Allagash Waterway manager dismissed

The embattled manager of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, Tim Caverly, will lose his job today.

Caverly, who managed the waterway for 18 years, has been the frequent target of sexual harassment complaints recently. He is being fired for not following orders, for treating employees unfairly, and for questioning and challenging his supervisors, according to a June 3 letter from Tom Morrison, director of the Bureau of Parks and Lands. The letter said Caverly’s actions were so inept and insubordinate that dismissal, rather than a demotion, was in order.

A memo accompanying the letter told Caverly to vacate the waterway headquarters and to turn in all the state-owned property he had in his possession by Wednesday.

The firing of Caverly, who has worked for the state park service for 33 years, is the latest sign of management problems that have plagued the 92-mile scenic river for decades. The waterway’s first manager was transferred after employees complained about his management.

The complaints continued, prompting the second manager to leave because he feared for the safety of his family after repeated vandalism in the park. The headquarters building at Umsaskis Lake was burned to the ground in 1982 while the Caverlys lived there.

After cleaning out all his personal belongings Tuesday from the park headquarters at Churchill Dam, Caverly said he felt he was being punished for his strong advocacy for the waterway. “It’s like they wanted to water down my ability to advocate for the waterway,” Caverly, 50, said from his home in Millinocket.

Last year, Caverly was reprimanded by the bureau director after he spoke out in favor of preserving the wilderness nature of the waterway at a public hearing in Lewiston where the management plan for the river was debated. The plan, the first adopted in the waterway’s 30-year history, is controversial because some people, primarily those who live near the river, want it to be more accessible to boaters and fishermen, while others believe access should be restricted to make the river more wild.

Caverly said he was told many times that he should manage the waterway, which runs through timberland in northern Maine, like other less remote state parks.

In recent years, Caverly has been the target of two sexual harassment complaints filed by female employees. The first female ranger hired by the waterway, Kim Allen, alleged that she was subject to continued discrimination and, that when she complained to the commissioner of the Department of Conservation, she was subject to retribution, including not getting a properly fitting life jacket, winter parka or other equipment. Although the department found no grounds for the complaint, the Maine Human Rights Commission supported Allen last December.

In July of last year, the commission also supported the sexual discrimination complaint of Hilda Nadeau, who was turned down for an assistant park ranger and receptionist position at the waterway.

Recently, a third woman, Marilyn Daly, filed a complaint against Caverly, the department, the division of fire control and others, alleging she was discriminated against when she was not hired for a receptionist job.

The four-page letter notifying Caverly of his termination mentioned these incidents as grounds for his dismissal. “Abdication of your responsibilities as manager of the AWW, unequal treatment given to employees in the area of providing supervision and direction, not providing materials/supplies required to perform their jobs and failure to follow instructions constitute mismanagement and insubordination,” the letter said.

Caverly continued to defy instructions, improperly filled out employee evaluation forms and failed to improve his job performance despite being placed under a “management improvement plan” in 1996 after the department investigated the sexual harassment complaints, according to the letter.

The letter also criticized Caverly’s handling of funds that were earmarked for the restoration of two railroad locomotives located in the woods between Eagle and Chamberlain lakes. According to the letter, Caverly failed to get approval from his direct supervisor, Tim Hall, who works in the bureau’s northern office in Bangor, to spend money to fix up the rusted locomotives, which were part of a short-lived railroad that hauled timber earlier this century.

Caverly said Tuesday he always got permission from Hall or his assistant to spend money from the $100,000 that was allocated to the project. He said $22,000 has been spent so far on the project.

“It seems like something is going on and they’re looking for a scapegoat,” Caverly said.

Bureau of Parks and Lands director Morrison said Tuesday he could neither confirm nor deny that Caverly had been fired. He did confirm that the waterway manager had been sent a letter raising concerns about personnel matters and that a meeting was scheduled for later in the week when Caverly would have an opportunity to respond to the letter.

That meeting will be held Thursday. Although Caverly said he would turn in all his supplies and his truck on Wednesday, he said he and his union representative will fight his dismissal.

In an interview on the waterway last month, ranger Dean Wiggins, a longtime friend of Caverly, said the manager was taking the blame for a system that has not worked for years. He attributed the AWW management problems to a lack of support from supervisors in Bangor and Augusta. For example, Wiggins said he has warned people that they are breaking waterway rules only to be reprimanded by his superiors and told that he shouldn’t have been so forceful in enforcing the rules.

“It’s like we’re paddling against the wind,” said Wiggins, who works at Allagash Lake.

Rep. John Martin, who sponsored two bills this session aimed at improving the management of the Allagash, said Tuesday he was sorry to hear that Caverly had been dismissed, but hoped it could help the waterway. The Eagle Lake Democrat’s bills proposed to make the waterway manager’s job an appointed position and to stipulate that the AWW’s winter headquarters be at remote Churchill Lake instead of Millinocket. Both bills, which Martin said were aimed at putting the conservation department on notice that the waterway management needed to be improved, were killed.

“The bottom line is to make the waterway work the way it should be,” Martin said.