MILLINOCKET, Maine — Incoming Town Council member Anita Mueller said Friday that she supports a proposed northern Maine national park, but she won’t address that issue unless other councilors and residents want to.
Mueller said she had several more immediate initiatives she would like to begin pursuing once she and other councilors are formally sworn in during a special council meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.
“We need to focus on providing services to the community, so that is where I am coming from,” Mueller said Friday. “Yes, I am personally in favor of it, but I am not willing or would encourage the Town Council to move on a path that is divisive when the authority [to decide] lies on the congressional level, not the local level.”
The national park initiative “has no place in municipal government. I spoke in favor of it publicly because it would be disingenuous if I didn’t. It would be my hope that the council is informed on the issue but doesn’t take a position on it one way or the other,” Mueller added. “I am one of seven people. If the council feels differently and they want to take that on, then fine. I would be happy to take that on, but I don’t think it is anybody’s best interests to not focus on municipal issues.”
Mueller was one of two Katahdin-region candidates elected who support the national park proposal. She received 1,330 votes, enough to place her second among three elected councilors in Millinocket. Park opponents Michael Madore and Gilda Stratton were elected to two other open council seats with 1,410 votes and 1,154 votes, respectively. That makes Mueller the seven-member council’s sole park proponent.
In East Millinocket, former board Chairman and park supporter Mark Scally was elected. He received 326 votes. Incumbent East Millinocket Selectman Clint Linscott, who has described himself as undecided on the issue, received 298 votes. The remaining three selectmen have said they are opposed to a park.
In unrelated ceremonies, selectmen will be sworn in at the East Millinocket town office at 4 p.m. Monday. Councilors will be sworn in at Millinocket’s town office three hours later.
Roxanne Quimby and her son Lucas St. Clair in 2011 proposed creating a 75,000-acre national park and adjoining 75,000-acre multiuse recreation area. The park and recreation area would be located on Quimby lands east of Baxter State Park.
Millinocket Town Council Chairman Richard Angotti Jr. agreed with Mueller that the council has more pressing priorities than pursuing the park. Councilors are attempting to reshape government services to better conform to the town’s loss of about half its population over the last 10 years, he said.
After members are sworn in Monday, they will address a proposal to resurrect a broken Fire Department ladder truck previously thought unaffordable to repair. Councilors also will address a final report in the weeks to come from a Virginia economic development firm that is working for free to help town leaders recognize the town’s assets, Angotti said.
These are more pressing matters than the park, which requires the approval of the state’s federal delegation, plus state government, before Congress will consider it, Angotti and Mueller said. The park proposal also has no solid timeline for approval, construction and economic maturity, although early estimates place that work as taking eight to 12 years.
“It will be decided on the congressional level, not on the council level,” Mueller said of the national park. “It is up to the citizens to make their feelings known on the congressional level.”
Town leaders hope to cut at least $3 million from the town’s school and local government budgets to lower taxes, they have said. Officials at Thermogen Industries, a fledgling company that wishes to produce industrial wood pellets at a Katahdin Avenue industrial park, also have indicated that they wish to come before the council in a public hearing next month, Angotti said.
“The council has no intention of taking up the [park] issue anytime soon. We have bigger fish to fry. Our priorities need to be on the town,” Angotti said Friday.
As a personal project, Mueller said she wants to help create a citizen’s initiative in Millinocket that would double residents’ recycling and cut the cost of operating the town’s transfer station by as much as 25 percent. That could lower town taxes significantly, she said.
Mueller also wishes to help shape the strategic plan the town would create from the Virginia firm’s recommendations, she said.
“I am not going to get in there and fight over things we don’t need to fight over. That hasn’t been really productive,” Mueller said. “We need to really get razor-focused on Millinocket. I ran to help create a stable tax base and mill rate, and that’s where I want to direct my energies.”