Group in Baileyville seeks to defeat bond

BAILEYVILLE – A small, vocal group of residents wants voters to reject a $63 million transportation bond issue that they say would help fund a third bridge in neighboring Calais.

It has been more than a year since the state gave the nod to Calais for a third bridge, but three people in this mill town, who call themselves the Friends of the Baileyville Bridge, are not happy about that decision. The governor’s decision on the location of the bridge came after years of meetings on the issue.

Group member Lily Desjardin said she was living in Baileyville at the time, but had not paid attention to the “very little publicized goings-on with regards to the bridge location.”

A second member, Barbara Landry, also is from Baileyville; the third member, Bill Szirbik, was living in Vermont while the decision was being made.Two bridges cross the St. Croix River at Calais to connect with St. Stephen, New Brunswick: the downtown Ferry Point Bridge and the Milltown Bridge, just north of downtown. The new bridge would be upriver from the Milltown Bridge. It would carry cars and trucks around St. Stephen, across the river, and through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. The road would follow the existing Routes 9 and 1, past a nesting pair of eagles.

Desjardin said during a Town Council meeting that she feared that the bridge and eventual four-lane highway would disrupt the local habitat at the refuge.

“Down the road, your kids won’t see eagles nesting,” she predicted.

The Calais location was selected from among six initial possibilities that were reduced to two options. The other final alternative was near the Baileyville intersection of Routes 9 and 1. Calais business leaders opposed the Baileyville location because they feared it would draw traffic away from the city and make Calais a ghost town rather than a gateway to Canada.

Last year, Baileyville councilors unanimously supported the Baileyville connection, but they mostly stood alone at meetings when it came to stating their opposition to the Calais site.

At a meeting Monday night of the Baileyville Town Council, the Friends group asked the councilors to help them defeat Question 6. They said they believed if the measure went down in defeat, it would open up the possibility that the state and federal governments would reconsider siting the bridge in Baileyville.

“If we and the other sensible people statewide who will vote for Question 6 are successful and Question 6 is defeated, we will then have ample time to put together an organization and pressure the politicians and bureaucrats to do what is right and change the bridge location,” the group said in a handout.

Council Chairman Doug Jones said he would not support defeating Question 6, because part of the funds included in the bond package would help complete reconstruction of Route 9.

Jones recommended the group take its concerns either to Gov. John Baldacci or the commissioner of the Department of Transportation.

“They won’t talk to us,” Desjardin said.

To help the group, the councilors voted to send letters to Baldacci and the DOT commissioner outlining their support for the bridge being built in or near their hometown.