MTA feeling the pressure from York

Members of the Board of Selectmen, including Kinley Gregg, Mike Estes and Dave Marshall, seen here, took part in an April 20 rally in support of the citizen group Think Again's efforts to save properties from a proposed Maine Turnpike Authority tollbooth expansion project.
Photo by Tori Rasche

Pictured here is the scene at the April 20 Think Again rally in the parking lot of Eldredge Lumber.
Photo by Tori Rasche

YORK - From a townwide rally to a meeting in Augusta with the Maine Turnpike Authority board, local residents are standing together in opposition to the MTA's toll relocation plan.

On Tuesday morning, April 29, about 50 local residents joined town and state officials at MTA headquarters to bring York's message to the MTA board of directors - that any plan to relocate the York Toll Plaza that takes homes or land from Maine residents is the wrong plan.

Indications after the meeting were that the message may be beginning to sink in.

"The most important result of the day, in my opinion, was that the authority's permitting process has definitely been pushed back three months from starting the first week of May to starting no earlier than the first part of August," said Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York. "In fact, (MTA) Board Member Harland Goodwin, a South Berwick resident who chairs the board's planning subcommittee, stated that he did not want to lock into a start date even in early August because the data gathered over the next few months might require further  consideration."

Following the meeting, Rep. Windol Weaver, R-York, said the MTA board seemed to be carefully listening to the Board of Selectmen as well as to the local residents who presented information about the problems with the MTA plan.

Hill had a similar perspective, stating, "It is clear to me that the authority's board members were lacking insight to the situation and that hearing more and different facts directly from the York Board of Selectmen and several York residents cast the project in a new light. ... I was proud of the York turnout and how professionally York residents and officials handled the sometimes testy moments. Clearly the MTA board had to see them as smart, well organized, informed and in for the long haul."

Weaver, too, said local residents spoke eloquently of the impact the proposed relocation sites would have on the lives of local people as well as on the town's water supply, open spaces and endangered wildlife.

During the evening prior to the hearing, the Board of Selectmen discussed the toll plaza issue at length and agreed to place a nonbinding referendum question on the May ballot asking residents to weigh in on the MTA plan.

Former Selectman Torbert Macdonald, who attended the selectmen's April 28 meeting, described the MTA as a "juggernaut" that can only be stopped by a ruling in the court of public opinion.

Macdonald said he hopes residents will take the time to vote against the MTA plan on May 17.

"I don't see how your conscience could be with the Turnpike Authority," he said, adding it is difficult not to have a cynical perspective when it comes to the quasi-governmental agency.

Macdonald said he spent a good portion of the day on April 28 with residents and MTA officials in the area of Chase's Pond, Greenleaf Parsons and North Village roads, where proposed sites for the new tollbooth are located. MTA officials had come to town to view the homes, wetlands, open spaces and infrastructure that could be impacted by the toll plaza move.

"They seemed to be perfunctory... They were not looking for anything new," Macdonald said of MTA officials, but added that they got something new anyway: the location of a large egg mass for an endangered species of salamander at the 8.7 mile site - a site one MTA official had referred to as preferable as it was not expected to require the actual removal of a home, although the project would come within feet of a residence, Macdonald said.

At that same meeting, Board of Selectmen Chairman Mike Estes brought up the idea of using any town of York budget funds left over at the end of the current fiscal year to establish a legal fund to continue the fight against the proposal, and while any carry-forward amounts will not be known until July, the board's consensus was to do just that.

Earlier, on April 20, hundreds of locals turned out at Eldredge Lumber in York to show their support at a rally sponsored by the group Think Again where residents and officials alike voiced their opposition to the MTA plan.

Standing on the bed of a pickup truck to address the crowd, one speaker after another discussed the fundamental issues at stake and warned the MTA to understand that York is united in protecting its homes and family lands.

Weaver spoke in a clearly heartfelt manner about how proud he is to be a part of York as he watched his town respond, and spoke directly to the MTA as well.

"We will not accept the loss of one home in York," he said.

State Sen. Peter Bowman, D-Kittery, later led the crowd in chants of "Think again!" in response to his assertions that the MTA thought they could give the citizens of York a "dog and pony show" in which the town was "just going to roll over."

Cathy Goodwin, executive director of the Greater Yorks Chamber of Commerce stated that the chamber stands in solidarity with everyone whose homes are threatened, and said that the chamber is in support of a complete reevaluation of the toll concept, questioning openly why the "open barrier" system utilized in northern Maine could not be applied here.

Hill spoke as well, telling the crowd that their letters and the heavy media coverage are having an effect. She added that her office is working on a specific effort, which she had expected to make public in the coming week.

Estes said flatly that the Board of Selectmen will not support any plan that moves the toll plaza from its present location.

Chuck Ott, a candidate for the Board of Selectmen, warned the MTA that their behavior has awakened a sleeping giant in the form of aroused citizens willing to "fight the good fight."