July 4, 2016
This can be the beginning. Protest with Blue Collar pride.I'm ready. Six years of local protest and City Hall intimidation has me mad as hell. Let's Roll.
Stop the taking. Blue Collars Boycotting is Apple Pie. Come on Penobscot McCrum workers, bring on the pie. I'll take a piece of that. Email me- laurieallen55@msn.com. There is no doubt that this taking will be the beginning of the end Full 6/21/2016 Belfast City Council meeting link http://belfastme.swagit.com/play/06222016-896/#2
Stop the taking. Blue Collars Boycotting is Apple Pie. Come on Penobscot McCrum workers, bring on the pie. I'll take a piece of that. Email me- laurieallen55@msn.com. There is no doubt that this taking will be the beginning of the end Full 6/21/2016 Belfast City Council meeting link http://belfastme.swagit.com/play/06222016-896/#2
Short Clip With City Council Neal Harkness showing troll I mean true colors. Snarky comment stating Council hasn't voted to take... yet. They will. For City Wall and Eminent Domain. Setting precedence to take, foot by foot, by corrupt foots. The first cut is the deepest and opens the way.
https://youtu.be/S9ctQ7LataA
https://youtu.be/S9ctQ7LataA
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Blue Collars Wanted!! Boycott Belfast !!!
Stop the taking. Blue Collars Boycotting is Apple Pie. Come on Penobscot McCrum workers, bring on the pie. I'll take a piece of that. Email me- laurieallen55@msn.com. There is no doubt that this taking will be the beginning of the end.
http://waldo.villagesoup.com/p/eminent-domain-is-bad-no-matter-who-employs-it/1541269
Conservative to the Core
Eminent domain is bad no matter who employs it
By Tom Seymour | Jul 01, 2016
Oh, that terrible Donald Trump. Those in opposition to the flamboyant, presumptive GOP presidential nominee often cite Trump’s taking by eminent domain of a private property in New York to accommodate traffic for one of his new buildings. Democrats and liberals have made it plain that they in no way approve of the use of eminent domain. I’ve got news for those folks. Republicans and conservatives don’t like eminent domain either. We’re just not as vocal in our denunciations.
And may I suggest that some of those same people who verbally flay Trump over eminent domain appear not to mind the practice at all when it comes to their own local wants and needs. Specifically, I’m talking about the city of Belfast, invoking eminent domain to link two sections of a new walking trail.
Unfortunately, the land the city wants and will take (steal) by force if necessary, sits in front of the Penobscot McCrum potato processing plant. According to Jay McCrum, the land in question is very near the company’s ammonia tanks, a clear danger to walkers. But the Belfast people want this land so badly that they appear willing to exchange safety for convenience.
On the face of it, this seems pretty cut-and-dried. But as with most controversies, there’s more to this story. Let’s look at some historical events.
Industry evil
It began some time ago, when visitors complained that the effluent from the city’s two poultry processing plants (McCrum’s place was once Maplewood Poultry) was making the shiny hulls of their sailboats all sticky and yucky. Those of us who used the harbor and kept fishing boats there had no complaints. But a new personality was seeping into the Belfast consciousness, a personality that wanted to see the city made “clean” again.
Well, they got their way. The poultry industry was vilified and demonized, not to mention taxed and fined, to the point where the owners were forced to shutter their doors. Never mind the hundreds of blue-collar workers who worked for the poultry industry. This included not only workers inside the plants, but also truckers, raisers, salesmen and a host of others. It was big business and it was good for the local economy.
So with the poultry industry now kaput, the civic-minded people of Belfast turned their sights to the remaining industries. Belfast once had two shoe factories. Both had no choice but to go out of business, leaving more of those dirty, sweaty blue-collar workers out in the cold.
One of the last to go was Stinson Canning, or, as older Belfast residents termed it, “The Sardine.” Yes, some tiny bits of fish were vented into the harbor, a terrible situation (no, not really…it didn’t hurt a thing). On the other hand, because of this, Belfast had some of the best saltwater fishing on the Maine coast. People from miles away came here to take advantage of the sporting opportunities. But the die was cast and Stinson is no more. And, again, the people who worked in the sardine industry suddenly found themselves looking for work elsewhere. Many moved away from Belfast to find employment. That didn’t seem to bother the city fathers at all.
The above-mentioned industries were not forced out all at once, but by means of constant nit-picking. The end results were always the same. Industry was bad, in fact evil, and Belfast no longer wanted it. I’m talking specifically about agricultural and natural resource-based industry. Belfast welcomes new industries, as long as they are chic and don’t offend the sensibilities of the new gentry.
So who, after looking at what has happened in the past, can doubt that the writing is on the wall regarding the city’s one remaining agriculture-based industry? Once the collective liberal mind sets its sights on any such industry, that industry is ultimately doomed. So mark my words. Eventually, Penobscot McCrum will follow the long line of demonized industries and shut its doors forever.
The city will probably gain all of the Penobscot McCrum land, not just the narrow strip needed to complete its trail. Perhaps it can be made into a nice park, or some other badly (not) needed attraction.
And what of the people who will lose their livelihoods with the passing of the potato factory? Well, I can safely say that Belfast will shed few tears over the demise of the factory and those stinky, Republican-voting blue-collar workers.
Finally, I know, without a doubt, that my opinion will irritate some people. But it’s not just opinion. It’s fact. Try to make facts go away and they, the pernicious little rascals, just keep on trucking. Nasty things, facts are.
Frustrated Belfast council proceeds with eminent domain to cross McCrum land
Posted July 20, 2016, at 5:30 p.m.
BELFAST, Maine — The city took a major step Tuesday night down the road toward using eminent domain to purchase a controversial recreation easement across land owned by Penobscot McCrum.
Belfast city councilors unanimously voted at the regular council meeting to adopt a resolution and order that the city acquire the easement by eminent domain and that the city manager and city attorney take the necessary steps to prepare a so-called “certificate of taking,” which they will be asked to approve at the next regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 2. Until then, there is still time to negotiate a deal with the company.
Before adopting the resolution, councilors used occasionally strong language to describe their frustration with Penobscot McCrum, a frozen potato processing plant located on the banks of the Passagassawakeag River. City officials said again at the meeting that they have been trying for years to negotiate with owner Jay McCrum to find a way to cross the 700-foot-long strip of land and connect the new 2.3-mile rail trail with the Belfast Harbor Walk and downtown.
“We were determined to enter good faith discussions to find a safe, accessible way to get through the property,” City Councilor Mike Hurley said Tuesday night. “Eminent domain, to me, was a last resort.”
City Attorney Kristin Collins said that she has made numerous attempts to speak to the company’s attorney, Ed Bearor of Bangor, by telephone and email, ever since a July 6 meeting between the two parties. Although McCrum has said publicly that safety is his big concern with the recreation easement, the city has received no response to its proposals to put up fences and lighting, according to the attorney. Until Tuesday morning, when Bearor sent an email to Collins about land value, the town had received no response at all.
“We plainly recognize from our discussions and from the council’s actions, that the city is determined to use its eminent domain power to take our land and that we are only left to argue about its value,” Bearor wrote in the email. “As I’m sure the city is aware, we paid $400,000 for essentially the same strip of land it wants to take now for only $55,000. We determined that $400,000 was a price worth paying in order to provide the company with adequate space for safe and efficient operations and avoid the intrusions of third parties in our work areas. The exact things that will result from the planned trail through our property.”
Collins told councilors that she believes the email acknowledges the “lawfulness and rightfulness” of using eminent domain to purchase the easement, and that the value of the recreation easement is the only thing left to be argued. In the resolution, the city notes that at the June 21 public hearing on the matter,members of the public who spoke were “overwhelmingly in favor” of pursuing eminent domain if negotiations proved unsuccessful.
Councilor Mary Mortier did not mince words when she described the process of reaching out time and again to the company but hearing nothing back.
“This is nonsense. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it takes two to have a negotiation,” she said. “This is ridiculous. Ridiculous and absurd.”
Councilor Neal Harkness said that he also is dismayed by what has happened.
“We’re not trying to take anything,” he said, adding that the city will not own the land, just the right to cross it. “This is no different than any homeowner in the city with a sidewalk in front of their house.”
Eminent domain again on Belfast City Council agenda
http://bangordailynews.com/2016/07/18/news/midcoast/eminent-domain-again-on-belfast-city-council-agenda/
Posted July 18, 2016, at 6:29 p.m
BELFAST, Maine — Citing a communications breakdown with the Penobscot McCrum potato processing plant, Belfast officials said they will discuss — and possibly decide — this week whether to go ahead and use eminent domain to get a recreation easement across the company’s waterfront land.
“All I can say is that I left numerous email and phone messages in the last week with the [company’s attorney],” Kristin Collins, Belfast attorney, said Monday afternoon. “I don’t want to construe any lack of communication as deliberate. When it’s between attorneys, you never know. People could just be busy. But the problem is we need to move forward.”
However, on Monday afternoon, owner Jay McCrum said the city’s decision to proceed this week surprised him.
“I thought we had great discussions,” he said, adding that the company has its own appraiser working to put a value on the 10-foot-wide strip of land. “We told the city we were going to get back with them with an appraisal as soon as we can.There’s no lack of communication whatsoever. It’s 100 percent open dialogue.”
The recreation easement the city wants would provide pedestrian, bicycle and emergency access to Belfast’s new rail trail across a 700-foot-long strip of land owned by Penobscot McCrum. After a public hearing on July 5 about the city’s controversial proposal to take the easement by eminent domain, Belfast city councilors and McCrum indicated they would continue searching for a resolution. But City Manager Joe Slocum wrote in his manager’s report late last week that negotiations apparently have stalled after a positive meeting on July 6.
“Unfortunately there was no further communication from Penobscot McCrum,” Slocum wrote. “The easement … does not interfere with Penobscot McCrum’s ability to operate or take full advantage of its waterfront resources.”
The council will take the matter up again at its regular meeting on Tuesday, July 19.
McCrum said that the city has yet to answer satisfactorily what happens if a pedestrian or cyclist goes off the walkway and is “injured, maimed or even killed” on company land.
“We thought we’d get something from the city. Some type of structure. When would it be open? How would it be managed?” he said. “What responsibility would the city take in that situation, being that they invited them on the walkway? It was made clear that the city takes no responsibility whatsoever.”
Collins said that the issue was raised when the two parties met earlier in July.
“But if it is a point of concern, it has not been mentioned since then,” she said.
McCrum said he would not attend the July 19 regular council meeting because he is going to be out of town.
Collins said that the city has made sure to let the company and its attorney know that the matter is on the agenda.
“In the messages I’ve left with his attorney I’ve made it clear that this is happening tomorrow night,” she said. “There is awareness that this issue would be on the agenda coming up for several weeks until it’s resolved.”
No comments:
Post a Comment