Forest City land battle: David vs. Goliath?

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
HEARTH AND HOME — Jane Johnson relaxes in her home near the American port of entry into the United States. Holding her beloved dog, Sophie, in the sunroom she said government proposals to use stimulus money and take a large portion of her land for modernization of the port would change the area forever.
By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    FOREST CITY — Can a town of only eight year-round residents go up against the full force of  the United States government? Well, it can. But, the larger question is who wins the battle?
    Jane Johnson, a property owner for 34 years has almost four acres of pristine land on the Maine side of a port of entry into the United States that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is eyeing for expansion.
    While Johnson agrees on the need for border security, she said the plans of the Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of CBP to take part of her property are unnecessarily broad and will rob her of the peaceful existence she has enjoyed for so much of her life. She added that it will also change the character of the town.
    “It would change the village forever. There are people who come here from all over the country to experience the wilderness,” said Johnson about the area that is also home to the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust Conservation Center, just steps from her home.
Impact of change
    “One of the proposals is to take most of my land and make it into a government complex. Not my house. But they might as well if they do it,” said Johnson. “They want to pour $16.5 million into a two-story building with some apartments upstairs and put in two residences and some truck turnarounds. We are a very small community. There are many days when a car doesn’t come through here.” She added that in the summer the car traffic swells to as many as 30 vehicles.
    Johnson said there has been no financial offer. “Oh, no. They would take it by eminent domain.” Late last week government officials from Washington, D.C. and Boston met with Johnson. And, now she said they have discovered the “quaintness and beauty of our community, they may understand that doing something more in keeping with the area is in order like working with the existing building.”
    Last year, Johnson said she feared the project was to take all of her property. “They said it was over and done with. They were going to take the house, too. I think they realize now, this is not a possibility.” Johnson’s house is the first one on the American side of the border.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
PRISTINE PROPERTY — Jane Johnson points to the large trees, just 12 feet from her house,  that were on the original plans for the Army Corps of Engineers to expand the American port of entry. Johnson said she agrees that modernization is important but disagrees that there is a need to expand so far. With her is Bob Parker and her much-loved dog Mischa.
    Bob Parker has been a year-round resident for 11 years but traveled back and forth all his life. “My great-grandfather came here in 1902 and built the sporting camp where I live down by the dam. There is no industry, no growth and there is not going to be. If they take this property and make it a concrete jungle like they’re talking about, people who come here for the wilderness won’t come back. They come for the fishing because it’s a great fishing place and they come here because we are away from the concrete jungles.”
    He added that somebody in Washington probably looked at a flat map and said “let’s put this port in here.” A stream and a canal run across Johnson’s property which presents ecological, flooding, international, environmental and even archeological issues for any construction. A rare salmon also spawns in the waterways there. Johnson added that in Washington, “they thought the canal was just a green squiggly line on the map.” Now, she said, they realize it has depth, water and snow.
Stimulus money and deadlines
    Then there are financial issues that may have to be resolved. “I think it is stimulus money that has to be committed by September 30. We’ve heard everything from $8 million to $16.5 million. So, it’s somewhere in that range, ” stated Johnson.  
    Parker added, “we need a modern port — modernization that they require in this port’s building. We don’t need big truck turnarounds and impounds.” What about the bad guys? “The bad guys would walk across the stream, they’d get on a snowmobile, come across the lake. They are not going to come through a port of entry. This is as secure as any other port. There are Canadian guards on the other side. It’s just like any other port,” Parker explained.
    Johnson agreed that the facility needs more electronics for the new equipment since the building was  put up in the 1960s as well as a holding space for anyone they might arrest.
    Sen. Susan Collins has been in contact with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials. “I talked personally with Secretary Napolitano and I expressed the concerns of people who live in Forest City. During our conversation, Secretary Napolitano assured me that DHS would take another look and review the original plan to demolish and replace the Land Port of Entry in Forest City,” said Collins in a statement to the Pioneer Times.
    Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesperson for CBP, also gave a statement to the Pioneer Times saying, “if this project moves forward CBP will address an important national security need. The Forest City Land Port of Entry is more than 40 years old and has dilapidated infrastructure and outdated technology. By making critical upgrades to the port, we will meet essential post-9/11 security and operational standards while fulfilling the economic goals of the Recovery Act.”