County districts to face revisions Population loss prompts shift in towns to maintain equal representation

CARIBOU – The decline in Aroostook County’s population between 1990 and 2000 will require adjustments in the region’s three county commissioner districts.

During Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting, county administrator Roland D. Martin presented a plan to equalize the represented population in each district. The plan calls for shifting towns from one district to another to achieve that balance.

The biggest change would come in District 3, now represented by Norman Fournier of Wallagrass, where 10 towns and an unorganized territory will have to be added in order to bring the represented population in line.

“Since Loring closed in the mid-1990s, we lost a lot of population in that area,” Martin said Friday, referring to District 3.

Loring Air Force Base in Limestone closed in 1994, taking with it a large portion of the town’s population. According to the last census, the town’s population dropped more than 76 percent from 1990 to 2,362 in 2000.

Overall, Aroostook County lost nearly 13,000 people during the 10-year period beginning in 1990, a decline of 15 percent.

To help equalize the population in District 3, nine towns and the unorganized territory of Square Lake will have to be shifted from District 2, and one town will have to be shifted from District 1.

Under Martin’s proposal, the towns that will shift to District 3 are Allagash, Eagle Lake, Portage Lake, St. Francis, St. John Plantation, Winterville Plantation, Nashville Plantation, Winterville Plantation, Square Lake Township, Westmanland, Perham and Wade.

The inclusion of those towns in District 3 would bring the represented population to 24,552.

All of those towns except Nashville Plantation, which had been in District 1, will be shifted out of District 2, now represented by Paul Underwood of Presque Isle.

In order to maintain the balance with the other districts, Ashland, Masardis, Garfield Plantation and Westfield would be shifted from District 2 to District 1, represented by Paul Adams of Houlton.

The represented population in District 2, based on 2000 Census figures, would be 24,659 under Martin’s plan, and the District 1 population would be 24,727.

“The St. John Valley had to go further south and southern Aroostook had to go further north,” Martin said of the shift of towns.

The county commissioners unanimously approved Martin’s proposal, which still must be accepted by the Legislature next year, when it reapportions the state’s House and Senate districts.

The shift in towns among the three commissioner districts in Aroostook County also will require adjustments in the county’s nine-member finance committee.

The committee is composed of three members from each district. With some towns moved into new districts, however, some districts could have more weight on the committee.

Martin said he will work on a plan to deal with that issue as well, and should have it ready for the commissioners to review in early April.