Officials bash plan for visitors center

GREENVILLE – Local officials on Wednesday sent a message to Roxanne Quimby, who reportedly intends to open a visitors center in Monson for a proposed national park and preserve in northern Maine.

“We told her to take a hike,” Greenville Town Manager John Simko said Thursday.

Quimby, a self-made millionaire and a director of RESTORE: The North Woods, a Massachusetts-based group, is pushing for the park proposal despite opposition by 10 Maine counties, 32 communities, three state agencies, and a contingent of state officials, including Gov. Angus King.

The businesswoman has purchased more than 8,000 acres within the boundaries of the proposed 3.2-million-acre national park and preserve. Her intent is to donate the land to the federal government as part of the park, she has stated.

Quimby could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Although The Associated Press reported that Quimby plans to open a visitors center in Monson to promote the park, she has yet to purchase any property bordering Route 15, the main thoroughfare to the Moosehead region, according to Monson Town Manager Jeanne Reed. Monson is located about 10 miles from Greenville.

However, Quimby has purchased 379 acres in Monson since July, according to records filed at the Piscataquis County Registry of Deeds.

The latest acquisitions are parcels that border the Appalachian Trail on the south.

Less than thrilled with Quimby’s plan to open a visitors center, Greenville selectmen on Wednesday signed a resolution that expressed their “strong opposition.” Such a center would give visitors the false impression that the region favors the creation of a national park, Simko said.

The board opposes the creation of a national park because they claim it would devastate the current wood products industries in the northern part of the state, would severely erode the property tax base in Piscataquis County, and would be detrimental to the snowmobiling industry that brings thousands of dollars into local coffers.

“Quimby’s plans for a national park would destroy our local economy and our local way of life,” Simko said.