Commissioners hold off endorsing Searsport dredging
By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Searsport is around 70 miles southeast of Dover-Foxcroft, but the coastal community was a hot topic at the March 18 Piscataquis County Commissioners’ meeting.
A proposed resolution to endorse a dredging project at Searsport that would allow larger vessels to use the coastal port prompted a lively debate among the three commissioners. Fred Trask favored it while Chairman James Annis and Commissioner Eric Ward both said they preferred to hold off until they had more information.
Trask said his biggest concern was the future of the Central Maine and Quebec Railway railroad line that goes through Piscataquis and Waldo counties. The sale of the rail line is still awaiting approval by the Canadian Transportation Agency and Transport Canada.
County Manager Marilyn Tourtelotte said that the Waldo County commissioners’ opinions were also divided. “One commissioner is in favor while the other two haven’t formed an opinion yet until they have more information,” Tourtelotte said. “They’re waiting until after the public meeting in Belfast on March 26.”
Trask, whose district includes Brownville and Milo where the railroad has a strong presence, said that if the “trains don’t have anything to haul, what’s going to happen to the railroad? … We’ve got to be leaders rather than followers.”
But Annis said that he preferred to wait until after the public hearing in Belfast and vote on the resolution at the April 1 county commissioners’ meeting. “Something is being done physically in a place that’s not in our county,” Annis said. “I want to be very careful about this.”
Trask said that if businesses are considering moving into Piscataquis County “and we’re just wishy-washy, it doesn’t show we’re very pro-business.”
Ward disagreed. “I don’t think waiting a few weeks will make any difference,” he said.
Annis said that he supports the development, but he’d rather wait to see what the Waldo County commissioners do. “I’d hate to send a letter in supporting this and find out that Waldo County doesn’t,” Annis said. “If the dredging had to be done in Piscataquis County, I’d certainly support it. I’d take action on it right now.”
According to a Department of Environmental Protection fact sheet, the proposed navigation improvement would deepen the entrance to Mack Point — the second-busiest cargo port in the state — from 35 to 40 feet and widen the entrance channel from 500 to 650 feet. This would allow larger container ships to navigate easier. Approximately 929,000 cubic yards of material would be dredged for the project.
The town of Milo has already sent a letter endorsing the project to the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce. According to Town Manager Dave Maynard, the town is “currently involved in a very large economic development project that requires both rail from Milo to the port of Searsport, and loading onto a cargo ship for export to Europe. The corporation (unnamed so far) involved has formally selected the Milo Business Park as the site for its new plant, which would be a tremendous boon to our area economy.”
Maynard’s letter went on to say that “maintaining a proper depth in the harbor is essential to this project, and failure to do so could block the actual construction of this plant.”
The Penobscot County commissioners endorsed the dredging unanimously in a letter dated March 18. It read, in part, “The project will provide access to larger shipping vessels for the movement of Maine-made products overseas which can result in increased economic opportunities and sustainable employment for Maine citizens in many of our counties, but especially here in Penobscot.”
Opponents have said they are concerned that the dredging could have an adverse effect on the state’s fishing and lobster industries. Others question if the investment would actually bring more vessels to the port while some have asked the Army Corps of Engineers to do more research into the environmental and economic effects of the proposed dredging in the harbor.