MILLINOCKET, Maine – Town Manager Eugene Conlogue will ask Penobscot County leaders to oppose Roxanne Quimby’s proposed national park, even as the philanthropist’s son says he continues to search for the best use of her 70,000 acres.
Speaking as a prominent member of the Maine Woods Coalition, Conlogue will address the Penobscot County Board of Commissioners at 9:50 a.m. Tuesday, the meeting agenda states. According to the agenda listing, Conlogue wants to discuss preventing the creation of a “national park, monument or federal presence in Penobscot County.”
Conlogue and County Administrator Bill Collins did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment on Friday.
Town leaders and the coalition have both opposed Quimby’s proposal to give about 70,000 acres she owns or will own to the National Park Service for a national park in 2016 and to create another 30,000-acre area for motorized recreational usage.
Park supporters have said that a study would be the best means of determining the suitability of Quimby’s land for a park. A park could provide a vast new revenue stream for the economically depressed region, they say. A $40 million endowment Quimby would provide, including $20 million she hopes to raise with a national campaign, would cover park maintenance and operation costs, Quimby has said.
Opponents challenge the credibility of a national park study and statements by Quimby and federal officials that a park would not grow beyond 70,000 acres. They say federal authority would infringe upon local government and threaten the state’s forest products industry.
U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both R-Maine; U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-East Millinocket; Gov. Paul LePage; the Maine Legislature; and the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket are among the individuals and entities opposing the park plan and a park study.
More than a dozen community, business and environmental groups ― including several snowmobile clubs, the Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce and Millinocket’s downtown business association ― have publicly supported a feasibility study. The Medway Board of Selectmen remains the only governmental body to do so. One poll claimed that a sampling of Mainers indicated that 60 percent of residents statewide supported a park feasibility study.
The park movement has appeared to be dormant since late last year, but Quimby has said she will pursue her ambition for decades if she has to, and her son, Lucas St. Clair, said the idea is far from dead.
The president of the board of directors of the Quimby Family Foundation, St. Clair said he at this point is introducing himself to people in the area and statewide to determine the best use for the 70,000 acres Quimby and the association own or plan to own. He has met informally with several individuals and groups, he said.
One immediate goal: to make clear that the 70,000-acre parcel and plans for it have nothing to do with the 3.2-million acre parcel and national park plans for that land proposed by another pro-park group years ago, he said.
“We are not talking about land we don’t own,” St. Clair said Friday. “Our foundation does not have the resources to expand [the land it owns] and we are not looking to expand.”
St. Clair said he is learning a great deal and expects no park development activity to occur this summer beyond his informal meetings with organizations and individuals.
“We are looking to get as much input as we can,” he said.
I’ve got some input for Mr. Lucas St. Clair: Leave us alone, and continue paying taxes on that land. Stop trying to burden the taxpayers of the Katahdin Region with your mother’s taxes while she gets to “feel good” about herself and her legacy.
“Leave us alone, and continue paying taxes on that land.” Go away, but leave us your money. Nice.
“She can’t just do anything with her own land…pffft!” “Hey, Chummy…the town says can’t just cut that tree down in your yard.” “WAR!”
No. By giving her land to the federal government she is taking it off the tax rolls. And it’s not like the federal government is going to pick up that slack.
Maybe she could turn it into a Muslim Retreat or even a Buddist Retreat! That would be cool.
Lucas, You lie like your mother !
No one flagged or removed your comment?The Quimby lovers must be sleeping in.
More of the same false promises. You can keep repeating it and repeating it that you’re not talking about 3.2 million acres, but once you turn it over to the Feds all of your promises go out the window. The 70,000 acres is a seed for the 3.2 million (you’re mommy has said it) and by handing that parcel over you are paving the way for it to happen. Go back home to Washington and leave us alone.
Welcome to Quimby County in the State of Quimby. Ugggh!
I still don’t know why the BDN writes stories about Quimby, but keeps using pictures of Stephen King…
Please don’t insult Stephen :-)
I know , that’s sad !
Check and see who owns the paper then you will know why it writes so much about Quimby
Have the two ever been seen together?? Maybe one in the same.
Maine Woods park proposal – evolution of a farce;
http://preservemainetraditions.com/maine-woods-park-proposalevolution-of-a-farce/
70,000 or 3.2 million, both have been discussed and supported by Roxanne Quimby. St. Clair may want to back-pedal on this in spite of all the public statements from his mother, but it does not change the fact that she has stated the 70,000 will be the SEED for RESTORE.
Mainers are not as foolish as Quimby and son appear to think.
As long as they pursue this plan, we will oppose it.
I think we all agree she can do what she wants with her land, but putting it into federal control is something that will have consequences for this area and the people who live here. She has no right to dictate to the people who live here how we should live.
We do not need or want a national park, national monument or federal control of this area. If Quimby wants a park on her land, she should make one herself. She could even call it “Quimbyland” for all we care. lol
This new tactic of now sending her son to do her dirty work, will not work any better than the restaurant she opened for him on the coast “Mama’s Boy”. Mainers are genuine people and most cannot be bought by those who lie or think they are “entitled”. Perhaps Quimby should take her son and her money and leave like she did with the business she built here in Maine…and then moved it when it became a success…leaving some unemployed. Quimby doesn’t appear to want to pay her share of taxes here, but sure does want to control and dictate. No Thanks!
So, Lucas, you can outright lie about your mama’s plans to seed RESTORE and say it was proposed “by another group years ago”, but shouldn’t you also mention your mama’s connection to that group? Then, there is the little matter of statements she has already made to the media about her support of RESTORE and their proposal. Hmmm, now what positon did she hold with RESTORE until she finally realized it was not popular here? I believe there is even a publication in which she mentions she realized she needed to “back away” for her connections to RESTORE in order to push her 70,ooo proposal. No, Lucas and Roxanne, Mainers are not the fools you like to think.
Lucas, Your Mother has already committed herself to spending every penny of her fortune to buying land for the park . (Didn’t anyone show you that clip from the Today show with Bob Dotson?) And on top of that you are looking for $20 Million in donations just to maintain it. And by the way just what are we maintaining? Because right now there is nothing there.
Mama Q’s proposal to the Park Service last fall omitted any mention of development. Yet this same proposal for this undeveloped park states that it will bring in 300,000 visitors per year. WOW. Since the season is essentially Memorial day to Labor day that is 20,000 vistiors per week for 13 weeks. Lets also remember that the proposal states that the Endowment doesnt pay for all of the yearly budget it also needs the users fees collected from those 300,000 vistors.
One would assume that those 300,000 visitors are not going to come to empty land so who is going to pay for development costs? And how much do you suppose it will cost to develop roads, campgrounds, visitor centers, public sewer, public drinking water, trails, handicap access, restroom facilities, picnic areas, maintaince garages, maintance equipmemnt, headquarters buildings, staff housing, toll booths etc. None of this is mentioned in the proposal.Why is that? Isn’t it because the tax payer will actually foot the bill? The National Park Service cant afford to maintian the parks that it already has, how is it going to build a new one? Sharpen that pencil Lucas I cant wait to hear your reply.,
Does the 300,000 “visitors” include every time a local drives across a park border?
” Mainers are genuine people and most cannot be bought by those who lie or think they are “entitled”. ”
Thats right “We Mainers” lie to ourselves and think that we are “Entitled” to use other peoples property as if it where our own! We do it until we are told we can’t and then throw a hissy fit!
Tell me “thats” not true!
I am a Genuine Mainer and with a little introspect I have come to the conclusion that WE have been of that Mindset and rather than own up to it and admitt it, we condemn those from away as Flatlands, From Away, Tree huggers, ect, ect, ect,!
And “That” is what Makes us Genuine Mainers!
I think we all agree she can do what she wants with her land, but putting it into federal control is something that will have consequences for this area and the people who live here. She has no right to dictate to the people who live here how we should live.
We do not need or want a national park, national monument or federal control of this area. If Quimby wants a park on her land, she should make one herself. She could even call it “Quimbyland” for all we care.
“That” is your opinion which I don’t agree with, but you are welcome to have it.
A Dlbrt, more of your liberal, left-wing retoric. Maine is, and always has been, a free use state. It’s why people from all over come here to hunt, fish, hike, snow shoe, cross country ski, snowmobile, etc. Maine snowmobile clubs spend unimaginable of amounts of time and effort(volunteers by the way) getting PERMISSION to use people’s land, and to keep that land from being disrespected or abused.
So that may be why people throw a “hissy fit” as you say, because people with more money than they know what to do with buy up huge plots of land and take it away from us. If I had won that 337 million dollar Powerball, the first thing I would have done is offer that wench $1.50 on the dollar for her land, and give it back to the PEOPLE. And that’s ALL the people, not just the tree huggers that she sits around the Cum By Ya campfire with.
Hey! Don’t get me wrong!
I’am with you on that free use State! I have used and enjoyed that very much! I wish it would not end!
However,
The problem is not everyone is and the times they have been changin! And as you say people have been buying up land and taking it away from us! I bought up some land to insure use and the first thing that I did was tell my neighbors to go ahead and use it for Atv, Snowmobile, Hunting and Fishing. Then came the hoards! The reason that the came is because everyone else in the town posted up their land. Whats left gets so overused that now I can’t even use it Myself!
Last year there was a guy standing in my driveway hunting over it!!!!! Atv groups roaming the woods during hunting season! At some point you have just gotta say NO!
Maine NEEDS public land to releive some of that pressure! I know that Quimbys Idea of Banning certain uses is a detrimental to that end but if uses where negotiated fairly I beleive that a park would be a viable means to do that!
Maine does NOT have a large park network! Look at Idaho and all the opportunities for people in that State!
Also listen to your self in your post!
“And that’s ALL the people, not just the tree huggers that she sits around the Cum By Ya campfire with. ”
You kind of proved my point!
We need to all just get along!
“Also listen to your self in your post!” Thats funny, your comments are for the most part completely ridiculous, you should go back and read your own!!
Why should we continue to support an idea that has been voted down by locals who the park would most impact. If the locals don’t want the idea why continuing to push it onto them. They don’t want it. I don’t blame them if it was going to bother me I would fight it too. Our congressional leaders don’t want it, our legislature doesn’t want it either with a Super-Majority Vote they said no to it as well. So why keep beating a dead horse it makes nosense. We can’t maintain what parks we have now why spend more money on a park that will be a black fly haven. We have enough areas that draw tourists now OOB, Bar Harbor, MDI, Sebago Lake, Mooshead Lake, Rangeley Lake we don’t need Quimby’s park to make us feel good. What we need is real jobs that pay good wages. Not a handful of government jobs that has our hands tied to Washington and its cronies. I say let Quimby suffer defeat and go on her tirade again as she did last year. In my opinion she adds nothing positive for our state. She is an angry miserable woman who built a company quickly sold it then left Maine because she hated it and its people. Now she is back buying land trying to force an awful idea that Mainers want no part of. Maine’s Most Hated Woman and other Environmental Groups those 1%ers who have been taking certain tax exemptions and handouts should start paying their fair share. They aren’t any better than anyone else.
I agree with you, but just to be clear, Quimby didn’t sell her company then move out of Maine. Rather, she complained bitterly about Mainers and Maine government while in business in Maine and moved her entire company out of Maine to North Carolina, *then* sold out. She then came back, money bags in hand and told Maine that natural products companies and jobs are dead, and that we need a national park.
So the woman moved her natural products company out of state, then bemoans the fact that our natural products industries are gone, and proposes government as the answer, all while in late 1980s she herself bemoaned government and its effect on her business, Burt’s Bees.
It’s still an unbelievable story to me, no matter how many times I repeat it.
She sounds to “bee” an unsatiable “beemoaner” !
LOL
Her approach( your first 7 sentences) is a lot like that of the gay marriage supporters, people from away trying to force us to change to suit them. Sad , sad, sad !
The problem is her idea of change would be the end of Northern Maine as we know it. This is one bitter angry woman who has gone on record attacking Maine Citizens for not supporting her ideas, she had a business didn’t like the state and its people pulled up and left people jobless and made hundreds of millions selling her business. Now she is back buying up all kinds of land and is trying to ram an awful idea down people’s throats. I say those in Northern Maine their local governments where land is nail her with huge property taxes, have LePage make Maine Revenue pay her share of Maine taxes as well. End all exemptions, and other subsidies she is getting . Time for her to leave and go back to North Carolina where she is belong if she wants her park put it there.
Good Point!
So if she gives up and the next guy gets turned down for a Wilderness Condo Retreat because the locals don’t want it, as it transforms their life styles and the next and the next and the next at what point do property rights dissolve into nothingness and the land get taken over by local hostage taking?
Isn’t that a form of Socialism?
BTW, it’s her land and regardless if it is unpopular she is still has a right to fight for what she wants to do with it!
Dilbert, All of the people that I know in the NO PARK groups believe in the fact she can do what she wants with her land. She can close it to snowmobiling, she can close it to hunting. She owns it that is her right. But as the north woods has had a mutually benificial arrangemetn for over a hundered years of forestry and recreationaal acccess dont be surprised by negative reactions when someone with money comes in , buys up large chunks and changes the rules. She can do what she wants but we dont have to like it.
Now when she starts talking about turning it into a National Park, we all have a say in that. Couple that with her stated agenda in buying land as the seed for a much larger park then denying and lying about that agenda you are gong to tick some people off. Dont believe me try this sampling
-Maine Woods Vision Fall 2000-RESTORES Newsletter – First Lands Purchased for the Future Maine Woods National Park!!! As you can see from the accompanying memo, a dedicated friend of our national park campaign, Roxanne Quimby, has purchased nearly 8,200 acres and intends for them to become cornerstones of the future Maine Woods National Park and Preserve!
-Americans for a Maine Woods National Park and Preserve Announced 2003- Formation of a new group of national leaders called “Americans for a Maine Woods National Park” has been announced by its Co-Chairs Will LaPage and Roxanne Quimby. To date, 110 distinguished Americans from many walks of life have joined this national advisory committee in order to promote the proposed 3.2 Million acre Maine Woods National Park and Preserve
-Northern Sky News June 2004- She recently left the board of RESTORE, and is now active with a group called Americans for a Maine Woods National Park. The group is actively working to get more people outside northern Maine interested in the park proposal.
– RESTORE Website 2004 to current-The “Americans” group has its own identity and leadership, while being associated with and staffed by RESTORE. Formation of the committee has been coordinated by RESTORE.
-Yankee magzine 2008 ‘There is nothing more real than real estate, and Roxanne has repeatedly said she would like to see the lands she has acquired become the seeds of a new national park. What she owns now would be a very credible beginning’
=RESTORES WEBSITE May 2012 “American people love their national parks.” Ms. Quimby hopes Mr. Spalding and Restore’s [Maine] director, Mr. St. Pierre, are right. The idea of a park, she said, “floats my boat.” She prefers that her 75,000 acres become a base on which Restore’s 3.2-million acre park could be built.
For more info try the following link
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/205109046243858/doc/243762725711823/
-Christian Science Monitor 9/20/2001-But the park became her real dream. She joined Restore’s board last year and is now buying up land within the bounds of the proposed park.
-RESTORE Press Release May 5 2003, Roxanne Quimby-This is all part of the natural process as people voice their ideas and weigh what such a Park could mean to them. This Park will take years to put together, in phases.
-Portland Press Herald—12/07/03— Quimby was outlining her plan to buy as much land as possible in northern Maine and create a national park.
-Maine Watch 2009 with Jennifer Rooks— Jym St. Pierre: the 3.2 Million Acre Park can start out as something smaller. Roxanne Quimby has been acquiring land up around Baxter State Park area and she has said that she is interested in donating that land to become the seed for the National Park.
– Sun Journal May 2011 – I still love the vision of a 3.2-million-acre national park in Maine,” said Quimby, “but I know it’s not going to happen in my lifetime. This is what I can do now. (Refer back to the 2003 comment-This Park will take years to put together, in phases)
-Maine Woods National Park and Preserve website http://www.mainewoods.org lists Roxanne Quimby as the Co chair. It states that the proposed park is 3.2 Million acres. Its map is the same as RESTORES map for the park.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend!
The times they are a changing, and there are many other Millionaires out there with visions of granduier and agendas that would remove this land from the people that have enjoyed its traditional usesc in a heartbeat. Sweetwater land trust comes to mind where thousands of acres have been removed from use. SD Warren sold tho Sappi and subsequently to Plum Creek who would just as soon make their land off use to all but the highest paying customer. International Paper has sold of land to other woodlands corps who have gated and banned atv’s and hunting!
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth but inform the giver NO strings attached, if you want to give it to me I decide what to do with it! Allow traditional uses on this land and it will be a winner for all! We should be negotiating with her as she has what we want and we have what she wants!
Private Land Rights?–The Next guy may be just another rape and run artist! At least this women wants to preserve it!
The More Public lands available , the less the pressure on the remaining private land owners and subsequently the more receptive to use those people will be when they know that allowing use doesen’t mean hoards of people! Personally I like the good old days of the Paper Companies in Maine Building Rds and allowing people to use their land. However , I fear those days are coming to and end!
OK, thats not true!
Great! I respect your opinion!
By virtue of law we are allowed to use her land to get to fishing areas, she has severely limited the number of taxpayers ( handicapped ) who can access these popular fishing spots by barricading roads and installing gates. Then she says she wants a national park to be enjoyed by all the citizens of this country. You can’t have it both ways Roxanne , mom can’t have it both ways Lucas. You’ll never get much support this way ! Try being truthful !
True!
By virtue of the law you have a right to the most “direct route” to the water!
On foot!
Yea I love how her son is involved now. She knows she is so hated in this state, she doesn’t have the b…s to come here anymore, so she sent someone who does.
Duhhhbert and Sprucehugger will be here soon saying how great Quimby/Restore is ! LOL
That’s sprucebuggger to you, mister.
Duhhhbert is already here.
Ya, let’s give 200 mile, half mile wide swath to Vigue instead.
At least it would bring jobs and money to the state, and could be used by everybody. And since when is a highway a half mile wide?
The original spec. was a 2,000 wide right of way. As far as I know, it has not been changed.
You are mistaken.
Or you are lying.
Either way, you’re wrong.
Easy now , you’re gonna need that east west highway to get all those tourists to the quimby national park.
Hahaha, you may in fact be right. I find it strange that folks excoriate Roxanne. It’s her property: why should anyone other than she have a say about it? I frankly don’t care one way or the other. I really don’t see why folks are all wound up over it, calling her and her son liars, lol. They are at least returning their fortunes to the future at no cost to anyone but themselves. No matter what she does with her property, there will be those who would make some sort of comment, pro or con.
” I really don’t see why folks are all wound up over it, calling her and her son liars, lol.” You don’t see why folks are wound up over it? thats because you do not know the facts! you should do some research before you comment!
Yes, and you, in your armchair in front of a computer screen, know the facts.
Yes I do know my facts on this subject! I was born & raised in the Katahdin area and have done my homework. At first I thought that a NP could be a possibility for the Katahdin area however, after doing my homework I discovered some FACTS. Do your homework if you are truly interested and you tell us what the true intentions of the Quimby folks are.
Good luck and don’t comment until you have done you homework.
I can comment on anything I’d like. You don’t like my comment? Don’t read it.
You are correct however, why would one throw something out there when not knowing the facts?
Perfect example why Bangor Daily News should not allow comments at all!!
Wow. The BDN is good at bending the truth! Several snowmobile clubs did write letters stating support for the park feasibility study. BDN ommits the fact that Quimby Land mgr Mark Leathers told club members Aug 2, 2011 that in exchange for a letter of support the clubs would be granted another seasons use of trails on Quimbys land. Geez BDN, isn’t the whole story always a little more interesting?
Five stories were written specifically about Mr. Leather’s supposed actions, with critics calling them “coercive” and “divisive.” They are available by putting “Mark Leathers” in this site’s search engine. The Maine Snowmobile Association’s position against the park and feasibility study was also documented in the course of this story. The reality, however, was from the beginning that some snowmobile groups supported the study; many did not.
“Some”, Nick. Not “several ” snowmobile clubs.
As I recall, the two clubs owned by area tourist industry advocates Matt Polstein, and Rick Levasseur as well as the East Branch Sno Rovers WILLINGLY signed on the the study plan.
One other club in Elliotsville was coerced into signing because they were pretty much landlocked by Mz. Quimby.
The reality of your reporting, Nick is that you and your bosses at BDN are doing all they can to help the creation of this self perpetuating national park monster while throwing the wood products industry under the bus.
If you would like to serve your readership better, why don’t you actually do some investigative reporting on the REAL plan for the northern forest that is being forwarded by the environmental industry and every environmental organization in the country.
This is an argument reporters never get to win, for while you are accusing the newspaper of being biased toward one side, Roxanne Quimby has blamed “biased press” for her failure to garner more support for her initiative. So go figure. The reality is that this issue is so controversial that the simplest word choices — “several” vs. “some” — become fodder for accusations. So it goes.
Are supporters supposed to win or to report?
Just keep reporting the facts Nick , you’ll be alright.
And look who owns the newspaper., it is not difficult to say what side they would be on.
Easily could have been rectified by stating the unmitigated FACTS of the matter such as X number of clubs,etc.
Isn’t that what REAL reporters do ?
I don’t see anything here as biased. It is more of what I
don’t see that is of concern. Can we get some coverage on Cate Street selling
off “all none essential assets” to raise capital. Or, how many
mechanics liens (if any) have been filed for lack of payment to vendors and
contractors. What is the staus of the EPA application for the torrified wood plant. Knowing a few facts (as opposed to rumors) about this sort of
stuff would give the public a better idea of just which horse they should be
betting on.
Nick, please hilight in this story where you mention the MSA being against the park. And I believe your use of the word “several” over the true word “few,” drives home your support of a park. Also, you left out the fact that these “several” clubs you mention were bribed/threatened/forced by Quimby so that they would give their “support” to her park
How many clubs truly supported the study? I believe two, maybe three. Not several.
You should get more sun, Nick Sambides. Your skin could use some toughening.
Ah, many paranoid comments already from the One (dying)Industry Only for Northern Maine Coalition.
Some Maine people, some in Penobscot County even, support a North Woods National Park.
The County Commissioners are naturally justified in hearing what the people in Millinocket have to say, at least until the mill, (in the singular, now, please note), closes again.
The fiber plant in Old Town can’t meet it’s air quality mandates and it has a limited future.
So I’m sorry, look at it realistically and you will see the future is just not in pulp wood processing, in the long term.
So think of all the possible futures for the County, Commissioners, and don’t burn any bridges.
There’s no hurry about this.
If we just wait the pulp plants, the last Centurty’s filthy mill towns, then the opposition will all die off and blow away.
One hundred years of industrialized over exploitation was a pretty good run, as those things generally go.
Meanwhile, the forest just keeps growing.
Quimby, does not have to do anything, as what she wanted to accomplish relative to the environment is already happening.
And it is not what is killing the pulp industry.
Penobscot County is an important carbon sink, right now.
The value of that is greatly under appreciated at the moment, though.
Which is okay, too.
That changing suddenly would not be a good thing, overall, for anyone, would it ?
So while I’ll be a lonely voice here, I suggest the County take an officially neutral position, entertain all possibilities and just let the future unfold as it will.
But please do remember, as I do, that the same group of people who said the Penobscot Valley had no future unless they continued to use the River as their own industrial open sewer, are the same strident voices you hear now.
They were wrong then, and they are now, too.
One thing that the people who would control the northern forest don’t understand is that the indigenous population of current residents are not so stupid that they would defecate where their food and water come from as has happened in the more urbanized areas.
In short, we’re not as stupid as some have been.
Well Mitt, as an avid environmentalist you should be able to discern that the federal government is not exactly a carbon neutral operation.
Most of us who are against the National Park are not in fact those you accuse of advocating for the Penobscot River to be an “industrial open sewer”. In fact most of us are pro-environment; pro sustained resource use; pro low impact recreation. We don’t want a National Park because we value our natural resources and respect our fellow Mainers. We value local control of our destiny and we believe Mainers have done a great job with Baxter as well as many other State Parks.
We support options such as adding to Baxter: the Quimby Gift Parcel; we support a private park: the Quimby North Woods Preservation Research Reserve; we support sustained forestry: the Quimby Sustainable Forest – A Perpetual Trust.
But no, we do not support a National Park. That does not make us anti-environmental industrialists. The Board needs to use some critical thinking and so should the people of this state. All of this emotional ego stroking hyperbole is a waste of time and limited resources.
That is why Maine has taken a back seat to productivity to other states. That is why Maine has the highest tax rates than other states….that is why this state is going down the tubes and it’s young people leaving in droves. Quimby is not dictating to the people who live here how they should live. People are dictatiing by telling all the people who use this land to recreation on that they can’t use it or they don’t want them here, yet all the businesses that have closed because of lack of business etc are because of that mind thought in the past. Millnocket the ghost town….driving through there last summer was a shock. Could not believe how this once vibriant community has just let it’s self go. Homes are falling apart, people can’t afford to take care of them anymore. Businesses boarded up….and wonderful Gene Conlonge who was kicked out of Presque Isle years ago for his city manager mixups is at it again with Millnocket. You reap what you sow…..ghost town politics….
And what wonderful economic boom is a park in a bunch of woods, with no destination point, going to do for this area? There are no ocean front views, there is no Mt Katahdin, there is no Mt Washington, there is no Thunder Hole; there is nothing but trees, trees and more trees, with an occasional waterfall. You can see that going up to the Hight of the Land for free.
You are absolutely right. The town manager doesn’t care about the condition of Millinockets downtown .He is more concerned about what is happening beyond its borders. I would like to know where this meeting is taking place and if he is doing this on Millinocket taxpayers dime. If he spent more time doing his job for the town instead of outside its borders Millinocket might be more inviting to the people visiting from other areas.Millinocket deserves better leadership then it is getting.
Eugene is utilizing his position aas town manager to battle the greenies and other tourist based organizations instead of doing his job to manage this town. He needs to go people!. Sadly the people who keep him in office and surrounded by his kool aid drinking cronies can’t see the forest for all the trees.
Why do you think he is doing what he is doing? Do you think he is trying to help Bangor and Portland???? Come on think about it!!
Is that the kool aid Medway and Quimby’s people can trying to force feed?
You nailed it ole Grizz!
“We are looking to get as much input as we can,” he said.
Here’s a thought;
Manage your 70,000 acres in a sustainable way while harvesting and manufacturing the wood products here.
Use your mothers expertise to set up an industry that would produce value added products for sale to the world while employing the local population and giving the area the boost it needs in order to prosper.
Much has been said about how the northern forest has been devastated by logging, mostly by people who have absolutely no knowledge about the subject.
Here is the chance of a lifetime to prove that the Quimby Foundation CAN do it better.
The area really doesn’t need to become a national park for EVERYONE to enjoy.
It already IS a park that ANYONE can enjoy.
Another thought for the Quimby’s – buy the land and the timber. Don’t go make the purchase deal deal, allow the land to be stripped of timber and then do the pointie talkie thing saying “look what those bad old loggers did!”
Maybe she could turn it over to the Krotch Bros’s Georgia Pacific and they could turn the whole forest into toilet paper! It is her land. let her do what she wants with it. You wouldn’t want anyone telling you what you can do with your own land. If you don’t like it, BUY it and do what you want.
She is perfectly within her rights to do whatever she wants with her land.
The problem is that the next owner (the Federal Government) will start the process of gobbling up everything aropund it “For the Good of All” http://tinyurl.com/dy3kmdy.
This is what concerns us in the Katahdin region and every other person in this state that values private property rights.
Suppose she could plaster her land with wind turbines, like other major land owners in Maine are doing…
The family is a bunch of snakes. Don’t trust them at all.
An owl can nest in a managed forest as well as it can in a park. We don’t need anymore extreme environmentalists with their agenda 21 crapnola.
As a resident of Hancock County we are all aware of the economic engine Acadia National Park is for us . Don’t be so hasty in throwing away an opportunity to bring jobs to the area as well as protecting the land for future generations to enjoy.
Many large Maine landowners are leasing mountain tops for Industrial Wind Farms which are a blight on the landscape ,produce few jobs , and drives people away .
Was Percival Baxter demonized like this woman? Nothing ever really changes….so three cheers for the NY prison guard killing the shark. If you can’t kill it or ride it through the woods in a cloud of dust it ain’t Maine.
@ jfol, Baxter, saying he did not trust the federal government, resisted efforts to turn the park into a national park. He placed various restrictive covenants on the park so that today it is not actually part of the Maine government body that administers the state’s other parks. Rather it is administered by the Baxter State Park Authority.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Proctor_Baxter
……er, and the point is missed entirely…but, Oh well, let’s take a nice dusty ride on a side by side Japanese built ATV through some clear cut Irving land and just talk s$&@ about that horrid Quimby woman having the gall to try to preserve some of Maine’s forestland. Have you looked at a a Google earth view of what’s left “beyond the Beauty Strip”?
No offense intended to all the folks TERRIFIED of our federal park service, but I live a stone’s throw from a federal park and couldn’t have a better neighbor from many perspectives, including what I pay for property taxes.
Well put.
Each to his own.
Do not caompare Baxter to Quimby their is a major difference. Baxter did not want govermental interference from the Feds, nor his own relatives. Read the Deeds of Trust.
Go Roxanne
As a resident of Hancock County,Acadia National Park is a major economic engine for our communities.
In many rural areas large landowners are leasing mountain tops to Industrial Wind Projects which are a blight on the landscape ,produce few jobs ,unreliable power and drive people away.Not to mention the tax subsidies paid by you and me.
Pick your poison
More than a dozen community, business and environmental groups ― including several snowmobile clubs, the Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce and Millinocket’s downtown business association ― have publicly supported a feasibility study.
Hey BDN, would you please let this avid snowmobiler know which clubs these are since the MSA VEHEMETLY opposes anything to due with this park, Maybe you are thinking of the 6 or so clubs that Quimby threatened with complete trail removal if they didn’t comply with her wishes.
Gee another “good idea” that will not die, like it should.
‘One immediate goal: to make clear that the 70,000-acre parcel and plans for it have nothing to do with the 3.2-million acre parcel and national park plans for that land proposed by another pro-park group years ago, he said. ‘
Find out what they say out of the other side of their mouths at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/205109046243858/doc/243762725711823/
people say, no to the E/W highway, no to a national park, no to plum creek, no lincoln-dickey, no to big A, no to LNG in searsport, no no no , Maine is the state of no.
But they gladly excepted a polluted land fill. Go figure !
I hope it does not become a national park but I also would like to see it become a wild and roadless buffer to Baxter State Park.
We don’t need no park in northern Maine.Put it in southern Maine instead.
It will happen sooner or later the national park. The more land gets developed the more need there will be for open space. I loved watching the national park series where the people who opposed great parks like smokey, yosemite, grand canyon, yellowstone all look like pathetic baboons now. The fact is these places were vehemently opposed just like this park is and now they are national treasures. It’s the same with gay marriage it will eventually happen but it’s still fun to see people cling on to the past. This park would be the only thing the area has going for it and the only reason why they would get any decent amount of tourism up there.
Personally I think she should make all of her land private and sell it to wealthy people who would keep everyone off the land, then all of you can cry about that fact.
Mainers will cry when they charge us a fee to get into our own backyards, when we can’t ride our ATVs and snowmobiles, when we can’t use the resources of our own backyards to help us make a living, when they start telling us how close we can plant to this or that body of water, when we can’t fish, hunt, or run a camp for commercial profit because its agin the park…. Just take a look at the old milltowns now! People walking around drunk in the middle of the afternoon when thirty years ago, they’d been hard at work in the mills making good money, raising decent families, living in decent homes.
All these do gooders! They want to have us all leave this state and go live in tiny stacked boxes out in some city somewhere. Well I lived in a tiny stack box out in California and it stunk, no matter how you slice it. Just watch em. They won’t give us money for bridges and roads, they say, “oh heck, give it up people and move into the condos so we can take over the management of the woods and rural properties that are the native Mainer’s legacy and heritage!
Parks only provide a handful of jobs, not the number of jobs we need to give native Mainers a chance to stay in Maine. Do you really think rich Manhattan people are gonna drive all the way up there to a park when they can go to their rich ole Bar Harbor and be done with it? Come on!
Maybe the mills polluted the water, maybe they tore down trees to make paper towels., but there are new ways to have industry and environment coexist, putting those ways into action now will bring us jobssss! We need jobs here, not a walk down a path to look at this little tweet tweet and that. Making sure they coexist could be a whole new industry in and of itself, just think of it!!! The resources of this state belong to Mainers, and we are rich in natural resources. There’s no reason why Mainers shouldn’t benefit from new industries that will bring in real jobs for real people, not just a few jobs for park narks and game wardens.
The resousrces in this state do not belong to Mainers, they belong to private enterprises. (As an aside, do you actually need an atv or a snowmobile to get out into the woods?)
People like them. Powersporting companies are a good thing in this state. They provide reallll jobs and they’re the reason recreation occurs in Aroostook in the first place! It’s hard enough as it is to snowmobile without any snow, pretty soon there won’t be any trails left either’ cause the sound disturbs t he phantom hikers visiting from Manhattan.