Todays edition of Bangor Daily News. Page B3 "Millinocket Annex Issues"

I would post it but again I can't find the story on the BDN website.

PS- DBLACKS dont read this post

LOL on the Dblacks comment! :beerchug:

http://www.bangordailynews.com/news/t/peno...&zoneid=183

can i not read or did i not see polstein even mentioned? not that i am defending that prick !!! lets all pitch in and buy it.... :smilielol:

Im in :beerchug: :div20:

They have approx. 800 donations and they've raised over 12 million dollars. I would say there are definitely some fat cats involved in this whole deal and not your average Mainer.

This is not Polestein. This is Roxanne Quimby behind this whole deal. I am praying that they don't come up with the money and this deal goes away. Being from and living in Millinocket this would not be a good thing for the outdoors enthusist. I wish that the state would stop these large land purchases. There is noway that one person should beable to buy a complete township and close off recreational access to land that has been used for this purpose forever.

The Associated Press
BANGOR
A Millinocket man who wants to develop a $65 million ecotourism resort in the shadow of Mount Katahdin has
filed his proposal with the Land Use Regulation Commission. Matthew Polstein, who
owns a restaurant and whitewater tour guide business, has been working for three years on the project that
includes a community center, campground and a residential and mixed-use subdivision on 1,450'acres along
Millinocket Lake and Hammond Ridge. "This project has statewide implications because it offers a type of development that is very sensitive to balancing resource use, logically, on the fringe of the northern forest," Polstein said. "If you look at the debate over Plum Creek, that is a concern for many people in the state of Maine. This offers one model of how this can be done." LURC is reviewing Plum Creek Timber Co.'s rezoning
request for a much larger development proposal in the Moosehead Lake region. The development, dubbed
Ktaadn Resorts, would generate at least 60,000visitor days in the Katahdin region or draw 17,000 tourists to his resort for about 3 1/2 days each, Polstein said. "We are confident that as we bring more people to the area, that more people will be interested in staying and finding a way to have their own economic opportunity here," Polstein said. Once LURCfinds that the zone-change application for Polstein's project is complete, there will be a review period of up to six months by the commission staff. There's no requirement
that the staff conduct a public hearing, but officials say. A hearing will be held if the
public requests one.

this has absolutely NOTHING to do with either roxanne or polstein, this is the STATE of Maine trying to buy it for a public land trust, read the dam article. it state right in there that it is a deal brokered by the state for several yrs now and if successful it will remain open to snowmobiling and hunting. some of you guys need to actually read some of this stuff before you just blindly fling accusations at people just cause you dont like them.






Backers of a plan to annex land surrounding Katahdin Lake to Baxter State Park are still about $1.8 million short of their $14 million goal as the campaign enters the final two-week stretch, state officials announced Thursday.
Fundraisers had collected $11.2 million in cash or pledges as of Thursday in their effort to purchase 6,015 acres around Katahdin Lake for the state. The Elmina B. Sewall Foundation has pledged an additional $1 million should the campaign reach the $13 million mark.

That means fundraisers have just 15 days to close the $1.8 million gap or risk losing a deal that Maine officials have championed as a "once-in-a-lifetime" land conservation opportunity.

Campaign leaders, who were forced to negotiate a deadline extension after encountering stiff political opposition to the deal, remained upbeat about raising the money before the Dec. 15 deadline.

"We are rapidly closing in on our target and picking up momentum every day," Sam Hodder, project manager for The Trust for Public Land, said in a statement.

It’s safe to say that the Katahdin Lake campaign has not gone as smoothly as supporters originally anticipated.

State officials announced the lake campaign amid considerable fanfare last January during a ceremony in the State House. Standing near a bust of the late Gov. Percival Baxter, Gov. John Baldacci and others said the deal would complete Baxter’s vision of protecting the remote lake with unrivaled views of Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak.

The deal took several years to negotiate and involved essentially swapping 21,000 acres of prime timberland — including about 7,000 acres of public lots — to Lincoln-based Gardner Land Co. in return for the lake parcel.

But sporting groups and some rural legislators initially opposed the annexation, which would have closed off all the land to hunting and snowmobiling. Others criticized the state’s willingness to sell for likely harvest public lots that had been well-managed for decades.

After weeks of meetings, lawmakers brokered a compromise that adds 4,040 acres surrounding Katahdin Lake to Baxter. The remaining 1,975 acres would become part of the Bureau of Parks and Lands’ holdings and remain open to hunting and snowmobiling.
But the political wrangling delayed fundraising efforts and forced The Trust for Public Land, which negotiated the deal with the Gardners on the state’s behalf, to seek an extension of the original July 1 deadline. A representative of the Gardner family hinted in late October that the family is not interested in another extension.

"I think it delayed it … because there was a level of uncertainty around some points," said Jim Crocker, spokesman for the Department of Conservation. "How much did it affect [fundraising], I don’t know."

Crocker said that Hodder, Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan, and former Baxter park director Buzz Caverly were still bringing potential donors into the site as of last week.

Nearly 800 private individuals or groups have donated or pledged money to the campaign so far.

Reader Comments
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Joseph Talisker, Lincoln, ME, - 12/01/06

So, out of over 6,000 acres Plostein and Quimby get what they want on over 4,000 acres of it and the rest of us Mainers that enjoy less than "green" recreation get less than 2,000 acres. And that was after we fought for it. Make no mistake, this has much more to do with the Polsteins and Quimbys than you might think. How much do you figure just those two individuals donated to this cause? The state knew that there were big money folks that wanted this deal to happen, so they went with it as the lesser of two evils in order to stop possible development around the lake. That leaves Quimby with more land, even though it isn't actually hers, closed off to us snowmobiliers, hunters, and fishermen and Polstein with the only developed lodging in the area.

Matt Polstein does rent snowmobiles and is the grooming contractor for Millinocket. I believe he owns 3 or 4 BR400 and one BR160

And his new $65 million complex is to benefit who? The greenie tree huggers, that's who. They're only just getting their foot in the door.





He gets paid to groom :banghead:

am i wrong here? i thought if the "trust for public land" didnt get up all the money then quimby was buying it to complete her little quimby national park she is trying to form?

and polstein ... ya sure, he wants to build that resort to benefit the state.... :banghead:

One of the problems was maybe still will be is that of the 6000 acres that they are purposing to buy 4000 acres will be closed off to recreational use as we know it today on that land. It will not be completely closed but no more sledding, hunting, ect.. The other 2000 acres will be open to tradional use. BUT the land surrounding the 2000 acres of what would be tradional use land is owned by Ms. Quimby so our access to this land has the potential to be closed off...... The State said that they would grant an easement and build a road through to access the 2000 acres if needed. As for the resort yes he is in the tourism business but most of the money and business comes in the way of snowmobiling.

It doesn't have to say Polstein or Quimby, it just has to say land deal and any where in that area and it's a given on WHO, WHAT, and WHY!!!!

Just like two big rats trying to get all the cheese!!!


On a truly funny note, it seems Ms. Quimby has spent a few thousand dollars to run signs the length of her property up here posting it from all of us and put up some really fancy signs at the end of her road to let us outdoor sports enthusiast know we are not invited in her private world. Damn thing is nearly all the signs have disappeared! However, I have been hearing a lot about Big Foot sightings all over the world, he must have a sign fetish!! :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

and this is only the beginning i am sure !!! :smilielol:

:smilielol:

I'm sure that she'll have to be posting it around the clock constantly to stay ahead of "BigFoot"!

Big foot will not be denied of a win in this battle :frech32:

Right. Whatever your smokin, pass it around. :share_doobie: :beer: :beer2:

Take your own advice and "actually read some of this stuff".

Bill 123: FOLLOW THE MONEY!