MONSON, Maine — Residents who attend Tuesday night’s public hearing and special town meeting will decide whether or not to impose a six-month moratorium on privately owned highways and utility corridors, recently elected Town Selectman Bryant Brown said Monday.
The 180-day moratorium before voters is specifically designed to stop progress in town on the proposed east-west highway, a 220-mile privately funded toll highway to connect Calais to Coburn Gore.
While the exact route for the planned 4-lane roadway has not been announced, “We were one of the routes in consideration,” Brown said of his Piscataquis County hometown.
“We believe in being proactive,” the selectman said. “We’re nowhere near prepared for a project of this size or how it would impact the town. We want to make sure things like quality of life and property values aren’t affected.
“Monson is an area where people are not particularly pleased with the whole idea,” Brown said.
The town’s three selectmen voted unanimously in July to hold the special town meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4, at Monson Town Hall. The meeting will begin with a short presentation by Planning Board Chairwoman Cindy Turner and Town Manager Julie Anderson.
The privately funded toll highway that Peter Vigue, chairman and CEO of Cianbro Corp., has spent the last two years making presentations about all over the region gained state funding for a $300,000 feasibility study in early April.
Five months later, the scope of the Maine Department of Transportation study still has not been set, Gov. Paul LePage said two weeks ago when he agreed to ask the DOT to slow down work on the study.
The $2 billion roadway as proposed by Vigue would start in Calais, follow Stud Mill Road to Costigan, just north of Old Town, cross the Penobscot River, then head northwest to LaGrange, Milo, south of Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and The Forks before connecting to Route 27 and crossing the Canadian border into Quebec.
The initial plan has six interchanges in Maine, and from the state’s border, it is only about 60 miles to Trans Canada Highway Route 10 near Sherbrooke — with connections to Buffalo, Detroit and other Midwest destinations — and to Trans Canada Highway Route 73 to Beauceville, located south of Quebec City.
The proposed moratorium, which would ban private highways, pipelines and utility corridors, would give town leaders time to write local rules, just in case the east-west highway does end up winding through town, Brown said.
“What will come out of the 180 days is codes so we can keep our place the way it is,” he said, adding provisions allow for another 180-day extension, if needed.
Under the moratorium, if passed, “Anybody can sell any lands they want, but the town officials are not going to issue any permits to start anything until we get all our ducks in a row,” Brown said.
The proposed highway has been the talk of the town for months, the town selectman said.
“People who are concerned will show up [and vote] and people who don’t give a damn won’t,” Brown said.
Mainers getting a taste of Maine Tribes go through.
What ever happened to the proposed Rt. 2 E/W corridor. For years the state tried to push that route. I for one find that route more useful for someone like me who chooses to say within the borders of this country. I just returned from a cross country trip that took me out and back via rt 2 in maine and new hampshire would have been real nice if it was a divided highway. Who else wonders if Plum Creek and their money have a hand in this here.
How many homes and businesses would a developer have to acquire to build this on rt 2? It would be public relations suicide. Not to mention how difficult would it be to get the road to go through places like skowhegan or farmington
Very little, that why it is called a by-pass.
Trains are the aanswer not toll roads.
Trains are not the answer if you did any research on this you’d find this out quickly.
Well, you can’t say these folks are doing this just to get their picture in the paper.
That’ exactly what they are doin.
lets put some money in the deteriorating roads and bridges we have now
i have said it before and i will say it again..we already have an east west highway called the canadian pacific railroad.. they have already hauled some oil over it keep going…if the state of maine can’t afford to pay their bills how are they going to pay for land…..
the highway wouldn’t be funded using state dollars.
Nor should they. This road is to serve Canadian corporate interests. Their view is that, because they couldn’t keep it after the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, they, simply, want to buy it. Theyonce proposed buying the whole state of Maine a 100 years or so ago, if you check your history. They don’t care who owns Maine as long as they can develop it to serve their business needs. O.K. Let’s charge them, up front, the cost they will save continuing to transport goods the current route AROUND Maine … less 20 percent. So, if for the next 100 years the savings is 100 billion dollars, then they could pay 20 billion, up front AND pay for the road to be built, AND hire only Mainers to construct and maintain the road, thereafter, AND all toll receipts go into the Maine Treasury. Now, that might be acceptable, subject only to actual actuarial confirmation.
really who is paying for the studies….oh yeah tax money….
By backing Maine into the need for a TRANSPORTATION BOND issue to cover the eminent domain cost’s. Some folk’s in Monson have obviously done their homework and have read The Act and it’s legislative history. Vigue and his crony’s expected to steamroll Maine wih the promise of job’s. Instead he found out that sticking his head into the doghouse was not the smartest idea until he made sure that the house was empty in the 1st place. Now he’s got every mutt in the State after him for trying to blow smoke up everyone’s butt. Monson maybe the first but it’s not going to be the last. And bigdaddy has it right from jump street 1. The CP Railroad is already here. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it !
Luddites
Resisters, yes; Luddites, not exactly. The issue before residents of Monson isn’t a threat to their very livelihoods posed by industrial capitalists (and their toadies in government) who want to shove an entire economic system onto them without their having any participation in those decisions. Monson residents insist on having a say about what sort of land use fits with what they value in their town. In that sense and only in that sense, do they possess an attribute of the Luddites of two centuries ago. It seems to me that their message in desiring to protect the natural landscapes of their town is in keeping with poet Herbert Read’s belief that “Only a people serving an apprenticeship to nature can be trusted with machines.” One wonders if Mr. Vigue has ever been an apprentice to nature.
For a balanced view of what the Luddite rebellion was all about, read Kirkpatrick Sale’s Rebels Against the Future. It pretty much lays aside the easy stereotypes of “Luddites” as simply opposed to changes in their world. Rather it puts the whole episode in the contexts of what we commonly refer to as economic and social justice. The Luddites wanted to maintain essential control over their lives, which was a long way from what the builders of the factory system had in mind for them. One wonders if they were really that far from those who see themselves as mere cogs in the gigantic corporate and banksters’ machines today.
Private highways in the US have been for the most part a financial disaster (except for the builder Peter Vigue and Cianbro). This will be an environmental disaster as well. The tolls charged are unregulated and will benefit only Canadian truckers hauling their goods to the US. Eventually some sort of pipeline could be added to bring tar sands oil from Canada as well. Peter Vigue had the collosal nerve to tell the people who live in Pisq. County that they are poor and needy so will benefit from this which is total bull. All the towns affected should but a moratorium on this and create an ordinance that would not only protect the environment but keep the developers honest should this actually pass which they really can’t be and make money so as in the wind farm debacle, they flee.
Just say no!!!
One question that nags at me is: If the proposed highway would be totally private, how are they going to be able to take about 15 miles of Route 1, between the new bridge in Calais and the end of the Stud Mill Road just north of Baileyville, and part of Route 27 in western Maine? Wouldn’t that make the highway one of those PPP’s – Public-Private Partnerships- or whatever they are? Under the proposal, Maine would have to give the builder of the highway the right to those sections of public roads, and maybe others. To me, either the highway is totally private or it isn’t.
I firmly believe the big Irving oil and woodtrucks should continue to use THEIR TransCanada Highway around Maine to their markets in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, rather than playing Mainers for stupid fools, who would be willing, for a few short term equipment operator or road sign holding jobs agree, to having clear cuts and a permanent marring of a huge stretch of, essentially, beautiful Maine forest to put in THEIR private east / west toll road. Don’t do it. If you’re not going to protect what is left of our land, then give it back to the Indians.
dont let them mess with the land up there
NO TO E/W !!!!!!!! This would be a huge mistake!!
You go Monson..gladdens the heart..lightens the spirit..shows the way..every Maine town should follow your lead.
I am so impressed!!!
I live in Monson and I would like to see a highway built. Honestly I’ve lived here most of my 26 years on this earth and have seen this place go from once somewhat thriving to the gutter, and now trying to get back up on its feet.
To the detractors I have to say first that #1 it won’t be built in monson – i don’t think anyone is stupid enough to build it through this town. mostly because much like anything else in this area – there is nothing here but a AE Robinsons Gas Station that serves greasy pizza.
Secondly it would help canadians. Toll the canucks and leave us mainers a free highway!
I use to live in monson most of my life it is a great little town . but with the closing of moosehead it went down hill. I know that the land we own up there is not for use of anykind other than for my family. i will not let the state take it no matter what. My family is one of the oldest in the area . My aunt is the oldest living woman in monson and i think they need to look else where to put this road.
what do you mean by closing of Moosehead?
i give a damn
but i had to work…