Bangor, Brewer Greens select committees New officers hope to spread message throughout Maine

BANGOR – The effort to organize the Green Independent Party in Bangor and Brewer took a step forward Saturday when the parties appointed their first municipal committees.

Matthew Tilley and Kevin Holmes were named chairmen for the Bangor and Brewer committees respectively, while Jennifer McEwen and David Priesing were named as secretaries.

“We’re on the cusp of solidifying all of the organizations across the state,” Tilley said. “We need to seize direction on our own in our own communities and move it up to the state level from there, because the energy for the party needs to come from local groups.”

The committees will focus on keeping in contact with party members in their cities, keeping those party members informed and involved, and working with the other committee to increase the party’s presence in the two communities, Tilley said.

It is the first time the Green party, formed in 1984, has created committees in the two cities, Tilley said.

Bangor has 151 registered Green Independent Party voters, while Brewer has more than 50. The party has approximately 8,750 members statewide.

Of the more than 200 Green party voters between the two communities, only the four named individuals made an appearance at the joint meeting, which also served as the Bangor Green Independent Party’s municipal caucus, with two members from each city.

The new committees will work to ensure greater party education and involvement in the future, Holmes said, while also addressing popular misconceptions about the party.

“Part of the problem in this country is that not enough people take part in the process,” Tilley said. “They complain when the result is not something they like, but they aren’t active in the process that gets to that point.”

One area the committees hope to emphasize is the need for party members to stay involved, despite the growing establishment of the party in statewide politics, McEwen said.

“People figure now that there will just be a candidate there,” McEwen said. “They don’t think that they have to show up in hordes anymore because they just take it all for granted now.”

The group also plans to address the stereotype that the party is concerned only with environmental issues, said Tilley, who also was nominated as a Green party county committee member to be present at the state convention.

“We are concerned with business and environment and health and many other things,” Tilley said.

Educating the public about the Green Party and the government will serve to correct many of the problems the party is facing, Holmes said.

The committees will begin their work with the public May 12 when a meeting will be held for the public as well as for present and future party members to meet and talk, Tilley said. Like Saturday’s Bangor caucus and Bangor-Brewer party meeting, the May 12 dialogue will be held at the Peace and Justice Center at 170 Park St. in Bangor.

“The thing I like most is meeting people and hearing what they have to say,” Tilley said. “I’m a big proponent of dialogue.”