By Theron Larkins
Special to The Star-Herald
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Maine Department of Transportation held a public meeting Thursday night to discuss the bypass the state will be building to carry traffic around downtown Presque Isle. Representatives of the DOT, including Project Manager Paul MacDonald and Assistant Project Manager Rhobe Moulton, were both in attendance to explain the process the state will be going through in the next 10 years to build the bypass. Members of Right-of-Way, Steve Michaud and Robin Brisebois, as well as Todd Pelletier from the Property Office were also there to help answer any questions posed by those who are poised to lose their property to eminent domain.
Whenever a situation like this arises in a community there is going to be controversy and there will inevitably be people who feel they have fallen victim to eminent domain. This feeling of helplessness and disappointment was certainly evident at the Dec. 19 meeting at the Presque Isle Inn and Convention Center.
Staff with the state’s Property Office has yet to determine all properties that will be impacted by the bypass, but they’re doing their best to address property owners in a timely fashion.
“We don’t have all the impacts. As we get closer to having all the impacts we can choose to address those acquisitions,” said Property Office representative Pelletier.
However, local residents didn’t seem at all pleased with the communication or lack thereof that they felt they were receiving. Many attendees seemed to be disgruntled with the fact that the process has been going on for 12 years now, but property owners anticipating having to sell their land are upset at the slow pace in which these acquisitions are being conducted. Many were disturbed at the fact their land was worth much more 10 years ago, when they were first approached about the bypass, compared to today’s market value.
Unfortunately, the early process, which has already spanned over a decade, is well under way and the funding has been allocated. “This process has been going on for 12 years. A public advisory committee met monthly, and there were multiple public meetings for citizens,” said Pelletier. “MDOT is not pushing the project. The extension of the interstate just wasn’t going to happen. The cities wanted this.”
The community members at the most recent hearing seemed unanimous in their opinion that a bypass is necessary for Presque Isle but not as currently designed by DOT. The issue of trucks driving through the narrow Main Street of Presque Isle is something that most agree needs to be dealt with. The DOT claims a number of different reasons for the bypass including: to improve mobility by reducing travel time for through trips on U.S. Route 1, improved public safety by reducing vehicular conflicts in town, reducing unsafe speed differentials along Route 1 and to provide better access to the east side of Presque Isle, particularly the Easton industrial area.
“This isn’t something we dreamt up,” said Pelletier. “It’s in relation to local interest.”
The bypass will likely have many benefits beyond even those previously mentioned, yet community members still feel the bypass is too long and involves too much property. The first section of the bypass will start on Route 1 near the Westfield town line and will end on the Conant Road. Some community members feel this makes the bypass too long, therefore taking land from people who wouldn’t necessarily need to give up their land, had the bypass been started a few miles closer to Presque Isle.
“We don’t want another road from nowhere to nowhere,” said local farmer and owner of Stewart’s Vegetable Farm, Dan Stewart. “It just disrupts a lot of lives. The bypass could be started three miles from town instead of seven miles and a lot less people would be affected.”
Brad Foley of the Highway Program explained why things were too far along to look back now.
“Of all the alternatives this was the permissible one and the least environmentally damaging,” explained Foley. “A lot has to do with environmental zoning. We went through the EPA process and it’s the one that can be permitted.”
The building of the bypass will take place in three phases. The first phase will be the construction of segment two, which is from the Conant Road to Fort Fairfield Road. This phase has already been approved for funding and will begin construction in 2015. The second phase will be the building of segment one, from the Westfield town line to Conant Road. The second phase, depending on funding, will begin in 2018. The last phase will again be dependent on funding, but as long as the funding secured, construction of segment three will begin in 2022. Segment three will be from Fort Fairfield Road across the Aroostook River to Route 1, just north of Presque Isle’s urban zone.
The next public meeting to discuss phase one of the Presque Isle bypass project will take place sometime in the spring or summer of 2014.
