Sears Island session May 30

Peter Taber/The Waldo Independent – May 25, 2006

Consensus will be the operating principle when individuals representing a full spectrum of interests with respect to the future of Sears Island gather next Tuesday morning in Searsport. The public gathering will mark the first regular meeting of a process set in motion last year by Gov. John Baldacci, who is seeking recommendations for a grand plan that ideally would bring decades of controversy over the island to an end.

Whether consensus is possible is questionable in the minds of many of those committed to keeping Sears Island what it is, the largest publicly owned island on the East Coast that remains wild and undeveloped yet easily accessible to the average person. They see the island as unique, precious-a closed system with almost virginal qualities about it that allow little if any room for the compromises they believe their opponents would demand.

Those, on the other hand, interested in seeing the island used for an expanded port of Searsport, perhaps with other related industrial components thrown in, are likely to be more open to compromise. Indeed, for at least the past decade this group of heavy industry representatives and their allies in state government have urged that much of the island remain wild as a buffer around a concentrated zone of industrial development.

The state has long promoted a variety of industrial schemes for the island ranging from a nuclear power plant in the 1960s to, just three years ago, a terminal and regasification plant for liquified natural gas (LNG). Although no more such schemes have apparently emerged and state officials insist they have nothing in mind, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) has been particularly aggressive in its insistence upon reserving indefinitely some 280 acres that includes much of the island's western shore-site of a cargo port project abandoned in 1996 after a $22 million investment of public money.

Jonathan Reitman, the Brunswick attorney chosen to be facilitator for the state-sponsored planning process, defines consensus as an agreement in which “everyone in the group considers the best possible mutually acceptable agreement and everyone agrees to support [it].” Among the positive aspects the veteran professional mediator cites for a consensus process are there are no losers and no individuals are forced to agree to something that conflicts with their fundamental concerns. Reitman also says the nature of the consensus process leads to more creative solutions, it encourages candor and it helps equalize power imbalances. Further, he says, a consensus process is likely to be more workable, more implementable and more efficient.

Karin Tilberg, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Conservation, who is in overall charge of running the planning process ahead, is sanguine about the possibilities for consensus. While acknowledging it might seem there's little room for agreement among such diverse parties over such a long and bitterly contested issue, she says she's seen it work before.

“I've learned that solutions can emerge that no one anticipated,” she said. “We'll see what happens.”

Tilberg was brought into the process by the governor in December after there was widespread objection to a DOT official having that role.

ext week's public gathering at the Searsport Congregational Church vestry building will see the core of a steering committee seated. Sixteen of the 17 members of the committee as it stands at present were invited by state officials to a scoping session Jan. 23 in Augusta. The committee's role will be to work for consensus on a report of recommendations for Sears Island that would go not only to the governor and to the town of Searsport but, perhaps most important, to the Legislature.

Last year at this time, four Republican lawmakers from southern Maine who were trying to force industrialization and commercialization of Sears Island saw their effort backfire. The alternative legislation that emerged in response to strong protests from the public actually took away the DOT's former powers to decide unilaterally what might be done with the island. Ultimate decisions regarding any substantial change in the island's status including its ownership and what might be done with it were instead entrusted to the Legislature.

Among the members of the steering committee as it's now constituted are DOT Commissioner David Cole; Jeffrey Sosnaud, deputy commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development; Alan Stearns, a policy advisor to the governor and Martha Freeman, director of the State Planning Office.

Other committee members include transportation industry lobbyist John Melrose, who was DOT commissioner under Gov. Angus King at the time the Sears Island cargo port project was abandoned; Jonathan Daniels, a former port executive in New Orleans who succeeded Cole as president of Eastern Maine Development Corp.; and David Gelinas, a Penobscot Bay ship's pilot with a long history of lobbying for industrialization of Sears Island.

The town of Searsport is represented by its manager, James Gillway, and by two members of the Sears Island Alternative Uses Committee, an ad hoc group appointed by the selectmen at Cole's request after the commissioner met with them in closed session. This followed immediately after the town's comprehensive planning committee as part of its land use planning duties conducted a poll showing overwhelming support for low-impact recreational uses for the island.

Other members include representatives of the Maine chapter of the Sierra Club, Islesboro Islands Trust and the grassroots group Protect Sears Island. The Penobscot Nation is represented by Tim Love, who last year tried to make a deal with the DOT to acquire 25 acres of the island for development.

The present committee has no representatives of small business, tourism or the creative economy. Besides Searsport, no communities in Penobscot Bay are represented. Fishermen's interests are unrepresented as is the academic community. And many who favor land conservation but don't particularly identify with the three environmental groups on the committee also want a seat at the table. These include Fair Play for Sears Island which points out at its website that the island was acquired with public funds and belongs to all the people of Maine. The group says it speaks for the three out of four Maine voters who have consistently supported some $97 million in funding over the years in support of the Land for Maine's Future program.

Tuesday, Tilberg said the existing steering committee should be regarded as merely “a starting point-I think the door is certainly open to additions.”

According to an announcement from the Department of Conservation issued Tuesday to interested parties, the department has received formal requests from four organizations to be included. They will send representatives to the initial meeting. They are Fair Play for Sears Island (Harlan McLaughlin), the Waldo County Commissioners (John Hyk, commissioner chairman), Coastal Mountains Land Trust (Scott Dickerson), and Penobscot Bay Alliance (Susan Bartovics).

In addition, 21 individuals or parties “have indicated a strong interest in being involved or...have written letters of interest.”

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Sears Island session May 30

Peter Taber/The Waldo Independent – May 25, 2006

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