill road. Stating that it was tied to the Sever and Sudden Impact funds? Kinda seems that East needs the money just as bad.
Don’t blame Millinocket, they are BIG LABOR and that is what this is all about.
Your comment doesn’t even make sense. Millinocket is big labor? What does that mean?
I’m curious how you arrived at the “gimme” statement–are you a student of the many complex details of the last 10-15 years?
I wonder if you might also be confused about the also complex National Park issue. You’re not alone, here’s a quote from
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/03/13/443171/cliff-stearns-sell-national-parks/?mobile=nc
“This is not the first time Republican members of Congress have advocated selling off Americans’ public lands without clarifying how taxpayers would get a fair return for them. Last fall, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) proposed selling off 3.3 million acres of the public lands that belong to all of us. And former Rep. Richard Pombo proposed selling national parks to mining companies in 2005.
Republican presidential candidates have also recently been confused about the tangible and intangible values of our national parks and public lands. Mitt Romney told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he doesn’t know “what the purpose is” of public lands, Rick Santorum told Idahoans that public lands should go “back to the hands” of the private sector, and Ron Paul advocated for public lands to be turned over to the states.”
They sure like YOUR money? Don’t any of you fools realize that there are taxpayers in Millinocket .EM and Medway? I’m sick of paying for coastal projects too, but they still use MY money for that.In fact MY money probably is supporting you right now!
Mind blowing ahah. Everyone thinks that everyone that lives in the Katahdin Region is on welfare, state aid and so on. What they dont realize is that the majority of the people who are on state assistance didnt in fact work for the mill. The ones on state assistance are ones who moved here for low cost living. Instead of them getting the facts correct they like to group the two together to make their claims look more appealing.
“… the $720,000 Millinocket is entitled to…” kind of exposes the tiniest bias in the BDN’s coverage, doesn’t it?
BDN doesn’t “entitle” anyone. The law “entitled” those who are suppose to receive it.
Whether Millinocket is still entitled to the full amount is exactly the dispute… which the BDN has graciously settled for us.
I don’t know how you read into this that BDN settled this but any agreement and the funds in question are not connected in any way that I can tell.
“MANDATED by state law to go to towns that suffer significant
property-tax losses, the Sudden and Severe Impact funds will help the
towns recover from the massive devaluation of their two paper mills last
year.”
According to state law, Millinocket is supposed to receive these funds. That’s the way it is supposed to work. LePage is trying to pretend the town needs to be on his “good list” in order to receive the funds. That’s NOT the way its supposed to work — except maybe in a totalitarian state.
So, no, no BDN bias revealed here.
Or Marden’s.
Not in the least. They are simply reporting the requirements of state law.
If LePage really has no discretion in applying the law, then no lawsuit is needed: a writ of mandamus, issued at a simple court hearing, would force him to hand over the full amount. Since I don’t see any activity in that direction, I suspect matters aren’t as cut-and-dried as LePage’s critics claim.
In the words of our (former) illustrious leader, “Bring it on”! After that debacle I’d say any halfwit now in office would be reluctant to challenge their opponent with so much bravado and lack of respect.
LePage offered the challenge perhaps less out of a belief that he is right than the knowledge that the State has a lot more money for a lawsuit than any town in Maine.
Millinocket should pay their bill like East Millinocket!
they did, you mean by checking the gate and plowing? I have not heard anything that East Millinocket has given the state $50,000?
Questions: How did they pay and when? Where is the multi year contract they signed and what did it stipulate? Why does East Millinocket have “no comment?”
as reported, Linscott struck a deal on the landfill by paying 5k, plowing and policing the facility that was tied to the money. They dont want to comment cause they want to keep the attention on Millinocket for not wanting to pay 50k cash while they pay with inflated plowing and policing prices.
Pay your bills while your schools fall further and further behind in repairs. One closed, lucky the state allowed or maybe they didn’t allow a school system operate a 2 floor school with out an elevator or handicap accessibility. Now your only school needs 3 million I believe in repairs as reported in the BDN. You wont find any school in Millinocket not handicap accessible nor needing repairs. And for that we have bills to pay. You don’t but need repairs. Who’s really in the better position?
And like all the other governors before him if he needs more money for lawyers to defend his decision he will just reach into your and my pockets a little deeper !
The citizens get screwed while the lawyers & politicians take the cake. Status quo ante.
LePage is nothing but a bully and an embarassment to the state. The news he is traveling to China for talks is, on one hand, terrifying as to what ignorant comments he will make while there and on the other hand a strong wish that he might just stay there. Perhaps LePage’s people should find a handbook of sorts as to what the gov. legally can and can’t do- he seems to be very confused about it all.
LePage’s purchase of a toxic dump, with our money, is the clearest example we have of his talent for creating jobs.
I think a toxic dump is a symbol that should remain associated with him for all time.
it is not a toxic dump , in fact it is less toxic than a dump that is exclusive to serving homes. That is because pulp and paper mill wastes are known and what comes in from homes is not . This is indisputable fact if you understand landfills . Now if this dump served the chemical industry or received certain special materials like 1950’s or 60’s mimeograph carbon ( Kalamazoo & fox river ) used also for check paper or maybe pesticides that could be another story but then also remember before the early 1970s you could dump chemicals and stuff direct into the river so no need to add cost to landfill.
You never know what your neighbor dumps and it is not regulated or controlled the same as business, maybe they have DDT , many of the chemicals purchased at walmart can be dumped by a homeowner but not a business.
Learn some details about what you are talking about
What would you do – if you close the dump you need millions to do so.It has life and we need dumps. do we build another somewhere else and create a potential problem there. what about the cost to start from scratch? would you rather burn the trash? haul it out of state? make our trash some one elses problem. If the mill has to haul it far it costs and that affects jobs /
But it IS a toxic dump! Do you even get this? The rigs cross over the border from out of state, loaded with CCD waste and god knows what else, drive through a transfer station for “processing,” and . . . Presto! It’s Maine trash. They then get back on the road to Juniper Ridge. Baldacci actively encouraged this, and our wise legislators, including democrats, voted for the change in language.
Casella Waste has applied for a permit to enlarge the footprint of this cluster****, which would not have been necessary if they did not accept trash from OUT OF STATE!
Learn some details about what you are talking about.
Yes I get this more than you and the 15 people who think they like your comment.
CCD waste cannot by law be toxic. The processing includes removing debris with lead based paint etc. If in fact there is not really processing to rmeove questionable material that violates the law, MDEP provides oversight – are you saying and can you prove there is lawbreaking? are you saying MDEP doesnt do thier job?
Im not in favor of out of state waste coming in but that is a subject of federal law and until that is changed we are stuck.
In Maine because CCD is supposed to be processed to be non toxic you can permit unlined dumps for it
Of course, Freddie! Of course there is no toxic debris going into Juniper Ridge. And oil prices, electricity rates, and state and municipal taxes will come down.
So, Freddie. How long have you been working for the state? You are a study in denial.
you cannot prove what you claim . The facts and data show you to be wrong. You are in denial until you show facts for your claims. In fact it is attitudes like yours that keep this state held back.
Silly me. You’re right, of course.
WHY!
The problem here is that they have talked about getting “tipping charges” for accepting waste, which could put a whole different kind of trash and waste in that landfill.
The Baldacci administration purchased the Juniper Ridge landfill as well. Hopefully, you are just as critical of that.
I think that both deals are short-sighted and carry long-term liability that belonged to large corporations. We know how long GP held up their end of that bargain. It remains to be seen if Cate Street Capital will do better.
Juniper ridge is fully funded by a private company. The Lepage dump will be paid for by the people of Maine. $17 million to clean it up and $250000 a year for maintenance.
But you agreed when Baldacci did it in Old Town, right? Thought so.
THIS story has ALL the MOONBATS flying into the porch light. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lOL
This slap fight is best watched from the sidelines, those girls deserve each others, but I just want to know if Millinocket voted for LePage, or not ?
No, Millinocket voted solidly for Cutler…independent, just like Maine.
Yep. Corporate Amerika needs to rise up and smite the workers and the gubmint. Everything MUST BE DONE for the benefit of the Corporate Prophets (profits) . Then, and only then, can the Beneficial Corporate Masters deign to hand down a few trifles or trinkets to those masses who have worshipped them on their mount. Beware False Profits (such as good wages, health insurance, and the American Dream) for they are nothing but the opium of the people. ( end irony)
I wonder if that’s where the mural’s final resting place is….
Without Lepage the mill would never have opened in East Millinocket.
Thats a crock of bull****. LePage had absolutly nothing to do with opening east Mill.
Wow what are you smoking
I sure hope that Penguin’s babysitters can keep him from saying anything dumb or inflamatory during his vacation in China.
And I hope you’re not hoping too hard, because he will most likely tell them to kiss his….well, you get where I’m going.
Chopsticks?
Do ya think he might put his eye out with ’em ?
I hope they hire a translator smart enough to say in Chinese what he should have said,
and that he doesn’t make any “handshake deals” with those hard nosed business people.
Yes, we need a Chinese version of Adrianne Bennet! lol.
Can you imagine him bowing? That’s what they will expect.
Nothing less than laryngitis can do that!
Yours certainly can’t keep you from that same thing – you do it here daily.
http://freebeacon.com/with-friends-like-these/
if so, they deserve a Noble prize
He belongs in Arkham Asylum!
The two lasting legacies of the LePage administration — the dump nobody wants, the mural nobody sees.
What an extortionist!
Extortionist is one thing; thank our lucky stars he isn’t an exhibitionist.
No, but he is a doughy poser.
Are you an attorney or a judge? You sure sound like you are sure of the laws and the position the governor has taken, if of course Millinocket is even telling the truth. Please explain what you mean.
There goes Millinocket’s superintendant’s dreams of filling the school with Chinese students !
FRanco hater, racist!
I’m shocked the Federal Gov’t would allow LePage to visit China ….his lack of class will start an international incident with the Chinese, who unlike him, actually know what they’re doing.
The Chinese are looking for tips on how to run their sweat shops!
Yeah, go ahead and sue the State, it’s tax payer money we’re spending to defend this fool. If it was his own cash, he might take a different stance. Pay the bill Governor, it has nothing to do with the dump agreement. Stop the threats and bullying and be an emmisary not an embarassment for our great State.
His “style” of communication makes a lot of people uneasy. If he cared enough about the State of Maine and the people who helped get him into office, he could show a little more professionalism. I don’t think it would kill him.
He might as well say, “and kiss my butt while you’re at it…” There’s no way you’re going to win when you sue the state in a state court…
Unforunately for all taxpayers, Millinocket will win. Its just going to cost us all for this ridiculous fight.
Why doesn’t the state close the dump now ? Let the Millinockets AND Great Northern solve the waste problem without state money?
Simply put the landfil is not even in Millinocket nor do they use it. East Millinocket doesn’t even own it.
Great idea !
Call it non-performance , and use that as an excuse for the State to wash their hands of a bad deal.
What makes you say that? You’re implying that Maine judges are somehow corrupt.
Hope people noticed it said Millinocket ………. don’t shoot the neighbors
The towns of Medway, East Millinocket and Brownville would each file lawsuits if the State threatened to withhold funds which were guaranteed by law.
Possibly you are right, in one of the articles it also said, Linscott would not comment on the matter. So why do not we see East Millinocket’s agreement?
Hardly any article on the Landfill issue will be written with reference to only one town. They constantly link both towns in the articles. We aren’t shooting the neighbors, just trying to pay the same amount but LePage wont accept it.
Obviously, LePage’s belief in ‘free-markets’ is just rhetoric.
Sue the bully!!!!
Before forming an opinion one way or another, I’d like some clarification of facts.
There’s the statements above that he is withholding a portion of the funds because he believes the town has broken it’s end of a deal where they contribute $50,000 annually.
The other statement is that the community is disputing how long it has to pay $50,000.
Was it specified in any written agreement how long the city would pay it’s share =$50,000?
If there is no end date to their payments then they are required to pay it annually (every year) without stop. If they have not done so, they are in breach of contract, not the LePage Admin.
Please clarify those facts BDN.
Maybe the right question to ask is “If there was any written agreement to pay $50,000 annually.” Not “How long…..” And apparently it is not there.
A contract of indefinite duration is not required under the Statute of Frauds to be in writing. So whether this term is in writing or not may not resolve this issue.
The problem is there is no contract or agreement that implies indefinate duration. Lepage will lose this but it is regrettable that that it has to come to this.
You are very correct. No one will win. The state will have to pay the $720k and fully run the dump and Millinocket and probably East Millinocket and Lincoln will get no gas line.Best that all parties get together and put something on paper. Of course we taxpayers will not be asked to participate.
Couldn’t have said it better.
A story posted on the Website on Friday and printed Saturday — the one in which the AG’s office is asked to render an opinion — discusses how there is no written agreement among the state and the two towns, so the answer to your fundamental question, “Was it specified in any written agreement how long the city would pay it’s share =$50,000?” would be no.
And obviously, Millinocket and state leaders dispute whether a one-year or annual agreement was ever agreed to, among many other points in dispute.
Pay the bill – East Millinocket is!
Uhhh… didn’t you say this already? LOL
Policing and plowing equals $50,000? Maybe you should read the understanding between the state and the town.
We will pay the bill once LePage accepts the amount of money offered which happens to be the same about the East is paying. Hhmm, again you say Millinocket bitches but i can see you doing the same if East was to pay more than Millinocket. You’d be bitching, saying they put trash in their too, they should be paying the same amount and so on. Now that we are asked to pay more than East you are totally fine with that and continue to say Pay the bills – East Millinocket is! Fix your school – Millinocket has!
Why would one municipality pay while another cries liar?
Maybe because one town agreed to do one thing while the other agreed to do something else?
They wont answer you, they have no answer
You are right, East will not answer, which in this case may be the best way.
East has an answer they are not going to share their deal. I wouldnt if I was them. Makes the folks to the West of them keep wondering.
Now why would you say something like that?
Its True
They will have to tell the taxpayers at one time or another. Of course their thinking is that they deduct the police and plowing from the $50,000. Maybe it will add up to that same amount. Again Linscott would not comment on IF it was a multi-year agreement. Maybe East does not want to have egg on there faces, also.
None of these articles have anything to do with East, You folks want to drag East into it to justify your non action and being hauled across the carpet for it. East is not calling the Gov. a liar or a bully. Like I said before the Magic City has Lost its Magic Wand, everyone sees it but Millinocket. Times are going to get allot tougher than this.
What a complete embarrassment for the town of Medway, the school board and its good people you are!
Your opinion, many others would disagree with you and say you are the embarrassment sir.
Re-read the articles. Some certainly do talk about East and the agreement, and mention Linscott by name. I guess you read only waht you want too. I never said East called the Gov. anything. Still making up your own stories?
Sounds like Linscott struck a backdoor deal with the Gov. and they don’t to disclose it as they would be called out showing the rest of the state the facts. If it was me and my offer was better then another towns, I’d go public asap and show that we are offering more and willing to do more. No comment after no comment makes one believe they are hiding something.
I dont believe Linscot was even on the board when this deal was made. The articles are about the Govenrnor witholding funds, Millinocket calling him a liar and a bully and Millinocket suing the state. There have been references made to what East has done in the paper and on here, but what East has done really has no bearing on the articles.
You may be right, but if you follow along and I do understand it’s all over the place, comments here and comments there. My original comments about Linscot began by sourcing the information obtained from the article in the Lincoln News. Figured using facts was the way to go if we are going to believe everything published. I didn’t just dream this up in my head, it’s actually in print.
LePage should be ashamed of himself. This is no way for the leader of the great State of Maine to behave. I hope the AG issues his opinion soon. And, I hope that Millinocket sues LePage. LePage is counting on the fact that it will cost the town money to litigate this issue, but lies are not acceptable by any elected official, especially a Governor.
I couldn’t agree with you more, but remember the AG is in LePage’s back pocket. LePage is an embarassment to the state and it’s people.
Janet Mill’s was in John Baldacci’s back pocket when she was AG and the crap they pulled off as legal had a smell to it.
i’m no fan of baldacci but he was never lied like lepage–when a national BUSINESS magazine says the governor is a liar, they have no axe to grind
National magazines lie all the time, so does national news… They do count on you folks to believe that the economy is doing great for Obama’s re-election. They lie every month about jobs being created on the unemployement rate.. The lie that there is no inflation, yet food and oil goes up everyday. they are a bunch of liars that know people like you to believe them and hand feed you lies and crap.
You keep lying. David is rolling in his grave.
And why is it appropriate for Millinocket to do what they are doing?? The State would never had agreed to “one” payment. That doesn’t make sense to anyone.
The state??? This was LePage’s baby. He was the one that agreed with the company that the state would take over the landfill. And, as usual, he did not get concerned with the details. Otherwise, there would have been a written contract between the state and the individual towns. That is how business should be done and would have been done in the past. But, LePage does not believe in following the law or rules or anything else. He just flies by the seat of his pants and embarrasses all of us.
Lepage took over this landfill at the request of many citizens, town officials, state and US officials. It isnt like he took the landfill to save the mills for his benefit. If he wouldnt have made the deal he did and the mills were being scrapped they would be saying the same things.
LePage doesn’t respond to requests of anyone unless it suits him. Don’t forget also that those mills eventually will be big taxpayers. If he was so concerned helping the state as a whole he would have pursued the real culprits–the businesses that took the money & ran, laughing all the way to the bank, leaving the dump behind.
Alot of people complained and threatened to sue over what he did with the painting in Augusta but he has yet to put it back. If he was so influenced by others he would of put it back at the demand of the people. I feel LePage doesn’t do something unless it boost his ego. Sad thing is, i voted for him because i respected his hard nose attitude, thought he would get things done with education, welfare, and all the state agencies in regards to all the fraud. Didnt think he would go and try to withhold any money from any town in which the law states they are allowed to have.
why would you want anything in writing when you intend to change the rules after the game is over and get more bang for your buck when you can also use it to “leverage” future end results that may otherwise not be accomplished.
And a wink and a nod does? Where is his proof? The burden of proof is on him because he is the one withholding the funds illegaly. This is our whiz bang, ever so expert business man who was going to show us all how it’s done? No contract on a muti-year deal? Laughable! (and sad)
And let the rest of us get on with our attempt to recall him!
There is no provision in the state constitution to recall the governor.
Doesn’t stop us from making the effort.
Lepage can be made into an ineffective lame duck for the rest of his first and only term by flipping the Legislature to the Democrats in November.
that’s too bad. do we have a lemon law in Maine? if so, that might work!
Boy…this guy, (LePage), is something else. I hope the 39% are proud of their man. When the Dems take control of the state again, and they will, you can thank Lepage.
When the Dems take back the state, they will find it back on track and running smoothly.
Can I sue the state too? All of LePage’s drama is giving me an ulcer!
Whatever was agreed to in writing between the parties will prevail in court.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Contractual agreements (and contractual litigation) are often resolved on the basis of terms reasonably inferred as well as what is written.
Something as important as “indefinate payments” verses a “one time” payment would be a little more than “reasonably inferred” and should have been in the minutes of a documented meeting or in writing.
So when you produce paper that says it for just the one year that was paid you’ll win.
Unless you can do that, pronto, I think the PR approach that those folks up there have taken
with Roxy Quimby should be turned on the Governah.
: o
Here we go again. With LePage trotting off for trade talks with China, and leaving so much unfinished business here, God only knows what trouble he will cause over there. Hope he realizes that when a Chinese official bows to him in greeting, it doesn’t mean “kick his butt”.
These trade missions, have proved to create hundreds of millons in business overseas per year, for Maine Small Businesses.. Past Governors have done the Same. I hope he does well and more Maine small businesses make money and hire people..
If we bring lies into the picture blame Lepage… He’s the one with egg on his face when it comes to lies. As far as the China trip, it’s a paid vacation. China and LePage will have alot in common when it comes to the treatment of workers.
Well, Millinocket is not the most truthful town.
Whats he going to China For?
To open a Secret Villian Base on one of the Islands in the South China Sea?
He seems to have the Dr. Evil Villian pose down pat!
http://bdnpull.bangorpublishing.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Maine-Governor-600×467.jpg
I can see him learning to put suicide nets out side windows to prevent worker suicide.
If Paulie shoots his mouth off in China like he does at home here in Maine we can all count on Maine being the last place on earth that ANY BUSINESS is going to come to start up or expand. Eliot Cutler’s recent log home deal with the Chinese had best be getting a good look-see if LePage got his hands into it ! The same can be said of Cate St’s deal too given LePage’s apparent dislike for it now that Maine is going to have to live up to it’s part . And LePage’s recent mouthing off about not being bound by any agreement that ‘he just doesn’t like’ demonstrates that Maine has no grasp of what it takes to encourage, much less develop, any business in the State much less provide a good business environment to expand into. The Kestrel fiasco not included, Maine needs to start realizing that if it ever wants to have a friendly business environment it needs a Governor that can put a ‘zip’ on it when it’s called for. If anyone in the DECD has any moxie they’ed best hitch it up and have a little ‘closet counseling’ with the Governor before he gets on the plane ‘ cause so far all I can see is this up-coming trip being nothing more than one huge joyride for everyone going on the State’s nickel if he runs his mouth there like he does at home.
This Millinocket mess is just another example of Paulie using his mouth before his brain’s. And now that the AG has to go and issue an opinion, and the AG himself is running for the Senate seat of Oly, he’s going to be hard pressed to go and support a sitting Governor by issuing a supporting opinion that’s going to be a huge PITA when he has to go and explain why he’s supporting a Governor that’s intent on screwing his own constituent’s. For those of us who served in the Service, can we all spell B-O-H-I-C-A ? I for one am feeling Paulie’s too close for comfort.
My understanding of this whole mess is that neither Millinocket or East Millinocket agreed to pay for ongoing maintainence of the landfill. “Because the legislature’s ownership agreement contained no funding for landfill operations, East Millinocket and Millinocket leaders have been negotiating with the state over landfill-operation costs since the mills’ sale last fall.”
But now LePage is trying to extort an agreement from the towns to pay or else lose money already dedicated to them by state law. How is this anything but extortion?
Because LePage is trying to say it is tied to the evaluation, he has found another excuse. Although Millinockets word, is not worth much either.
Lepage illegally spent 17 million dollars buying this toxic waste dump from his pals in Canada. Now we find out he didn’t even bother to get anything in writing from the town where the dump is located…… I can’t believe a guy who claims to have a MBA is that dumb. I suspect this is all one of Lepage’s scams to rip off the tax payers of Maine
The dump is not located in Millinocket and neither is the operating mill. They are in East Millinocket.
You might recall the Canadian owners and Paul Lepage told us we would get both mills with all 450 jobs if we gave them 17 million and agreed to run the Dolby landfill for $ 250000 per year in perpetuity.
Of course once Lepage signed the contract the Canadians ran off with the money and we got next to nothing.
just like when the Canadians company Bowater came and took over after Georgia Pacific had a hostile take over. Each Canadian company there after bought and sold, running back to Canada with the profits.
The cost per ton of paper is what brought the demise of these paper mills..simply put unionized labor!
oh your so right, selling all the forest land so you now buy the wood for the paper had nothing to do with it. Selling the hydro power so that now you have to buy your power had nothing to do with it either.
would that be the same pals that ended up with the hydro system–or just their close relatives? Although that nightmare was pre-LePage, …..
“This time around, the LePage administration wants to allow power generators that generate more than 100 megawatts to qualify as a source under the state’s renewable energy portfolio. That change is primarily intended to benefit large-scale hydropower producers.”
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/03/09/news/state/lepage-unveils-initiatives-he-says-will-lower-electricity-rates/
While on the surface things like this appear to be a good thing, it seems that in today’s politics it’s always necessary to keep an eye on the bigger picture
I have noticed that ever since Lepage was elected Canada gets all the goodies while Americans pay the bill.
Is this Lepage’s way for paying Canada back for letting him live there during the Vietnam draft?
Of are they blackmailing him because they know he isn’t a US citizen.
Seems the Gov. likes to keep the pot stirred two. It is about time, both sides grow up, sit down and talk about it. Both sides seem to be acting like children in a sandbox.
There is nothing to talk about. And only one side is acting like kids in a sandbox – the Millinocket town Bozos.
Bill there is more to this than we know. I know very well what Millinocket is capable of, and you can not believe everything they say. I am not saying the Gov is wrong in his interpretation, but to use the S&S money is wrong anywya you like at it.
Hey Bill Bozo, still upset about the park ha?
The only issue here is Millinocket wants more handouts and bailouts from taxpayers. LePage is finally standing up for Maine taxpayers by putting his foot down and saying No which should have been done years ago by Augusta.
Can you please list these handouts and bailouts that you speak of?
The issue here is the Law in the State of Maine, which the A.G.’s office has not ruled out. It has nothing to do with a handout. Any town or city in the State of Maine, gets this money if the conditions are met. Unless the A.G. says otherwise, the Governor does not have the power according to the law.
I guess your right, using and following the law today is such a crime.
Millinocket has never won a lawsuit as far as I know. Further they are about broke and really cannot afford anymore legal fees.
Of course they are broke. Lead by union members.. They never look at the numbers. It’s the gimme attitude, not any different then people “intitiled” to welfare
Could you please name an ex mill worker who is now collecting welfare???
”
Millinocket has never won a lawsuit as far as I know.”
Is that because of their PR skills ?
They are a fair match for LePage with his.
Well, right now they have one before the Maine Supreme Court in April. Though in that one, when they call the Governor a liar some on that council should be looking in the mirror.
Great Governor Paul LePage, Please take Millinocket off the DOT maintainance list for lets say 30 years. Thank you. MSHA list also and any list that cost the rest of Maine taxpayers one penny… Shame on them, Please, Please Save our Union Town oh Please!!!! Once they get their wish your an *ss.Darn unions are a spoiled bunch.. You save their jobs and they hate you anyway…. Shame on you!!!
Really smart idea David. Please provide information of the work DOT has done in the town of Millinocket? You dont want DOT to upkeep the road to the main entrance to the state park? Try to think outside the box for once.
Just for starters in the last couple years they have given you 80,000 for a walking trail. Funded a good part of the airport improvments and are going to improve the intersection at Katahdin Ave and established a scenic byway.
Using bonds and grants are not illegal. If the money is out there and you qualify for it don’t be mad at me, be mad at the policy in place that allows it to happen. The walking trail was an ear mark by our pal Mike Michuad. The intersection on Katahdin Ave is a DOT issue as it is a turning point of a trucking route. It is the main intersection to Rt 11, Rt 157 and to the lake road with all the visitors to the state park. I haven’t heard one person wanting a scenic byway in Millinocket, last I heard was it was in Medway actually, have to look that up. The airport was again from my knowledge was bonds and grants.
I wished Lepage would run for president! Or at least run for Olympia’s spot!
the repubs already have four useless clowns on the hunt. You think one more would help?
All trying to displace the useless golfing obsessed community organizer clown currently occupying the White House.
care to look at the vacation time of the previous denizen of the white house?
So you want to count golfing as vacation? Ok. My mistake fellas.
All trying to displace the useless community organizer clown currently occupying the White House. Sorry to all you obsessed golfers out there.
I’m a golfer and i consider golfing a vacation. Now in a corporate world it is commonly used as a business meeting. I guess it depends on how you view things.
Dolby landfill is being changed to Mount Lepage.
You can tell when Lepage is back in town from his home in Florida!
The news is filled daily with Constant Bully Stories!
Street Thug and Bully – that’s what LePage has always been. It’s as if some street gang took over the state house. If he is what some people call “principled”, I’d hate to see what they mean by “conservative.” Now that Olympia will be home more, maybe Paul will move back home with “Mom” in 2014.
you go paul stick to you guns and keep the town manager and his henchmen liable. they ve been sticking the town for years and our children in school .
Is that why the Supt. is going to China again? I wonder if he is paying his own way, or is that coming out of the school budget? Did the last time he went to China? The town has a perfectly good back-hoe, did the school really need to buy one. I never had a problem with spending money on kids, but padding the budget?
More people like yourself, have to ask your town “leaders”, do we really need to spend good money after bad money?
It is pretty difficult when you speak up, and you are talking to the wall. There seems to be a lot more to this issue, then we are hearing from the Town Council. I am not saying the Governor has gone about it the right way, but what you see is what you get. Sometimes people do not like to see that. You have to remember that Millinocket is Democrat by far. They can call Gov. LePage a lot names, but what has really transpired we may never know. The Council forgets, what the Governor and the State did, and not just with the landfill. In the whole negotions which the Gov. bent over backward to help the area.
I would like to know how they came up with the value of the mill at 184 million. If the mill in East was only worth 96 million and running. There is no way a 2000 valuation stands up today.
That is fairly easy to answer, T.I.F. which they both agreee upon. That valuation is or was to stay in place for a certain amount of years.
could be wrong but I still believe a pretty much new 50 million dollar machine is still in the mill. If they include that as value there’s a good sum of it.
That machine wouldnt fetch 8 million on the market. Half of the mill has been scrapped, look over the fence, its half gone. Nothing but a field.
I am aware of the situation currently. I was just throwing out there what the value the mill still had. Also I was told that the 184 million value was a number from prior to the mill being demoed.
simple ,both towns stop giving any money to the landfill and walk away wash your hands of it.Let the state maintain it they are the one that took over that hazardous waste site just for jobs.
Embarrassing.
As I recall one of LePage’s campaign pledges was to run the state like a business. Making a $50k deal on a handshake is not my idea of the way to run a successful business … assuming you believe the handshake story.
“LePage said the towns and state have a multi-year verbal agreement ― a handshake deal”
As good as the paper it’s printed on …
Millinocket I do not think believes in those types of deals.
the sudden and severe money was done on a handshake in the hall way…the town isn’t ‘entitled’ to that money until NEXT year according to the law. That is why it went to the legislature and it was voted down. Then came the handshake in the hall and viola the money appeared a year earlier then it legally had to. So good luck suing!
The handshake was to the agreement on the landfill, not the sudden and severe money. I am waiting for the A.G.’s opinion, Millinocket had, and has lawsuits already going. It is surprising they would call the Gov. a liar. I guess there are no mirrors in the town hall.
The towns were not entitled to sudden and severe this year according to the law. It would go into effect next budget year, starting July 2012. It sure was a handshake in the hallway at the state house AFTER the vote by the reps that turned down the request to give it to the towns this year.
I don’t remember if it was when Maine Yankee closed or the Brunswick base that got theirs a year early opening the way for us to even ask for it for this year. Go read the law regarding sudden and severe. Call Herbie and ask him about the vote last year and ask about the guy on the education committee that promised (ie handshake in the hallway) to push it through the funding this year. Long before this Dolby landfill stuff.
I guess then their were two different handshakes. The one the Gov. has been talking about, at least in this area was one that they agreed on a multi-year deal on the landfill.
Millinocket Lepage will show you, No patient’s from yur area can come to Dorthea Dix for treatment
Millinocket is not behaving in the best interest of its townspeople. If you make a deal with the State, you stand by it.
What is it you do NOT understand? Millinocket says there was no such deal. Now speaking of that, where is the 500 bucks you owe me? Remember that deal we made? Don’t deny it, you know you owe it to me.
And to think some people wonder why I voted for this man.
Dig in Paul!
So what if they sue him it’s our money he is wasting, that is how he look’s at it.
Someone needs to get some grapefruits and stand up to him. So if every taxpayer in Maine stop paying taxes and put the money escrow account for 3 months lets see how tuff he is then. Do not buy any gas, smokes beer for a week and see what happens to the State of Maine. It may bring him to the front. No money for EBT cards and Maine care lets see what happens. I will collect my pay check every week after I have worked 45 to 50 hrs per week. Why don’t he clean some of that Bull S@*t at the state level for starters. Lepage you do not dare too..
I am still waiting for the Gov. to put the paperwork of the timeline of this out?
What we need to see here is documentation showing what was agreed upon, or with the lack of documentation – witnesses to the deal who can vouche for either side. Either the state is shaking down millinocket or millinocket is shaking down the state. As a taxpayer in Maine who does not live in the millinocket area, I want accountability that my tax dollars are not being misused. As a sympathizer of other Mainers I want to make sure that Millinocket and its people are taken care of. I don’t really care if this money has nothing to do with that money, if there is an agreement when it comes to money and Millinocket broke it, why should they receive a bunch of money from the state? We need proof either way.
And this is the man who’s going to China to drum up some business?
Whats he going to China For?
To open a Secret Villian Base on one of the Islands in the South China Sea?
He seems to have the Dr. Evil Villian pose down pat!
http://bdnpull.bangorpublishing.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Maine-Governor-600×467.jpg
Give ’em hell Paul! God dang I love a guy who isn’t a politician and doesn’t kow-tow to the special interests…
I agree! He doesn’t owe anything to anybody! He doesn’t take money from different people and then have to do what they tell him!! I love it!
As a youngster I learned that the Wizard of Oz was a figment of someone’s imagination that hid behind a curtain spewing disinformation through false spokesman and use of smoke and mirrors. Surprise on me when I find the Wizard of Maine hiding out in the Blaine House afraid to speak on his own, utilizing instead his spokesperson Ms Bennett to spew misinformation and the use of smoke and mirrors.
Look back at any and all ( BDN , KJ and PPH) atricles written on this subject since last fall. It certainly appears that Millinocket agreed to a $50,000 one time payment payable no later than April 30, 2012 and East Millinocket offered up in kind services in lieu of payment. So it would appear that East Millinocket has lived up to their side of the equation and Millinocket has until April 30 to live up to theirs and neither is covered by a written agreement. So the validity of the Wizard on this account ?
Sudden and Severe Impact Funds and monies to operate a State owned landfill can you say oil and water ? Imagine the Wizard’s reaction if the a municipality used education funds to plow roads.
The Wizard claims a ” hand shake deal ” . Try that one in the court of contract law. Another big swing and a miss. Not on paper — doesn’t hold up.
Hope Millinocket sues — I’ll even donate to help out. You lose Wizard — prepared for impeachment hearings.
News flash for the Wizard and Toto — you ain’t at Marden’s anymore.
I’m County born too, but I’ll bite, how about some links to your stories?
Read this for starters.
“But state leaders balked at entirely assuming the costs, arguing that Millinocket and East Millinocket should help. Municipal leaders responded that while they were grateful for the new mills’ ownership, the towns lacked the funding, manpower, equipment or expertise to maintain the landfill.”
“Millinocket town leaders disclosed last week that they had offered the state a $50,000 one-time payment to help it operate the landfill next year in an attempt to end negotiations with the state over the landfill’s future.
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2011/12/29/business/east-millinocket-awaits-word-on-dolby-landfill-offer/
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2011/12/21/news/penobscot/millinocket-votes-to-spend-50000-in-effort-to-settle-its-part-of-dolby-landfill-talks/?ref=relatedBox
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/02/24/news/penobscot/dolby-landfill-bill-working-way-through-legislature/?ref=relatedBox
I don’t believe LePage will get any votes for re-election from the Millinocket area, I also don’t understand why we can’t recall this guy.
I feel the same way about Obummer. Evidently enough people voted for him that I have to wait for the next election to hope for a change.
Our Great Governor Paul LePage helped save the Mills from being scraped, and this is his Thanks.. If he would have known how grateful the town was going to be, he might not have put any effort into it… My tax dollars are going to pay for your DUMP Millinocket, so you can have Union jobs. Pay your fair share Millinocket
I hope your using sarcasm. Great Governor? He worked at keeping the mills from being scraped. Yes you are right but by doing so, no agreement was made for the mill owners or the tax payers of the Katahdin Region would pay the state back. With that being said, the state would of been paying for the dump whether the mills stay running or shuts down. Don’t blame Millinocket who is offering a matching sum to East Millinocket’s in kind sum of money where the landfill is located.
Silent majority.
Millinocket is constantly throwing good money after bad… How about we pay all 4ooo people to move to wherever their are real, unsubsidized jobs? Yep, I said 4000, not 40,000 or 400,000.
and that would be where??
Take back all the hand out and let the poor town that lived at one time high on the hog and boy did they ever know it and sell to Roxann Q.
wonder if he is on the same plane as Dr Smith.
For once this guy is totally right !
We just have to get these towns off the welfare train..
The last Gov. made a religion of addicting starry eyed town officials to big paying pollution.
Those days ore GONE !
Are you talking about the energy source for the UMO central heating plant ?
Yes sir!!!, yet you can’t drink the ground water in a 25 mile radius from the John Baldacii dump.. It’s not a good trade off… (-;
So what did those mills do to our River ?
My point is we don’t need the mills or the dumps… and in a few years, we see them closed again, too.
What is the average stay for each new operator, lately ?
I just wanted to pass along some information about the area that I’m not sure your aware of. The closures of the mills have had a lot more to do with corporate greed then the area itself. From talking to many people over the years this is how some of us see how it went down. The number of likes with show the support if any at all.
When the Big A hydropower project was abandoned that was the beginning of the end for the company. The big job cuts came in 86 with 2000 employees without work. When Georgia Pacific launched a hostile takeover of GNP, it forced management of GNP out the door. Bowater purchased GNP mills, timberlands and other Maine assets for $300 million in 1991. In 95, Bowater transferred Don McNeil to oversee the operations for Bowater. 3 years later Bowater sells a million acres to J.D. Irving for 220 million and almost 700k to an Alabama investment company. In 1999, Bowater sold the mills, hydro power and remaining land to Inexon for 250 million. So to recap this, they took over the mill, for 300 million, sold the land for 221 million so now they are out 79 million. Sold the mills for 250 million and walked away with a 171 million profit. In 2001, Inexon raised 140 million in modernizations, most of which was in the Millinocket mill. By 2002 they had sold 41,000 acres of timberland to the Nature Conservancy and additional 200,000 acres under conservation easement in exchange for $50 million contribution. This same year, they sold the former GNP hydroelectric systems for 156.5 million to Great Lakes Hydro. By 2003, Inexon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while Lambert Bedard went back to Canada, pockets filled with employee pensions. Now this is where it all gets confusing for some that don’t know the facts, Since Great Lakes Hydro who bought the hydro systems, the name transfers. Great Lakes Hydro, Nexfor, Brascan, Fraser Paper and Katahdin Paper are the same corporate company. All this transfer and selling off of assets has been done by companies from Canada all under the watchful eye of the state government. All these actions were not in relation to taxes or the people of the Katahdin Region. Some of you need to realize what has happened, realize the blame belongs to corporate greed and now that money is in Canada. What was left, being passed down over the years is the landfill. Now the state purchased it in attempts to get the mills running again, bring jobs to the area and bring business to Maine. Now they want the towns to pay for this, want’s the town to pay for them trying to bring business to the state.
WOW–THANKS JAMES! That’s a very good history, short & accurate & I hope it explains a few things to some people that have a lot to say but don’t have any idea what’s been going on here.
Thank you, Mr. Leavitt for that comment and the effort you put into it. I feel as if should reply with as seriousness and respect as it shows.
So given that you know the greed you deal , yet you cling to a hope that this being used like pawns by those who see the region as a corporate asset in THEIR monopoly game has a future for you and your better values, … for your love of the region, EVEN as you collectively you spit in eye of someone who should be your natural ally in valuing the resources for what they could b
be neds to be looked at in different way?
Look James, if I take what have you said as being why, here, on this message board, at least, Millinocket has come to be known for frustrated, misdirected, dysfunctional, tail chasing anger, well, then I can be finally be a little sympathetic to that anger, now.
That anger is valid when it used to point out the source of lots of not only America’s, but the world’s problems.
But … well, never let’s mind doing the same things as always.
I know I don’t have the “answers” but I can make a sincere positive suggestion and back it with a valid basic economics line of reasoning, if you’ll be patient with me.
It begins with don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Diversify your options at least.
At the risk of waving a red flag in some bullheaded people faces, I KNOW that you have done an amazing job at not only explaining the particulars of the area’s business history
but you also have captured a message that some good people have sacrificed to get us all talking about, all last fall.
They stood witness to things that are not right, and had the strength to stand firm on the principle that is not any one issue, it is not about a demand, it can’t just said in sound bite
but it rather it something something people must see, feel and understand in their hearts, in own way, relative to their own lives, for themselves, before there can even be any discussion of even the real scope of the problem, never mind find any easy solutions.
Now, bare with me, but I know that back in early seventies a road trip for a high school basket game in Bangor was
big deal not for Coach Cymbolics silly slowed down basketball, but to see the hippies freaks like me.
I know this because after working the woods with the OTHER Bangor men… a whole different sort of old fashioned freaks,
I knew I needed an education, and went to school to study a trade I liked. I went to school with young men for up your way, who had their own very serious doubts about going into the mills or woods, too.
Those doubts were similar to the ones discussed about going off to fight war for a greedy corporate system just like just you just described, too. It was a values war. And it is not over.
Now, I’m going to suggest humbly, as I struggle personally with how to explain… that by late seventies how it came to be that I after plying my trade, I came home… came ashore… to go to school again, where I studied ecology with not only a Logma operator, from up your way, but also someone who is now in Congress. We knew back then what OWS people were saying
this fall … and not put too personal information about myself on the internet …
Now, James, an in depth time line of the corporate history of a couple of mills is far easier to capture than the sentiments and history of those good Mainers, plenty native born, and from some new, sure, whose personal solutions to the corporate greed that is behind what you explain so well about the history of the corporate owned mills, was to dash it all and “go up country” as it was put in old song.
Today some of them, couples I saw fixed up with each other by friends at contra dances in Gange Halls the winter , then who showed up all and heavy in love at the bluegrass festival, and with a baby or two a couple years on, at the Common Ground Fair, are the nice family people selling you local produce at the farmer’s markets, now, with their grand-kids in tow.
I would suggest that excusing the vulgarities of life were some people I know from school , people so people starting out with shared common values, the common ground of building some
kind of alternative to the corporate culture, some are now yarding wood with Belgian horses, while another is in Congress, and one from all the way to grade school, was Governor, all have good values, and sincerely want to help you start to build that alternative future, too.
All that is by way of saying that while I don’t know her, personally, I must humbly suggest that I do have a fair idea of where Roxanne Quimby is coming from and I also know,
having lived it, just how our lives are so easily dismissed by some, at least as long as the mills are hiring.
Never the less, they were not in the recession at the end of the Vietnam thing, they were not during Gas Embargo,
and we had to find our way without them, or what they represented as best we could.
And beside, relative to mills hiring, who used phone books anymore ?
The time will come when the mills will not exist.
Paper will be soon be “grown” or assembled by engineered manufactured “bugs” of some sort.
Wood might not be the best feed stock, either.
It is coming to that.
So anyway, go there, calling us names if you must, but please hear one thing first;
I got to think that at first she figured she was running Bet’s bees for him, but pretty soon, the bees, and the company were running her ragged. But now, the woman is trying to give something back to the place that was good to her.
It won’t matter much in our lifetimes, but it could one
day to our grandchildren who might have different better work living off the woods, because some was set aside.
But it does matter to all of Maine to be open to the right kind of business.
As you have pointed out it sure does not seem to international corporate controlled exploitation, unless it is very different and committed to Maine.
So please, consider this economic real politiks point,
even if I am wrong about the corporate approach not being
the best bet, removing an area equal to a mere 3% of
Penobscot County from that corporate game is playing good cards.
If there any alternative to the corporate game, it should get
the corporations’ attention and respect.
But since we talking about so little land, really,
the Millinockets would be seen as better neighbors and ,
sorry , it is not not my fault … and worth the price of another paper company dump, if they should show some concern for all of the Penobscot Valley, and the rest of Maine and our efforts to attact more tourism.
I know it is supposed be about lumber industry and people’s livelihoods, but it is your own doing that it seems like its more about snow machining and hunting on other people lands.
That is not good for The Region.
And now, fighting like lumberjack with that wingnut defective goods peddlers, is just too rich, and a riot to plenty of us.
No good will come of it for you or him, but what great fun for the rest us to watch.
Sorry, but really, you have be able to see that, mustn’t you ?
Judging by the different tone you are taking I think you haves seen that after disrespecting the conservationists, first,
now ticking off LePage’s 30 0dd percent, leaves you like you were in Mill Town bar at closing time with no friends left to stand with you, after you’ve been been talking about how tough you East Mill men are, all evening long.
Bottom line , never mind that is just the right thing anyway,
but how much easier is it going to be you hard charging union people to compromise with us hippie conservationists
than with those prissy GOP TEA Drinkers ?
LOL, I made them sound just the WCTU, didn’t I ?
But they say history does repeat itself, too, don’t they ?
Smoke another one!
Oh. gone are those things of my youth.
Damage done!!!!
Styx…. Too Much Time On My Hands.
“Now, bare with me, “…… Uhoh.
Out of maturity I respect your opinion. That’s about as far as I respond to your rant. I wont name call you nor will I try to put you down. I’m not like you, I don’t hate the world. I simply put in facts and what people say around here. I don’t have the time to sit here all day and dispute your entire rant. You can make all the claims you want, I’ll stick to researching things before I write them, its more believable that way.
I am pretty sure that was a democratic filibuster lol!!! GET A GRIP!!
The hostile take over was by Georgia Pacific, not bowater.
sorry, i realize that now that you said it! I will make the correction
I have to assume the accuracy of this account, I must say it wouldn’t surprise me if this accounting was all fact. Where ever there is big money to be made it seems there is always someone there plotting and calculating how to put it all in their pocket. Big government, big business, greedy individuals, it’s all the same end, just about everyone looses save a few, including our environment. Unfortuately it’s all a power game laced with corruption and influence.
I just want to make aware that I was never trying to claim this as facts, this is simple how the area seen the failure of the mills in my opinion. The information comes from talking to individuals of the town and some research on the internet from other residents of the town.
I think mentioning why the Big A dam was abandoned would be significant. The obstacle was LURC. When they put a “job guarantee” clause in the permit process GNP basically backed off saying that “Maine is just too hard a place to do business.” Every environut from southern Maine got involved in that fiasco. No company can guarantee jobs. If that $500 million dollar dam had gone through GNP would still be here.
Don’t dispute any of your claims. Just didn’t want to get into great details, tried to keep it accurate, quick and to the point. The Big A damn deal is a whole can of worms in itself on why the area is not fond on the state.
Well written blog. Puts things in perpsective.
Have you ever read TIMBER The Rise and Fall of Great Northern Paper? It is a good book with allot of the timelines you have mentioned.
Also remember that GNP was going to get the permit for the BIG A, but this was the first time in history that LURC at the requeast of several Environmnetal organizations required employment numbers and financial commitments through modernization of the plants tied to the permit conditions. GNP got tired of platying the game and realized then that the environmental movement someday would shut down the mills through regulations.
You are true that this has been a game of corporate greed spearheaded behind the scenes by the environmental movemnet over the last 30 years. Hear we are today, with nothing left.
Hey, glad we can agree on something! I’ll look into that book. I was actually to young to really remember the details of the Big A deal, i just remember wearing that red Big A OK hat ahaha. All I have done, is over the years talked to people, the history of the area has always interest me. Did some looking on the internet and what I had been told over the years was backed up on the internet.
Yes thanks so much. Excellent account. Excellent analysis.
Keep up the good work Governor!
Lepage is claiming that Millinocket leaders broke an agreement to contribute $50,000 annually to the maintenance of the Dolby landfill in East Millinocket. If that is truly the case as he has stated, why then is Lepage withholding $216,000 instead of the $50,000 agreed upon ? Can anyone explain this to me or is Lepage just up to his old bullying tricks again ? There must be a good explanation for this, wouldn’t one think ?
All i can say is Millinocket already submitted a 50k offer but it hasn’t been accepted by the state. So from my understanding, he is withholding the 216k because that was the amount owed to Millinocket over the amount owed to East.
I wonder how much money this butting of ” knuckle heads” is going to cost the few taxpayers left in this State?
Nick , if your statement that this deal was made on a handshake is correct than both the town of Millinocket and the state should question their leadership. In this day and age of suit happy lawyers no one in a position responsable to so many people should ever make a deal on their behalf without a paper trail. If this is correct Millinocket needs a new town manager and council and the state needs a new governor ! This voter is tired of politics as usual ! If I could change my pen name it would read ” sickofthiscrap”.
Conologue will be shown for the liar he is. Why would the Governor pull it other than convinced he (LePage) was duped? Millinocket is screwing with the state when they should be kissing people for help, but then again, what do you expect from Maine”s spoiled brat town, the magic city.
A betting person would say that Conologue went rogue once again and at least some on the council don’t know it.
Why should we worry about their dump?
Even in a down economy Ms. Bennett shall always feel secure in her position. It must also be extremely rewarding due to the unfathomable amount of creativity it requires.
I LIKE BALDACCI MOUNTAIN !
Isn’t this interesting, no wonder I don’t remember I was only 13yrs old……………. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19860414&id=0M48AAAAIBAJ&sjid=Oy4MAAAAIBAJ&pg=3489,3912873, so all along the milltown has been getting this grant, since at least 1986, no wonder Mike Michaud keeps getting elected.
Let’s see if my comment is here tomorrow morning it’s 9:12 pm 3/13/2012
Why wouldn’t it be? No one will flag you when you try to make yourself look smart but yet your facts aren’t there. It does not say that the money was granted so how can you say they have been getting it since 1986? Further more, if your comment was deleted, stating the time and date would have helped how? It would of been deleted and no one would of seen it.
Call his bluff Millinocket. Sue the bejeesus out of him, including all legal fees for his dereliction of duty to the State of Maine. He is illegally holding these mandated funds hostage to a red herring (the dump). He absolutely has no legal basis to do so. They are apples and oranges and he knows it. The majority of the legislature on both sides of the aisle are behind you as well. They have also fallen victim to his “hard ball.” Don’t count on the Attorney General, that office no longer advocates for the citizens of Maine.
This should be a fairy tale. Brer’ penguin and State of Maine meet the great Dolby tar baby and got stuck.
Egotistical Buffoon
Sadly Millinocket is yet once more in the news for all the wrong reasons. Eugene and crew never fail to produce drama. I can think of so many ways to have have handled this yet Eugene dials the hot line to BDN cub reporter Nick “Scoop” Sambidies Jr and loudly states LePage is lying! Give us all a break Eugene and please, please leave our town.
Dont worry Millinocket , i will take your case. But first i have to go to law school.
Eugene has found his niche and is playing it for all it’s worth. Wake up folks and recognize that you are being led around by the nose by Eugene and his cronies. Don’t make me have say I told you so later on. Eugene keeps the pot stirred no matter what. Is it not about time for a town manager and town council that will focus on the positive? Isn’t about time to build a better Millinocket? Isn’t about time we got rid of the cancer presently occupying the town managers office? Think about it!
Isn’t a governor supposed to be concerned about all of Maine. Isn’t a governor supposed to solve problems, not create them? What kind of leader tells his citizens to go ahead and sue the state?
it would be cheaper to pay the money that was promised then go to court but the lawmakers need something to do on their break where some are connected to law firms that would be happy to take a multi million dollar law suit before it is over
Dear God Bless the poor liberal souls who enjoy being spoon fed lies by the Media both written and on air.. Bless them Father and bring them to the Light. Amen…
The State bought the toxic landfill so the sale of the mill would go through and enable people in the Millinocket area to get jobs. Sadly, these people have become accustomed to being entitled boot lickers that want everything given to them and cry when they have to actually contribute. The purchase of that landfill was a huge mistake. We (the rest of us taxpayers that have been supporting the bums in Millinocket) should have never agreed to buy the landfill. We should have allowed the town to wallow in it. What a bunch of ungrateful lazy bums.
Perhaps the mill would have stayed in operation if so many of the employees hadn’t been stealing from it. Over the years millions of dollars of stuff exited the mill in employees’ lunch boxes and over the fence. And yes, I know all about it. You reap what you sow, Millinocket.
Oh ya, seems where you know so much. You don’t think Bowater and Inexon didnt have a great deal with shutting the mills down. Selling all the forest land, hydro-power and then walking away with employee pension money?? If you see someone stealing and you don’t report it, your just as guilty as the person stealing. You knew of stealing and did nothing? Thanks a lot, now our mills are dead because you didnt stop all that stealing.
In case anyone is interested in a little biography about our Governor…
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/132743-making-of-paul-lepage-part-2/
way too detailed and long for me to finish, gut ionteresting that he was in charge of the same MSHA he often ctiticizes. Being an insie man, he must know something. Maybe they should look into those years for impropiety!
Wrong again LePage.
The State Legislature makes the determination that a town or city can sue the State. Sounds like a conflict of interest, do all of the Republicans and reps from Mill town abstain from the vote?
The lawyers will be the only winners in this one. Again.
And in the end, the lesson learned by all parties will be that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. It’s likely to be an expensive lesson.
We need a provision like they have in English law, where we got most of our laws from. In England, the loser pays the victor’s legal fees. They do not have nearly as much foolishness as we tolerate in our system. My partner and I spent several thousand dollars to prevail in an absolutely frivolous law suit, only to find that we couldn’t sue to get our legal fees back.
This case cannot and will not be held in a court in maine. The C Justice just got payolla from Mr.Mouth to fund court security therefore Sue happy man may find his state lawyers presenting his case to the Federal Court. Lets see witholding $216 thou, Legal fees for 6 months to one year $165 thou. Really smart move Mr Mouth!
Anyone that thinks Lepage is a hothead has never seen Gene Conlogue in action, this guy is always looking for a fight.
A great big pile of CRAPOLA.
LePage said the towns and state have a multi-year verbal agreement ― a
handshake deal ― to make annual payments in support of landfill
operations.
In this day and age would a wise business man (such as the supposed Lepage) operate in this manner without a written contract of sort. Sorry LePage. Think you need to own up on this one. It should be you that knows how far a handshake goes these days. Come on.
Old towns dump is being fully paid for by a private company . Lepage’s dump in East Milinock will be paid for by the Tax payers of Maine. $17 million for the clean up and $250,000 per year for up keep.
And how many jobs have been saved and created in this deal to buy he land fill? What is the estimated $ value of the public benefit that wouldnt have been possible without this deal.
Wasn’t this landfill owned by the mills? Wasn’t it private propery to begin with? We actually paid a private party to take over its toxic site..presumably as a result of the owners failure to abide by law in the first place?
It is just outrageusly irresponsible on the part of the legsulature. Doesn’t anyone ask sensible questions before they vote?
What Lepage has done is also highly illegal.
Article IX, Section 14 of the Maine constitution specifically say that you have to get voter approval before the state can take on any liability greater than 2 million. Lepage mountain will cost $17 million and they didn’t send it out for referendum as the law requires.
.
Very interesting. Let’s get LePage on trial. Impeach!
What’s the next step? Anyone know how we can nail this dishonest sob immediately?
This will be a problem because the person in charge of defending the states constitution is the AG William Schneider He has repeatedly show that he either is afraid of Lepage or is just as crooked.
Then time to send his sorry _ss packing, too.
Maine has a very unusaul prcedure for eastablishing AG..elsewhere it is an independently elected office which functions as :the people lawyer”. It should be here too. That is one very important chnage we should colecively petition for..a citizens’ referndum???
Also I was just stunned to see Deputy Counsel to the Goveror, Muchael Cianchette’s advacing a broadly worded bill shlelding the Governor from virtualy all FOIA ( Freedom of Iformation Act Requests). A functioning well informed Deputy Counsel, it seems tome would have advised the Governor based onn the common law, consitional and judicial history of FOIA insread of jusr passing through such an absurd ( and revealing) bill.
Perhaps when elected officials bring ordinary corporate lawyers in thats wehere it goes wrong..pethaps ordinary attorey’s don’t have the bacground and experienceecesary to properly advise a high level public official. That’s not a diagnosis..I have no oidae why there is so much bad law and bad legal practice in the Givernor’s office and in our legsilature but it shoud be called out every time.
I routinely copy the Maine Bar Association no every issue I write to the legislature about that seems to ivolve legal imprpriety hoping they can and will exery influence. They did speak up very strongly on the Regulatory Taings Bill which was a great example of unwise action with significant legal and liability consuquence so hopefully that is an ongoing process..
wow..and probably not the first.breach of law or consitution
there seems ti be n reagrd for law in this adminsitartio..they behave as if whatver they do or want to to IS law,.
You are incorrect. It will be privately managed.
LePage’s Dump? Seems to me that dump has been around for years. Get real.
A HANDSHAKE DEAL…THAT SAYS IT ALL RIGHT THERE. SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF MONEY TO HAVE MADE A HANDSHAKE DEAL TO. THAT’S MY OPINION. NOT VERY PROFESSIONAL AT ALL.
I have read alot of the comments and mine is as follows: Without the landfills in OldTown and East Millinocket these mills wouldnt run period. Millinocket in my opinion has been living in the past. I bet there are alot of workers from Millinocket working in that mill in East Millinocket as you bump down from Millinocket in senority. So both East Millinocket and Millinocket should have a hand in the land fill. As for the money in question thats going to cost Millinocket alot to go after it. If they dont get it, watch out, youre taxes are going thru the roof. Im not a Lepage fan but any governor would of done the same thing to help save those jobs.
‘ I bet there are allot of workers from Millinocket working in that mill in East Millinocket as you bump down from Millinocket in seniority. So both East Millinocket and Millinocket should have a hand in the land fill’. What about the workers from Lincoln, Medway
and Sherman? Should the towns they are from have a hand in the land fill as well?
Is LePage the governor of the whole state of Maine? Or is he just a Clown in a Penguin Suit? Don’t get me wrong Milli is one of the DEAD ZONES of Maine but sadly it is still in Maine.
Really, Dead Zones? Your right, no one comes here. No one to hunt, fish, snowsled, ATV, whitewater rafting, skydiving, and hiking and so on.
Does anybody think a vote of no confidence is due?. He may have the title of governor, but he doesn’t know how to.
Threatened to pull support for the pipeline. Yep, LeThug is a bully. Time to change the makeup of the legislature in order to neutralize him.
“Both towns agreed to give the landfill $50,000 each in cash or in-kind services, with the state providing $150,000, but Millinocket and state officials disagree about the duration of the payment period.”
It is simple, the duration is as long as the ” Maine Taxpayers” are stuck with this landfill for the benefit of the Millinocket area …………….. Millinocket and East Millinocket will have to pay as well.
correct.
This really is a bizarre story. The state bought the landfill to keep the mills open but with no plan or fiscal impact statement on ongoing maintenance?.
The Governor has ordered a witholding of unrelated funds otherwise due to them over a misunderstanding on a verbal agreement? It never ocurred to anyone to put the agreement for operation of a hazardous toxic site in writing
The Governor is now insisting that the towns sue to get the monies he had no bsuiness witholding that weer due them underother unrelated programs?
Have I got that right? If so, this is really shockingly irresponsible behavior on the part of the Governor and on the part of all concerned who didn’t even exchange memos on its ongoing use and operation. I would say the Governor needs better legal counsel.
The state bought it. The state owns it. Failing any other agreement the State is legally responsible for the landfill now.
So this is what running the state like a business looks like?
go for it lapage make the town council accountable and there henchman
Recall LaPage.
Costs of litigation are immaterial. Full speed ahead for bully. Meanwhile cut and slash MPBN., workers’ benefits and health services.
The state’s largest law firm, PIERCE ATWOOD, wrote the language of at least 11 proposals on behalf of one of their most important clients, the MAINE PULP & PAPER ASSOCIATION. (The firm’s distinctive document stamps are on each page of the association’s memo to the transition team.) The paper industry was behind the governor’s initiative to weaken various air pollution regulations — including lifting licensing and “best technology” standards for smaller polluters and eliminating sulfur fuel and greenhouse gas standards — and various rules governing the storage and disposal of toxic waste. (Pinza also forwarded a measure to ensure that manufacturers do not have to pay to recycle their consumer products that was written by a thermostat recycling venture jointly owned by General Electric and Honeywell.) Pierce Atwood’s other clients include companies and industry associations with potential interests in toxic-waste storage, consumer-products recycling, or air-pollution standards, such as the American Petroleum Institute, the American Chemistry Council, and Poland Spring’s parent company, Nestle Waters North America.
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/124118-lepage-files/#ixzz1p6mtwSLi
ALEC is one of the nation’s most powerful and most secretive lobbying entities, and it focuses exclusively on state legislatures. Disguised as a non-partisan professional association for legislators, it is actually a corporate-funded mechanism to allow business interests to write their own bills without leaving fingerprints for the public and their elected representatives to see. ALEC hands out model laws to willing or naïve legislators — including some in Maine — which are drafted by secret task forces and approved by ALEC’s corporate donors, who provide virtually all of its funding
Guess who is the new corporate chair of ALEC for the state of Maine?Confidential documents from ALEC’s annual meeting last month in New Orleans obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy reveal it is none other than Ann Robinson, a trusted advisor to Governor Paul LePage who simultaneously maintains her day job as a corporate lobbyist at Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios. (Her legislative co-chair is Senator Richard Rosen, Republican of Bucksport.)Robinson was the author of the governor’s infamous “Phase I” regulatory reform agenda, which sought to roll all of Maine’s environmental laws back to weaker federal standards, restore the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol-A to baby’s bottles and sippy cups, gut product-recycling legislation, and rezone 30 percent of the Maine North Woods for development (see “LePage’s Secret Puppeteers,” February 11, by Colin Woodard). We later obtained documents showing she did so by cutting and pasting language provided by major North Woods landholders, the producers of many currently recycled products, the pulp and paper industry, and her colleagues at Preti (which represents PhRMA, Medco, Merck, the Toy Industry Association of America, and other interested parties; see “The LePage Files,” July 22, by Colin Woodard). She’s the governor’s first choice to fill a vacancy on the board of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (which he tried to de-fund; see “Governor to Nominate Favored Lobbyist to MPBN Board,” August 19, by Colin Woodard) and already sits on the committee that vets his potential judicial nominees.ALECexposed.org. That website also identified a number of past and present Maine legislators who have been active in ALEC, including senators Chris Rector (R-Thomaston), Debra Plowman (R-Hampden), Brian Langley (R-Ellsworth), and Michael Thibodeau (R-Winterport). Former senator Carol Weston (R-Waldo) — who now heads the local branch of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity — is a former state chair.
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/126378-lepages-koch-brothers-connection-revealed/#ixzz1p6pDqKNU
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/126378-lepages-koch-brothers-connection-revealed/#ixzz1p6orl59z
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/126378-lepages-koch-brothers-connection-revealed/#ixzz1p6ocKZgh
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/126378-lepages-koch-brothers-connection-revealed/#ixzz1p6oOGoMe
For those who wonder why nothing was in writing:
Of late, the governor’s staff has been making an effort to leave less of a paper trail. LePage — who has refused to use email for this reason — has recently stopped taking notes at meetings. “He told me flat out that the reason was that he didn’t want his notes to be FOAA-ed,” says Mal Leary, president of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition. “You can’t FOAA what somebody is thinking.”
his staff told us there were no notes, background materials, or scheduling memos in existence related to a March 25 meeting LePage had with Carol Weston, head of the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity. They also claimed there weren’t any public records relating to a May 10 meeting with the Maine Pulp and Paper Industry Association, until we pointed out that an industry white paper outlining the policy issues the group wished to discuss was referred to in the governor’s schedule for that day.
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/129642-lepages-transparency-problem/#ixzz1p7OVjnVQ
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/129642-lepages-transparency-problem/#ixzz1p7OFtI6I
The arrogance, rudeness, and disrespect exhibited by our Governor continues to be a source of sorrow and embarassment. When will he understand that he should be working for and with the people and the towns of Maine? Thank heaven for Adrienne Bennet, who is able to speak to the issues and mediate the damage he does to some degree.