 November 18, 2008 Reported By: A.J. Higgins
A compromise joint use agreement on the future of Sears Island seemed anything but certain Tuesday after a legislative panel voted to approve the plan pending the receipt of an offer for the construction of a new port on the property. The Legislature's Transportation Committee voted to approve a 601-acre conservation easement for the island just off Searsport, while reserving 330 acres for transportation uses. But as A.J. Higgins reports, some environmentalists who signed off on the plan originally now claim the lawmakers' action has voided the agreement.
It was supposed to be a done deal. But a strict stipulation by a state lawmaker who wants to see a cargo port on SearsIsland is threatening to unravel a complex agreement among a diverse group of stakeholders who approved a joint use plan for the island's 930 acres. And since the Legislature's Transportation Committee voted unanimously to refuse to convey a conservation easement for about 600 acres on the island in Searsport until the state has a cargo port construction permit application in hand, some say the compromise is pretty much busted.
“I think it’s basically over. I think we’ll walk away from the table.” Jim Freeman, the president of the Friends of Sears Island, says the Transportation Committee’s insistence on hinging its approval of the plan to the construction of a cargo port was exactly what those who had worked for months on the joint use agreement had hoped they wouldn't hear. “There is not any kind of port proposal imminent. It could be five, ten years down the road. So, to just push this back and wait until the possibility if someone comes along, and who knows how legitimate that person or entity could be, really brings it back to square one. And the real loser here is the Town of Searsport, because they’ve been working diligently, the selectmen, everybody, they want something to happen for their town and it’s not gonna.”
Waiting for something to happen is exactly what James Gillway and other Searsport residents have been doing for decades. Gillway, a former police chief who now serves as town manager of Searsport, measures the level of anxiety over the SearsIsland issue with something he calls the coffee shop factor. “We seemed to be at a standstill for many, many years. It’s the coffee shop factor. When I would walk in as a police chief, for now as the town manager, I would always be inundated with the question, ‘What are you doing? What’s happening?’ Now that I’ve been in the process involved with the JUPC, it’s just exacerbated. Everyone comes and says, ‘what’s happening. I wish something would happen.’”
The joint use agreement recommended by the planning committee envisions setting aside about 600 acres for conservation uses while dedicating 330 acres for the development of a future cargo port. Although the conservation easement allows educational facilities and other eco-tourism benefits, some of those opportunities were viewed suspiciously by Representative Doug Thomas, a Ripley Republican. “How can I be sure that this educational facility doesn’t become a resort, a private playground for the elite from all kinds of different non-profit organizations. I see that there’s going to be a dock in here. I can see the possibility of people coming here with their yachts and docking and then staying at this facility.”
Thomas was assured by Scott Dickerson of Coastal Mountains Land Trust, that the state would control the future of any recreation facility. But Senator Christine Savage said the state should also be able to rely on an agreement that would satisfy the concerns of those who want to see a cargo port developed on the island. “I continue to be concerned, though, that even after all the work and the compromises that have been met, there are still some who are unwilling to allow a port to be built on that portion of the island that has been reserved for transportation. A container port on SearsIsland is important to the State of Maine as we look to the future.”
As the committee debated the merits of adopting the joint use agreement contingent to the receipt of a permit application for a port on the island, Karen Tilberg of the Governor's office warned that including that provision could derail the agreement. “The anticipation had been and has been, I think since then, that the Joint Use Planning Committee would take the constructs of that agreement and detail them and bring them back. But if the basic agreement is not ultimately approved by this committee, I think it is fair to say that those who signed it really would essentially be released from it. And then would have to reconsider whether to re-sign whatever it is that you come up with.”
Tilberg's position placed the executive branch that brokered the agreement on a collision course with the committee chairman, Senator Dennis Damon. “I can’t personally, as a member of the Legislature, and certainly as a member of this Transportation Committee, give up my right, my authority and my duty, to the entire state in terms of setting policy by being constrained by what I think, or I am told a group of people felt that would happen.”
The committee approved the plan with the port provision--much to the delight of environmentalists like Ron Huber of Penobscot Bay Watch, who views the plan’s supporters as people who do not have the island's best interests at heart. “This entire plan hinges on a port being, actually approved before they get their education center. So we’re very pleased that this is going to require them to make a whole lot of changes in how they’re looking at this.”
Governor John Baldacci says he will submit a bill next year that reflects the joint use committee's plan--but deletes the Transportation Committee's port requirement.
To hear the full committee meeting about Sears Island:
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