MILLINOCKET, Maine — The Millinocket Town Council on Thursday night decided not to send a letter to Maine’s congressional delegation detailing conditions it would require of a proposed North Woods national park.
Councilors voted 6-0 to hold onto the three-page letter drafted by Town Manager Peggy Daigle in February. Daigle wrote the letter in response to a request for comment on the park plan from independent U.S. Sen. Angus King. Instead, the council’s 2011 resolution opposing the park will stand, at least until more details regarding the park plans are revealed.
Councilor Richard Theriault said during the meeting it would be impossible for the council to summarize its feelings and concerns regarding the proposal in one letter.
“If I were to draft a letter, it would say something along the lines of, ‘Dear Sen. King, No thank you. Signed: Me,’” Theriault said.
As proposed by Lucas St. Clair, the son of wealthy entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby, a 75,000-acre national park and a 75,000-acre recreation area would be created on land east of Baxter State Park donated to the National Park Service.
Proponents have said a park would generate 400 to 1,000 jobs, be maintained by $40 million in private endowments, diversify a Katahdin region economy devastated by the closure of two paper mills and coexist with existing industries.
Park opponents have said they fear a park would bring federal authority into Maine, cramp the state’s forest products industries with tighter air-quality restrictions, generate only low-paying jobs and morph into something resembling the 3.2 million-acre park plan offered in the 1990s.
Daigle’s letter states in part that the council would require a national park to be limited to 150,000 acres, a new access road to it would have to be constructed, and air quality standards for the region would have to remain unchanged, in case industry wished to locate in Millinocket.
The council’s vote came one day after park opponents held a meeting just outside of Millinocket and criticized the plan. About 75 people attended.
“I’m in hopes that there will still be the opportunity for a full forum where both sides sit down and have an open discussion,” Daigle said Friday.
Councilor Anita Mueller was absent from Thursday’s meeting. If she had been there, she said, she would have voted in support of sending the letter. She was elected last year on her pro-park platform, stressing the importance of the hundreds of jobs it’s projected to create, she said in an email Friday.
“Considering Millinocket’s economic realities, I am disappointed in the council’s decision,” she wrote.
Other councilors have said they would be more supportive of a push to create a state park in the region and keep the federal government out of it.
“We will continue to talk with people in the region and make the case for why the national park and recreation area are an incredible opportunity,” David Farmer, St. Clair’s spokesman, said in an email Friday. “In fact, we just recently launched a radio advertising campaign seeking feedback on the proposal, and we’re seeing a strong and positive response.”
The radio ad highlights the park as a means of celebrating and building on Maine’s outdoors heritage and asks the public to provide feedback online at katahdinwoods.org.
Medway leaders drafted a letter supporting the park proposal to the delegation last month.
Millinocket Councilor Michael Madore said he was hesitant to rush to judgment on the park proposal and urged the council to take its time before taking a new strong stance on the issue. He said he’d rather the town say nothing than say something and change its mind a year from now.
“I hear both sides, and I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle,” he said.
BDN writer Nick Sambides Jr. contributed to this report.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.