Lawyers hired by Georgia-Pacific Corp. say they have found no legal basis to support the claim of a Millinocket sportsmen’s club that the public is entitled to free use of the old Sourdnahunk Road south and west of Baxter State Park.

The road passes through land owned by Georgia-Pacific. But the Millinocket Fin and Feather Club believes the public is entitled to use the road because it was built, or substantially repaired, by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

In a guest column appearing in the Wednesday editions of the NEWS, a G-P executive said the company hired two lawyers to search federal, state and county archives — plus Great Northern’s own records — for any written agreements, easements or other documents in which GNP agreed to grant free public access along the road. No such documents could be found, according to C.T. “Kip” Howlett Jr., G-P’s vice president for governmental affairs.

“… Our legal research determined the CCC claim to be a non-issue,” Howlett wrote.

But Darrell Morrow, public relations director at the Fin and Feather Club, said the report of the G-P lawyers was tainted by their longtime affiliation with the company.

“This legal investigation was supposed to be independent,” said Morrow. “But both of these attorneys are in the regular employ of G-P.”

The Maine Attorney General’s Office is conducting its own investigation of the public-access question. James T. Kilbreth, chief deputy attorney general, said his office hopes to present its preliminary findings later this month to G-P’s West Branch Region Citizen Advisory Committee.

Georgia-Pacific established the 16-member committee to advise it on policies relating to the use of land near Baxter State Park. Morrow and Vernon Haines, president of the Millinocket club, went to a committee meeting on June 20, but they disagreed with other committee members on the number of votes that the club should have.

Morrow said snowmobilers, professional guides, and other interests have two representatives on the committee. Morrow and Haines threatened to resign unless the club was allowed two votes.

Dr. Paul Fichtner of Greenville, co-chairman of the committee, said the interests of sportsmen’s clubs were represented both by the Fin and Feather Club representatives and by Peter Weston of the Windham-Gorham Rod and Gun Club.

The only other topic Morrow and Haines would discuss was the issue of free daytime access to G-P land for non-commercial vehicles.

“These gate fees are the whole damn issue,” said Morrow. “We were sent there on a mandate from our members (to address the access question.)”

When the committee refused to grant the Fin and Feather Club two votes, or to discuss the access issue, Morrow and Haines quit.

“There’s a whole bunch of yes-people on (the G-P advisory) committee,” said Morrow. “They are oriented to commercial use, or have some beholden interest to the company. … We felt we were being drawn into a no-win situation.”

Howlett’s guest column makes it clear that G-P has run out of patience with the officers of the Millinocket club.

“The Fin and Feather Club representatives by their actions have removed themselves from any reasonable discussion of the controlled-access and user-fee issues,” the G-P executive wrote.