Newport’s river project to be touted

NEWPORT – Town Manager James Ricker is headed to St. Louis later this month to take center stage with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez at a conference touting Newport’s river restoration efforts.

For decades, the town of Newport has conducted a water cleanup program in its Sebasticook Lake. For the past six years, those efforts have centered on restoration of the Sebasticook River as it leaves the lake.

This series of programs has been annually recognized as outstanding by state and federal agencies, not the least of which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA is hosting a historic White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation and Ricker has been invited to tell Newport’s story.

The conference will provide a forum for the exchange of information on working cooperatively and creating partnerships for conservation projects.

“We are going to tell them what was accomplished with the money given,” Ricker said this week. “This is quite an honor for Newport to be recognized this way.”

Ricker’s letter of invitation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said, “You have been identified as a key contributor in the advancement of cooperative conservation.”

Ricker has coordinated and organized two major Sebasticook River restoration projects since 1999, which included returning the river to its original pathway, constructing a fishway in the North Street Dam, removing environmental hazards, debris and objects from the river and banks, and replanting the riverbanks.

Ricker used funding and services from the town, the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the EPA, NOAA, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Sebasticook River Watershed Association, the Maine Coastal Program, Penobscot Soil and Water Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

During the river relocation, a 5,000-year-old American Indian encampment was discovered, which then involved the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

It was Ricker’s ability to bring all of the various agencies and organizations necessary together to accomplish the project that will be the subject of his speech at the conference. He will be joined on the stage by Gutierrez for a question and answer session with other conference participants.

“This type of recognition is invaluable toward the possibility of funding future projects,” Al Worden, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said Wednesday night.

“The networking prospects are terrific,” said Ricker.

Ricker’s trip expenses will be paid for by NOAA. The conference is set for Aug. 31.