HOWLAND, Maine — Negotiations between town officials and the Penobscot River Restoration Trust have broken down due to the trust’s apparent failure to remove about 70 yards of fill from a town-owned site on Lagoon Lane, officials said Friday.
Town Manager William Lawrence said that talks between he and PRRT Executive Director Laura Rose Day have been broken off for more than a week. Town officials have turned the matter over to the town’s attorney, Andrew Hamilton of the firm Eaton Peabody of Bangor, and will discuss it during the Board of Selectmen’s meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Lawrence said.
“That’s on our front burner,” board Chairman Glenn Brawn said Friday. “It will be discussed.”
Attempts to contact Day and Hamilton were unsuccessful. Lawrence said the nonprofit environmental group’s officials believe they have not violated their agreement with the town to remove the fill, which was taken from the former Howland tannery site on Route 155.
The fill, town officials said, leaves the Lagoon Lane land undevelopable. The trust had agreed to remove it by Aug. 7, Lawrence said.
The agenda for Monday’s meeting does not list the topic. It lists an executive session with the town’s attorney and selectmen’s and town manager’s reports. Town officials declined to identify the subject of the executive session.
A great deal rides for both sides on the successful conclusion of the project. They have worked together since 2008 to get the $3.2 million fish bypass on land adjacent to the town-owned tannery site, which is at the confluence of the Penobscot and Piscataquis rivers
Due to its access to Route 155, Interstate 95 and the rivers, the site is the centerpiece of town economic development efforts that began five years ago. The bypass, meanwhile, is part of trust plans to open nearly 1,000 miles of habitat to endangered Atlantic salmon, sturgeon and other species of migratory, sea-run fish.
The Lagoon Lane and tannery sites must be cleared of all debris before the project concludes, Lawrence said. The PRRT timeline calls for bypass construction finishing this month, the clearing of at least part of the tannery site in October, and PRRT turning the site over to the town for development in 10 months, he said.
“I am just hoping that we can hold them to their timeline because of our plans to develop the site,” Lawrence said.