UNE announces dean’s list (2023)

The University of New England, in Biddeford, has announced the following local students who achieved the dean’s list for the fall semester 2023:

Parker Higgins, Albion; Jessica Guerrette, Molly Mercier, Daraun White and Julie White, all of Fairfield; Alonna Battis and Caitlyn Mayo, both of Fairfield; Mallory Audette, of Jefferson; Mckenzie Kunesh, of Liberty; Katrina Barney, of Madison; Mackenzie Bertone, of Norridgewock; Brady Doucette, of Sidney; Wylie Bedard, Elizabeth Connelly, Catherine Kelso, Zoe Lambke, Ashley Mason and Dawson Turcotte, all of Skowhegan; Alexis Rancourt and Richard Winn, both of South China; Adam Ochs, Vassalboro; Asher Grazulis, Nabila Harrington, Emma Michaud, Elias Nawfel, Grace Petley, Lauren Pinnette, and Emilee Richards, all of Waterville; and Willa Dolley, Juliann Lapierre, and Justice Picard, all of Winslow.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: People for whom ponds are named – Part 2

An 1837 engraving of the assault on Elijah Lovejoy’s printing company, in Alton, Illinois, where he was murdered for his anti-slavery beliefs.

by Mary Grow

Moving east from Winslow to Albion, that town has Lovejoy Pond, named after an early family who settled beside it.

Which family member came first is debated. Henry Kingsbury, in his Kennebec County history, named Rev. Daniel Lovejoy. Ruby Crosby Wiggin, in her history of Albion, said no, Daniel’s father, Francis Lovejoy, came first.

Francis Lovejoy was born in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1734. Wiggin wrote that he, his wife Mary (Bancroft), born in 1742, and their children came to Maine in 1790.

Lovejoy Pond

Francis left some of the family with his brother Abiel “on the Kennebec,” Wiggin said, while he cleared land for a cabin on the west shore of Fifteen-Mile Pond (Lovejoy Pond’s first name, reportedly because it was 15 miles from Fort Western).

Kingsbury included in his history an undated sketch map of the town of Fairfax (later Albion) showing “Rev D Lovejoy” – Francis and Mary’s son (see below) — owner of a rectangular lot on the west shore of the pond, near the south end.

(Your writer is sure the brother “on the Kennebec” was Captain Abiel Lovejoy, born Dec. 16, 1731, in Andover, and died July 4, 1811, in Sidney, Maine, according to Find a Grave. Alice Hammond’s 1992 history of Sidney includes an interesting summary of his life written by a descendant.)

Albion did not become Albion until February 1824. It started as Freetown Plantation in 1802, was renamed Fairfax in March 1804 and Lagonia (or Lygonia or other spellings) in March 1821.

Daniel Lovejoy was born March 31, 1776, in Amherst, New Hampshire, and died Aug. 11, or possibly Oct. 11, 1833. Wiggin said he was the youngest son of Francis and Mary’s four boys and three girls.

Daniel Lovejoy was a farmer and a Congregational minister. Wiggin listed him as one of three founders of the Congregational church in Albion in 1803.

When the Maine Missionary Society was founded in Hallowell in June 1807, Lovejoy was elected as one of its 52 new members, Wiggin said. He was also part of the Massachusetts Society for Propagating the Gospel.

Wiggin summarized a January 1808 trip for one – or both – of these groups that took him to Freedom, Unity, Burnham, Palmyra, Pittsfield and Vassalboro, among other places. She found that he was “licensed to preach” and later “ordained an evangelist” (no dates given).

From at least 1813, Lovejoy was clerk of the Albion church. In June 1829, Wiggin wrote, he “was installed as pastor” of four area churches, in Albion, Unity, Washington and Windsor. The Albion congregation built its first church in 1831-1832, meeting there for the first time Nov. 12, 1832. That meeting, Wiggin commented, was the last one that Lovejoy reported as clerk before he died.

He served in several town offices. Wiggin and Kingsbury said he was elected town clerk and town treasurer at Freetown Plantation’s first town meeting, held Saturday, Oct. 30, 1802, beginning at 10 a.m. They disagreed on how long he held each office – two or three terms as clerk and one or two as treasurer.

At a Monday, March 28, 1803, meeting, voters approved petitioning the Massachusetts General Court to incorporate “this plantation” with its current boundaries. They appointed Lovejoy to act as their agent in sending the petition.

In 1804, he was one of the three men on Fairfax’s first school board.

In January 1823 a Lagonia special town meeting appointed a five-man committee to petition the legislature – by then the Maine legislature in Portland – to rename the town Richmond. Daniel Lovejoy was on this committee, as was Joseph Cammet (see below), who, like Lovejoy, had been active in town affairs for years.

(The Town of Richmond, on the west bank of the Kennebec River south of Gardiner, was incorporated Feb. 10, 1823, and was named for Fort Richmond, built in 1719. Was Lagonia’s petition too late?)

On Sept. 20, 1801, in Albion, Daniel Lovejoy married Elizabeth Gordon Pattee, born Feb. 8, 1772, in Georgetown. This Elizabeth Pattee was not Ezekiel’s daughter Elizabeth, mentioned last week, who was born in 1777 and married Edmund Freeman. This one was a cousin of the younger one, daughter of Ezekiel’s youngest brother, Ebenezer (1739 or 1740-1825).

Daniel and Elizabeth Lovejoy had two daughters – they named the one born in 1815 Elizabeth Gordon – and either five or, probably, seven sons (sources disagree). Wiggin wrote that one son “died soon after birth,” one when three years old and one “as a very young man.”

Kingsbury wrote that Rev. Daniel Lovejoy “caused the greatest sensation the quiet community had ever known by hanging himself in his barn” in June 1833. Wiggin did not repeat this story.

Elijah Lovejoy

Daniel and Elizabeth’s most famous son was anti-slavery activist Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1802-1837). He was profiled in this series in the Aug. 13, 2020, issue of The Town Line.

Joseph Cam­mett Lovejoy (1805-1871; did Daniel choose the name to honor his local colleague? The revised spelling, Cammett instead of Cammet, is from Wikipedia) is summarized on Wikipedia as “clergyman, activist, and author.” Wiggin called him Reverend.

Wiggin wrote that Joseph graduated from Bowdoin College, Class of 1829. On Oct. 6, 1830, he married Sarah Elizabeth Moody (1806-1887 or 1888; sources differ), of Hallowell, at her family home in Hallowell.

An on-line source lists their 10 children, born between 1831 and 1852. The first four were born in Bangor and Orono, where an on-line report says Lovejoy was working with the Penobscots on Indian Island and may have started a school for them.

Wiggin found records of his service as a military chaplain for two months in the spring of 1839, during the 1838-1839 Aroostook War (see the March 17, 2022, issue of The Town Line).

His activism included abolitionism. He was a contributor to The Emanci­pator, started in 1833 by the American Anti-Slavery Society; and on-line sources list him as publisher of or contributor to the Hallowell-based anti-slavery paper Liberty Standard (1841-1848).

One of Joseph and Elizabeth’s sons was born in 1841 in Hallowell. Their last five children were born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Wiggin said Lovejoy was a pastor from 1843 to 1853. He was later a civil servant in Boston.

After the family moved to Massachusetts, Lovejoy became what Kingsbury called “an anti-prohibitionist,” as the temperance movement changed from moderation to prohibition (Maine’s prohibition law passed in 1851). Two of his pamphlets, found on line, are titled Prohibition Ground to Powder! (1869) and The Errors and Crimes of Prohibition (1871).

Lovejoy introduced the first pamphlet by saying that he had predicted the fiery debates over prohibition in a sermon 17 years earlier. Now, he wrote, he had “stood in that fire for seventeen years,…a long time to endure privation and abuse.”

He remained steadfast, he wrote, because “I told the truth in vindication of God’s word and Christ’s example; and in defence of the personal rights of every human being.”

Lovejoy began the 1871 pamphlet with a history of drinking, from the Assyrians (who, Lovejoy said, welcomed guests and honored their gods with wine) to Christ’s endorsement of wine. From this background, Lovejoy argued that the prohibitionists’ claim that alcohol was poison “is a broad and palpable falsehood.”

Prohibition was “founded on falsehood” and impossible to enforce, he continued. He called prohibitionists “guilty of great immorality”; and he said the execution of prohibition laws was “immoral and criminal.”

Wikipedia lists two biographies Lovejoy wrote. He and his younger brother Owen co-wrote and published in 1838 their Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy; Who Was Murdered in Defense of the Liberty of the Press, at Alton, Illinois, Nov. 7, 1837.

Joseph’s second book, Wikipedia says, was titled Memoir of Rev. Charles T. Torrey, Who Died in the Penitentiary of Maryland, Where He Was Confined for Showing Mercy to the Poor, published in Boston in 1847. Other sources say Torrey wrote it and call Lovejoy the editor or a contributor.

Joseph Lovejoy died in Cambridge in 1871; Sarah died in Boston in 1887 or 1888; both are buried in Cambridge.

Owen Lovejoy (1811-1864) worked on the family’s farm until he was 18 and then, with the family’s encouragement, spent three years (1830-1833) at Bowdoin College, though Wiggin said he did not graduate. He joined older brother Elijah, in Alton, Illinois, and was present when a pro-slavery mob killed Elijah and destroyed his printing press the night of Nov. 7, 1837.

Wiggin wrote that Owen Lovejoy studied theology in Alton and was a pastor in Princeton, Illinois, from 1838 to 1854. (Princeton is about 175 miles north of Alton and about 100 miles southwest of Chicago.)

Owen was an abolitionist and an Underground Railroad conductor in Illinois. He was elected a state legislator in 1854, and worked with his friend, Abraham Lincoln, to form the Illinois Republican Party. Elected to the U.S. Congress in the fall of 1856, he continued to represent Illinois from 1857 until his death.

Elijah’s youngest brother, John Ellingwood Lovejoy (1817-1891), was appointed by President Lincoln as U.S. consul in Peru; Wiggin said he served three and a half years. He moved to Iowa before 1843, if Find a Grave is correct in saying his four children were born there. Wiggin wrote that he “retired as a farmer.”

Find a Grave lists four family members buried in Albion’s Lovejoy cemetery; there are also unmarked fieldstones, the Town of Albion on-line site says. Marked graves are of Rev. Francis Lovejoy (Oct. 30, 1734-Oct. 12, 1818); his wife, Mary Bancroft Lovejoy (Aug. 2, 1742-May 8, 1792); Francis and Mary’s son, Rev. Daniel Lovejoy (March 31, 1776-Aug. 11, 1833); and Daniel and Elizabeth’s son, the first Owen Lovejoy (July 9, 1807-1810).

Several sources say this cemetery is on the west shore of Lovejoy Pond overlooking the water. A photograph on Find a Grave’s list of a dozen cemeteries in Albion confirms this information, showing a sign, gravestones and a pond; and your writer has driven past the cemetery sign on Pond Road.

The Town of Albion information on Lovejoy cemetery adds the cemetery is on South Vigue Shore Road. The map accompanying the information shows no cemetery near Lovejoy Pond.

By the time Wiggin finished her history in 1964, Albion had put up a monument marking Elijah Lovejoy’s birthplace. Colby College, from which he graduated in 1826, had established the annual Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award (in 1952) and named a new building in his honor (in 1959). The college also maintains Albion’s Lovejoy cemetery.

(The June 11, 2020, issue of The Town Line has more information on this family and other early Albion residents, and – returning to a recent theme – a partial list of early dams and mills on Albion’s principal stream.)

Lovejoy Pond, in Albion, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife says, covers 324 acres and has a maximum depth of 32 feet (as of 1997). The Lake Stewards of Maine site agrees on the depth and, as with Pattee Pond, reduces the size, to 279 acres.

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Wiggin, Ruby Crosby, Albion on the Narrow Gauge (1964).

Websites, miscellaneous.

Albion scout earns Eagle rank

Choate Information Kiosk for China Four Season Club (photo by Chuck Mahaleris)

by Chuck Mahaleris

Nicholas Choate and Scoutmaster Hunter (photo by Chuck Mahaleris)

Nicholas Donald Choate, of Albion and China, member of China Troop #479, accomplished something less than four percent of all Scouts achieve. On Sunday, November 19, 2023, Nick received the Eagle Scout rank during a ceremony at the China Masonic Lodge and also the Bronze Palm for earning five additional merit badges beyond those required. The ceremony focused on how Eagle Scouts are encouraged to live with honor so as to reflect the very best of Scouting in their interactions with others.

Julie Bradstreet, Nick’s mom, pinned the Eagle Scout medal on her son’s uniform marking his attainment of the high honor. Afterwards she said, “Nicholas joined Scouts as a Tiger Cub in first grade. Today we celebrated him at his Eagle Court of Honor. To say we are proud of his accomplishments is a huge understatement. Thank you so much to everyone that helped and attended.” Parents and step-parents, Rick and Stephanie Bryant, of China, and Rick and Julie Bradstreet, of Albion, were instrumental in his success.

Lee Pettengill, who is a leader in Troop #479 and a member of the Masonic Lodge, served as Master of Ceremonies. “The pathway to Eagle can be described as a steep trail leading up to three peaks. Officially, the trail starts with the Tenderfoot rank and continues through Second and First Class ranks. Then, the mountain climbing begins. The path is marked with merit badges, leadership responsibilities, service projects, and the practice of Scouting skills and ideals. The first peak reached is that of Star Scout, the second is Life Scout, and, finally, Eagle Scout.”

Kaiden Sawyer Kelley, who received his Eagle badge in June 2022, took part in the ceremony and said, “The first responsibility of an Eagle Scout is to live with honor. Honor is the foundation of character: it is what a person really is, down inside, not what someone may think they are.” He encouraged Nick to always live with honor and later added, ” The final responsibility of an Eagle Scout is service. The motto of “Do a Good Turn Daily” must take on a new meaning. They uphold the rights of others while defending their own. Their code of honor is based upon the belief that leadership is founded upon real service.”

For his Eagle Scout service project, Nick led others last December in building and installing three new information kiosks around China for the China Four Seasons Club.

Troop #479 presented Nick with a copy of the book Running Toward Danger, by Michael Malone, and a check for $100 for remaining active in the Troop through his 18th birthday. Nick graduated from Erskine Academy, in South China, in the spring and is working in construction for Kirk Sherman Builders, in Palermo. He completed all requirements prior to turning 18 last March but remained active as a leader of the other Scouts.

Choate Troop 479 (photo by Chuck Mahaleris)

Lawrence High School student wins Red Cross scholarship

Nash Corson

Nash Corson, of Albion, helped save lives by hosting an American Red Cross blood drive and earned a $1,000 scholarship as a result of his lifesaving efforts.

As part of the Red Cross Leaders Save Lives program, the Lawrence High School junior hosted a blood drive at the Fairfield Church of the Nazarene which collected 25 pints of lifesaving blood. As a result, Corson was eligible to be entered into a drawing for a scholarship and was chosen as a winner.

Corson, 17, is an Eagle Scout who plans to pursue a career in welding. He credits his scout leader for inspiring him to host a blood drive in his own community.

“It is not easy saving lives, but it is worth it. In the end, it’s rewarding and satisfying. And I donated blood for the first time too,” Corson said.

The Leaders Save Lives program encourages community-minded high school and college students to host blood drives to help maintain the blood supply for patients in need of lifesaving transfusions.

Students can sign up to host Leaders Save Lives blood drives during seasonal timeframes throughout the year. For more information, visit RedCrossBlood.org/LeadersSaveLives.

The Red Cross experienced a significant blood and platelet donation shortfall in August, contributing to the current national blood and platelet shortage. To ensure the blood supply recovers, the Red Cross must collect 10,000 additional blood products each week over the next month to meet hospital and patient needs. By making an appointment to give this fall, donors can help ensure patients across the country keep receiving vital treatment.

Simply download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit  RedCrossBlood.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or enable the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.

Blood and platelet donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass® to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor App.

TEAM PHOTO: PAL senior champions

Albion Central Maine Pharmacy defeated Fairfield KSW, 21-13, to capture the Senior League championship. Front row, from left to right, Bryce Manzo, Trenton Hanscom, Anthony Patterson, Liam Mckenney, Conner Nadeau, Ian Lane, and Eli Williams. Middle row, Myleigh Irvine, Talan Ward, Carson Belows, Garrett Poulin, Tex. St. Amand, Tucker Procter, Ryan Patterson, Colton Trask, and Lane Chapman. Back row Coaches David Gerry, Mike Corson, Nick Nadeau, and Ryan Ward. (photo by Ramey Stevens, Central Maine Photography staff)

SNHU announces summer 2023 President’s List

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), in Manchester, New Hampshire, announces the following students to the Summer 2023 President’s List.

Talon Mosher, of Winslow, Alisha Barrette, of Skowhegan, Candice Eaton, of Waterville, Alyson Cass, of Waterville, Matthew Bandyk, of Jefferson, David Gerry, of Fairfield, Stormy Wentworth, of Fairfield, and Jacob Colson, of Albion.

Those named to the dean’s list include: Carrielee Harvey, of Waterville, Robert Farrington, of Augusta, and Ashley Parks, of Anson.

The summer terms run from May to August.

EVENTS: Messaloskee girls to host girls youth soccer mentoring day

(contributed photo)

Messalonskee High School girls soccer and the ShineOnCass Foundation will host its 8th annual girls youth soccer mentoring day “ShineOn Saturday” September 23, from noon to 2 p.m., on the Messalonskee High School Turf Field, in Oakland. The event is held to honor former Messalonskee soccer player and youth mentor Cassidy Charette, who died in a hayride accident October 11, 2014.

Area girls, ages pre-kindergarten to fifth grade, are invited to attend at no cost. Soccer skills are not required. In addition to participating in skill building and fun field games, attendees will receive an autographed team poster and a ShineOnCass wristband that earns them a special snack and recognition at the Lady Eagles’ homecoming soccer game. Healthy snacks will be provided.

To assist in planning, please pre-register at shineoncass.org, or send your child’s name and age, parent/guardian name and contact info to shineoncass@gmail.com. Walk-ins welcome.

The ShineOnCass Foundation was created to educate, inspire and empower youth to shine their own light through kindness and volunteer charitable activities. For more information about the ShineOn Saturday event or the Foundation, visit shineoncass.org or email shineoncass@gmail.com.

Emery Pell (front) and her twin sister Shea, learn new soccer skills under the guidance of their mentor and Messalonskee girls soccer player Brooke Landry, at last year’s ShineOn Saturday. The 8th annual event connects young girls with high school soccer players, for a fun day of skills, games and positive youth mentoring. ShineOn Saturday is organized by the Lady Eagles and the ShineOn Cass Foundation to honor and remember former Eagle midfielder and youth mentor Cassidy Charette. The event is free to all interested girls, Pre-K to Grade 5. Contributed photo

OPINIONS: Thoughts about high impact transmission lines through central Maine

COMMUNITY COMMENTARY

by Thomas Bolen
Albion resident

Historically when the citizenry finds itself in a position where they perceive their elected officials have failed them in pursuit of a larger goal, citing “For the common good” common folks like me, regardless of political stripes, find themselves pushing back and asking for pause to reassess their decision. The proposed High Impact Transmission Line approved in a “bipartisan” vote by the Maine Legislature early this year is that inflection point. The T-line touted as “progress towards decarbonization” was approved by the MPUC and awarded to LS Power of New York earlier this year.

But is it progress? When I think of “Progress” relative to this issue I think of utilizing new proven and relatively mature technology that will mitigate impacts to the environment and socio-economic wellbeing of the people both directly and indirectly impacted by the line in addition to setting us up for future successes. LS Power proposed building out the High Impact Transmission lines prescribed in the PUC term sheets, at 345kv AC (alternating current) utilizing 140-foot towers. However, I may have missed it but nowhere in the statute or term sheets does it say specifically, Overhead or 345kv AC”.

It simply states in numerous places throughout the sheets and statute 345kv. With the understanding, identified in the LS Power Day Mark study on page 21, that these new lines WILL NOT CONNECT Northern Maine’s Grid administered by NMISA to the ISO NE Grid. Their energy will still come from New Brunswick for the foreseeable future.

Much of the T-line right of ways will be cut through forested lands, across organic farms and generational farms leaving Homes, Farms, Woodlots, Sugarbushes, etc… contending with an aftermath of avoidable consequences had our PUC been more mindful of total impacts and mitigation through the use of newer technologies. Consequences such as: lower real-estate values, organic farms/dairies and sugarbushes at risk of losing organic certifications, Apiary’s/pollinators (personal and commercial) being significantly impacted thereby further degrading the socio-economic infrastructure of this rural and poorer part of the state.

To be clear, I, nor the Albion, Me Transmission Line Committee which I chair, are opposed to the Aroostook Connect project. We are, however, opposed to the methodology being deployed! Buried HVDC requires approximately 5+ foot wide ROW vs. 150 feet wide for AC overhead.

Utilization of ROW’s of existing roadways in Maine is not new. Look at HP1274, LD 1786 of the 124th Maine State Legislature and you’ll find provisions for this. Why not look forward and amend this Statute to allow other road ROW’s beyond what is already outlined to better serve Maine and began to use them.

In 2022 the State of Minnesota DOT undertook a comprehensive feasibility study, entitled NextGen Highways (found here: https://nextgenhighways.org) conducted by NGI consulting of Seattle, Washington. A subset of the study findings are:

– Transmission and Fiber are being sited in the interstate and highway ROW across the United States
– Buried HVDC transmission can be compatible with interstate and highway ROW;
– Buried HVDC transmission is comparable in cost to overhead AC transmission while providing additional reliability and resilience benefits;

  • Historically Utilities have discounted the use of underground transmission citing the cost of AC transmission often at 7-10 times more than overhead AC transmission lines. Many utilities, including LS Power cite those numbers without considering the technological advances HVDC cable and Converter stations over the past decade.
    Notable study takeaways.
  • Buried HVDC transmission projects are cost competitive with traditional overhead AC transmission projects;
  • Buried HVDC transmission costs have fallen over the past decade.
  • Together, DOT ROW and buried HVDC transmission can deliver billions of dollars in societal benefits.
  • Buried HVDC transmission supports transportation decarbonization.

As we move forward in Maine trying to meet decarbonization goals we need to be mindful of how we do it. Negatively impacting the beauty of the State and the fragile socio-economic infrastructure is not my definition of progress.

Thank you Representative Scott Cyrway and Senator David Lafountain for your ongoing support and also the many other Senators and Representatives who are listening.

HealthReach welcomes podiatrist, Dr. Daniel J. Keane

This September, HealthReach staff in Albion, Belgrade, Coopers Mills, and Richmond welcome Dr. Daniel J. Keane, Podiatrist, to their team.

Dr. Keane earned his doctorate degree in Podiatric Medicine from the William Scholl College of Podiatric Surgery, in North Chicago, Illinois. He has a wealth of experience in the field of podiatry, including experience in rearfoot, forefoot, and ankle surgery; podiatric medicine; and wound treatment.

Dr. Keane shares, “In my many years of practice, I have always strived to treat patients as if they were family: providing the highest level of care with both respect and dignity. As a member of the HealthReach Community Health Centers family, I will continue to provide the best care possible. Patient relationships have always been a cornerstone of my practice, and I provide individualized patient care based on each patient’s needs. It is a rewarding and meaningful experience to join the team at HealthReach and to contribute to this community-based system of affordable and high-quality healthcare.”

Dr. Keane joins the existing mission-driven, values-focused care teams at the Belgrade Regional Health Center, Lovejoy Health Center (of Albion), Sheepscot Valley Health Center (of Coopers Mills/Whitefield), and Richmond Area Health Center. Clinicians offer medical and behavioral health services for patients of all ages and from all walks of life.

No support in Albion for LS Power electric transmission developer

Farmers with equipment and local residents showed up at the Besse Building, in Albion, to protest the installation of an electric transmission line through their town. (photo by Jonathan Strieff)

by Jonathan Strieff

On July 19, representatives from LS Power, an electric transmission developer from Missouri, hosted an open house in Albion to begin community outreach among landowners impacted by the proposed transmission line. The event was the fifth of six such meetings along the proposed route, starting in Mattawam­keag, and concluding in Windsor.

Prior to the event, nearly three dozen farmers from Albion, China, and Palermo and their supporters gathered outside for a “tractor drive-in” and press conference to vocalize opposition to the project.

The Aroostook Renewable Gateway is a new 345 kV transmission corridor approved by the state legislature to connect King Pine Wind near Webbertown Township to the existing power grid substation in Windsor.

The new transmission lines would deliver up to 1,200 MW of electricity from 170 new wind turbines in Aroostook County to the regional power grid. Sixty percent of the energy generated would be purchased by Central Maine Power and Versant, while the remaining 40 percent would go to Massachusetts.

Ahead of the open house series, LS Power sent more than 3,500 letters to landowners impacted by the proposed route with the goal of soliciting feedback.

(photo by Jonathan Strieff)

Representative Doug Mulvey explained on Wednesday each letter included a unique code corresponding to a map of the corridor. In addition to informational posters and promotional materials, LS Power representatives brought a bank of laptops to each open house event to allow landowners to identify to the company unseen constraints on individual parcels. While the application and permitting process is already underway, LS Power is seeking landowner input to modify the final route to be submitted to the Public Utilities Commission by the end of the year. Outside, local farmers parked their tractors along Main Street decorated with signs opposing the project. Chuck Noyes, owner of Noyes Family Farm in Albion, addressed the economic, environmental, and cultural concerns that the transmission line poses.

“This is one of very few areas still being intensively farmed. Our farms are the backbone of the regional economy and we don’t need to make it harder for us.” Noyes farms 370 acres that have been in his family for over 100 years. Troy Nelson, a beef producer, from Paler­mo, farms land over a distilled gas pipeline from Buckeye Petro­leum and worries about the risks posed by the power lines crossing the aging infrastructure. Matt Dow, from Sweetland Farm, in Al­bion, sought cla­ri­fication about how the development might impact his organic certification. Lincoln Sennett, owner of Swan’s Honey, spoke to the harms to his bees and other wildlife by electromagnetic fields created by the power lines. “Honey bees, migratory birds, and other animals depend on geological magnetism to be able to navigate,” Sennet said, and EMFs from high transmission main lines have been shown to disrupt this. “Bees and beekeepers don’t need one more stressor.”

The farmers are reaching out to town and state officials for any kind of help protecting their farmland and businesses from the impacts of the transmission line.

“We can’t fight with the money and lobbyists that LS Power has,” said Holly Noyes. “But we can show the will of the people, that the project does not have local support.”

If the PUC approves the final route proposal next year, LS Power anticipates completing right of way acquisitions by late 2025, beginning construction in early 2027, bringing the project in-service by mid-2028.