Wal-Mart advocates mail 1,600 signatures

BANGOR – A local group favoring a controversial proposal to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter off Stillwater Avenue mailed more than 1,600 signatures to state regulatory agencies Wednesday in support of the plans.

Friends of the Bangor Mall Area mailed the petitions to the Maine Departments of Transportation and Environmental Protection, according to a news release from the group.

FOBMA organizer Linda Query said the petitions, collected during the past several weeks, were designed to show the agencies that those who feel the store will harm the nearby Penjajawoc marsh were in the minority.

“Where have all the opponents been the last 10 years as Stillwater Avenue has grown and been built around the Penjajawoc Stream?” Query asked in a statement.

Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, a group opposing the Wal-Mart plan, is challenging the proposal in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, where the case is pending. BACORD contends that the 18-acre development would irreparably harm the nearby Penjajawoc wetland, considered a valuable wildlife habitat by state environmental officials.

BACORD spokeswoman Valerie Carter said she didn’t place much faith in the FOBMA petitions, the signatures for which were gathered, in large part, at the Springer Drive Wal-Mart.

“We don’t think [the signatures] are going to have much credibility,” Carter said Wednesday, contending that little or misleading information was provided to those who signed the petitions. “Basically they got a bunch of Wal-Mart shoppers to say they like Wal-Mart.”

DEP officials next week will ask the Board of Environmental Protection to review and hold a public hearing on the controversial plan, according to DEP analyst Stacie Beyer. She said the board, if agreeing to assume jurisdiction over the case, likely would consider the matter in April.