Guest Column

Citizens still concerned about East-West Corridor

By Lesley Fernow

    Concerned citizens are meeting regularly and building support for a community rights ordinance in Dover-Foxcroft opposing the construction of the East West Corridor.
    While many residents have voiced that the project is “dead” because they have not been hearing about it in the media, this citizen group is certain that the project is alive and well and urges Dover-Foxcroft residents to get involved. Their motto is “Who Decides? We Do.”

    They point out that not only did Andy Vigue, the son of Peter Vigue and new standard-bearer for Cianbro Corporation’s project, state  in June that Cianbro was ìin the final stages of preliminary developmentî for the project, but Peter Vigue and Darryl Brown continue to state, “It’s going to happen.”
    Gov. (Paul) LePage touts the importance of northern Maine as a byway for international products to reach the central U.S. and has emphasized his relationship with development-hungry Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the positioning of Maine to benefit from Canadian investment.
    Furthermore, development efforts are continuing for other projects along the proposed route which leads people to “connect the dots” and feel confident that a corridor is still in the works, albeit quietly.
    This silent strategy is, the group believes, deliberately intended create false comfort and perhaps to quiet the opposition. 
    Meanwhile, witnessing the EPA permit given in Plymouth for a sludge enterprise that is fouling the air and damaging the environment draws attention to the failure of the permitting process and regulatory agencies to truly protect communities. Unfortunately, residents there trusted that the regulators would see that the business would harm their environment.
    As we learned in the CELDF-taught Democracy School, regulatory agencies are in business to assist corporate entities in obtaining permits, and only limit how much damage is allowed. The EPA decided the odor and environmental risk were not ìbad enoughî to prohibit the sludge business.     
    Time is passing while behind the scenes Cianbro’s international corporate partners are buying land for an East-West Corridor.
    While this may please some, for others in central Maine including the Penobscot Nation whose heritage is inextricably woven with the natural environment, farmers and many individuals who came to Maine because of its nature, water and air, this is a potential life-changing and world-changing catastrophe. 
    We ask anyone concerned about the East West Corridor development to act on what the Maine State Constitution proclaims is our “inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or totally change government” and to  join us in writing a local community rights ordinance that will protect us.
    Attend our next meeting on Sunday, Sep. 28 from 3-5 p.m. at the Morton Avenue Community room (town office building).
    If you are from another town in the potential path of the corridor, organize your community to draft an ordinance. Help us to practice true representative democracy.
    If you live elsewhere in Maine, take heed. You are not immune from the corporate land-grab.  Watch Nestle take Maine’s water or witness oil pipeline, mining and wind farm development.
    Finally, if you want to learn more, consider signing up for a fall Democracy School so you can find out how to assert your rights as a citizen.
    For more information, call 992-6822.