Determined group continues to fight site for third bridge

Bill Szirbik is a determined man. He passionately believes the so-called "third bridge," the long-discussed but yet to be built new span across the St. Croix River to New Brunswick, should be constructed in Baileyville at the juncture of Routes 1 and 9. For more than two years, he and "The Friends of Maguerrewock," the group he co-founded with another Baileyville resident, Lily Desjardin, have devoted countless hours to their campaign in opposition to the now almost-certain decision to site the new bridge at the Calais Industrial Park.

They have pressed their appeal to most of the state, federal and international agencies involved in the decision-making process, often seeing their arguments rejected. The Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) plans to locate the bridge in Calais and has the support of the Federal Highway Authority, the U.S. State Department, the International Boundary Commission, Transport Canada, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. General Services Administration, and the New Brunswick Department of Transportation. Before construction can begin, however, MDOT still needs permits from Maine's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Both agencies are charged with assessing the environmental impact of the proposed project to assure that standards set by law are met.

MDOT published a legal notice on January 28 of their intent to file a permit application with the DEP "on or about February 1." According to Robin Clukey, DEP project manager, the application has been received and the review process, which can take as long as four months, has begun. The process may include a public hearing on the matter, if it is requested by any citizen.

In a letter to Szirbik dated August 10, 2005, Jay L. Clement, senior project officer for the Maine office of USACE, assured him that despite the fact that MDOT "has identified the industrial park alternative as the preferred, the Corps has made no such determination and will not do so until after we've conducted a full public interest review." Clement added that USACE will issue a permit if they determine "that the project is not contrary to the public interest, that the LEDPA [Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative] has been selected, and that all unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources have been fully mitigated."

In a recent telephone conversation, Clement confirmed that USACE has now received the MDOT application. Their evaluation process, which normally takes 120 days, includes a 30-day public comment period and possibly a public hearing if the agency deems that would be important in gathering the information they need. Clement says the Corps "puts a lot of emphasis on public response" in the permitting process.

Despite the absence of the mandatory environmental approvals, MDOT is already moving ahead with property acquisition at the Calais site: they have spent some $115,000 to acquire 45 acres of city-owned land in the industrial park, and reportedly are negotiating with nearby homeowners for additional purchases of private property as well as one commercial property.

Still the Friends are undaunted. They continue to meet, more than 20 strong, on the first Wednesday of every month, at 6:30 p.m. at the Woodland Elementary School, to pool information, plan strategies and encourage one another in pursuit of their mission C to win public support for their view that siting the bridge in Calais will lead inevitably to a four-lane access highway through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, with consequent significant environmental impact on the wetlands and wildlife of the Maguerrewock area. Furthermore, they say, the connecting road from Route 9 to the bridge will be the only "bottleneck" in a future east-west highway system stretching from Canada across the border all the way to upstate New York.

Speaking for MDOT, Project Manager Kevin Rousseau emphatically denies that the agency has any plan for a four-lane highway to the bridge, at least through the year 2030. "Our estimates are that traffic on Route 1 in Baring will be at about 50% capacity in 2030. The project will not introduce any new traffic to this section of Route 1; it will be the same as is currently traveling on that road," he added in an e-mail message.

Despite MDOT's current denials that road widening is a foreseeable option, the Friends cite public statements by former Transportation Commissioner John Melrose, reported in a daily newspaper in 2001, that a four-lane highway could be built through the refuge. He is quoted as saying, in reference to road widening in the refuge, "We've had people working hard on that to make sure we can do that." The group also points to an exchange of letters in 2002 between U.S. and Canadian transportation officials indicating the issue of adding lanes was at least under discussion between the two agencies.

The need for a "third bridge" at the busy Calais-St. Stephen crossing has been contemplated since the 1970s, but serious planning didn't begin until the late 1990s. MDOT initially developed a list of about six potential bridge sites that were eventually whittled down to two alternatives, the Calais Industrial Park location and the Baileyville juncture of Routes 1 and 9. The agency formed a Public Advisory Committee (PAC) of citizens to review the options. A list of 14 members supplied by MDOT shows six with Calais addresses and four from Baileyville, including elected officials of both municipalities. According to MDOT, the PAC held about a dozen public meetings at the Washington County Technical College over a two-year period.

At the same time, Calais city officials, business groups and other organizations were actively lobbying for the industrial park location, while it seems there was little effort to promote the Baileyville location. Several persons who served on the PAC recall that their meetings were long and hard, involving a good deal of work reviewing complex and technical material. In the end, the group reached a consensus C "based on economic, environmental, sociological, and cultural impacts," according to MDOT officials C that the Calais location would be the preferred site for a new bridge.

Then, three years ago, Bill Szirbik moved to Baileyville. The retired carpenter and building contractor from Vermont had visited the area for more than 50 years to hunt, fish and vacation. After his wife's death, he sold his home in Vermont and moved to Baileyville to be close to his camp in a wilderness area above Grand Lake Stream, "the place I love most on earth."

Lily Desjardin has always thought of herself as "a reserved person. I've never been vocal about anything," she says. An area resident since she married her late husband in 1962, she draws inspiration from the eagles who nest in the refuge near Route 1 and their battle back from near-extinction 15 years ago. When she heard the new bridge was to be located at the industrial park, she feared that pollution from trucks passing within feet of the birds' wetland nesting area would doom their recovery. She knew Szirbik was an outdoorsman and a naturalist, and approached him for help with a letter she wanted to write to a local newspaper. The letter got written and their conversations about the location of the new bridge led them to form the Friends of Maguerrewock.

Both acknowledge they got started late in their efforts, but as Szirbik rallied his supporters at their meeting last week, "Don't give up. This isn't a done deal yet!"