MSCommNet, Part II

The Bangor Daily News had an article today regarding the proposed tower on Deboullie. (Hat tip to Kate for pointing it out to me.) It's good to see this issue getting some press- I know there are a lot of people out there who will make their voices heard once they know about the plans. The more voices that are heard, the better the result will be.

I have a copy of the article here. It takes a very positive view of the project and cites Will Harris (director of the Bureau of Parks and Lands, BPL) specifically stating that, "the state is not tearing [the fire tower] down. It is on the Register of National Lookout Towers and it is in the middle of God's country, as far as I am concerned." I like the sound of that.

Later on in the article, Sen. Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) also echoed Mr. Harris' statement, saying, "From my standpoint, they will not be doing it. I think they have to find a different place to put up a communications tower other than Deboullie."

Those statements do conflict with others I've received from people connected to the project- the bottom line is that nothing is set in stone yet one way or the other. This is where the most important quote in the entire article comes in. Richard Thompson, chief information officer with the Maine Office of Information Technology (and listed under "Executive Management" on the MSCommNet directory site), said, "...my office would work with them on that site or if we had to use another site we would."

To sum up what we know so far: sketches and preliminary plans are on paper; the NJ firm who would be doing the work has begun looking for staging sites around Deboullie Mountain; and concern has been expressed about the Deboullie Mountain project site (and especially the fire tower removal). I'm still working on getting copies of the proposed plans, or at least sketches.

I suggest that if you want to weigh in on the topic, please do. You can contact me with your concerns, and I'll pass them on to the folks I've been talking with at the state. You can contact BPL or the MSCommNet project team, or you can get in touch with Senator Jackson.

I'm confident that this project will not be completed without a substantial review process and hopefully a lot of public input. I've said all along that I believe this is an important project, but I don't believe a "start from scratch on Deboullie Mountain" approach is a good one.