09/30/2008
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Staff photo by Andy Molloyfrom the Kennebec Journal
BUDGET CUTS ORDERED
Many happy returns in Richmond
Tax woes land on Whitefield
Rapist denied new trial
AUGUSTA MINDING A MINE
SPORT OF KINGS Falconry a blend of dedication and commitment
COLLEGE HOCKEY: Maine rallies but falls short against Boston College
COLLEGE ROUNDUP: Colby women win season opener at home tournament
All of today's:
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from the Morning Sentinel
WEDDING BURGLAR JAILED
Youths talk Turkey Day
Plenty of free Thanksgiving meals available
Turkey prices make for happier holiday
Kennebec County Superior Court
POLICE
COLLEGE HOCKEY: Maine rallies but falls short against Boston College
COLLEGE ROUNDUP: Colby women win season opener at home tournament
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
The protesters, all women from central Maine, entered the Land Use Regulation Commission office building, locked themselves together with large U-shaped locks generally used to secure bikes, and refused to leave as part of a protest against LURC's favorable review of a development plan for the Moosehead Lake region.
Dozens of Maine State Police and numerous other police responded to the scene, joining about a dozen Earth First! protesters outside the building, on the former grounds of Augusta Mental Health Institute.
The building was locked down for most of the day in response to the protesters.
Last week, LURC approved its own staff's recommendation to approve Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Co.'s modified development plans, and rezone a large tract of land on and near Moosehead Lake for development of nearly 1,000 house lots and two large resorts.
In protest of that ruling, protesters sang songs, chanted and blew a horn while locked together in a hallway of LURC's Augusta headquarters on Monday.
The four who were locked together were joined by several other protesters inside the office. All but the four left when told by police they would be arrested if they didn't.
"We're staying here until (LURC staff) give us an explanation to justify their actions," Megan Gilmartin, one of the four women locked together, said by cell phone from the LURC office.
The protest, which lasted from just before 11:30 a.m. until approximately 4 p.m. -- and the large police response to it -- disrupted work in the LURC building but also, it appeared, in the many other surrounding state offices, where several workers watched the goings-on from their windows.
"They're chanting and blowing horns and pounding on the walls and floors," said Jeanne Curran, public information representative for the state Department of Conservation. "It's very disruptive and it was frightening to staff. Part of the concern is the violence over Plum Creek. That's part of why the staff is concerned.
"Some of them came in carrying bags. We didn't know what was in those."
Curran, who said Monday was her first day in her new job, referred to a rash of vandalism incidents in 2005 in which vandals broke windows, wrote nasty messages and left animal carcasses at offices and homes of Plum Creek workers.
At one point Monday, Department of Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan had a heated exchange with a protester in which McGowan accused a protester of saying he knew where McGowan lived; the protester denied saying that.
"You better not show up at my home!" a red-faced McGowan shouted at protesters outside the main entrance to the building.
He moved inside at the urging of state police troopers.
Curran said LURC officials, at the beginning of Monday's protest, offered to meet with an Earth First! representative to discuss their concerns today.
Protesters declined the offer.
Logan Perkins, of Vassalboro, a protester who remained outside the building, said Earth First! wanted to be able to talk to LURC staff about their Plum Creek decisions in public, not in a private meeting.
Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said the four protesters who were arrested were charged with trespassing.
Each refused to walk, and so was removed from the building on a stretcher. Then they were put into the backs of two waiting Kennebec Sheriff's Office vans as police tried to block the view of their removal from other protesters, who shouted and cheered.
Loud banging noises could be heard coming from one of the vans as it left, as the protesters were apparently banging on the inside of it.
A locksmith from Burt's Security Center freed the prostesters from the locks. McCausland said the protesters had to be cut out of the locks.
McCausland said they refused to give their names to police. However, Perkins identified the locked-together protesters as: Gilmartin, Emily Paine, Megan Wilson and Kyla Hersey-Wilson. Perkins said all live in central Maine.
Maine Earth First! has been critical of the Plum Creek plan from the beginning, but this is the first time people from the group have committed civil disobedience to express their concerns, they said.
"We felt our voices weren't being heard," said Ryan Clark, of Sangerville, one of the protesters who entered the building but left without being arrested.
Clark said LURC received 1,700 pieces of correspondence opposed to the Plum Creek development, and only six in favor. "We want (LURC staff) to explain their support of the development plan for Lily Bay," he said.
Hundreds testified during public hearings last winter, both for and against the Plum Creek proposal. Proponents said it will bring much-needed economic development to the region.
Plum Creek's proposal for more than 400 housing units -- including a 250-accommodation resort -- near Lily Bay State Park has been especially controversial. The Lily Bay area is considered habitat area for Canada lynx, a species classified as threatened by the federal government.
The Plum Creek proposal also includes a package of conservation deals that will guarantee public access and commercial forestry on approximately 400,000 acres in the region.
LURC meets Wednesday in Bangor to finalize and vote on amendments to the Plum Creek plan.
Keith Edwards -- 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
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