March 29, 2024
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Panel: Road to proposed resort needs work

MILLINOCKET – Its proponent probably won’t submit plans to Penobscot County officials until February, but town officials are starting to lay the groundwork for Matthew Polstein’s ambitious plan to transform about 1,450 acres of Township 1, Range 8 WELS between Baxter State Park and Millinocket into a resort.

Town Manager Eugene Conlogue will write Maine Department of Transportation and county officials to see whether the Lake Road leading into Polstein’s site can be improved and who would be responsible for making such improvements.

Conlogue’s action comes from a request by Councilor Jimmy Busque, who said the road should be repaired.

“That road is totally unsafe,” Busque said on Thursday night during a council meeting. “It’s a major safety issue. Accidents happen there all the time.”

Among other things, the road is narrow, lacks shoulders and guardrails and has a crown that is much too high, promoting washouts and erosion, Busque and Councilor Scott Gonya said.

Conlogue agreed, but said the road was largely a state or county thoroughfare, not under town control.

County, state or town officials should begin addressing the road’s problems because if all goes well with Polstein’s plan, he would be breaking ground by the fall, which would vastly increase road traffic, said Busque, who has expressed some support for the Town Council member’s plan.

The town should try to get a route number assigned to the road, thereby possibly increasing the amount of care given it by the county or state, Gonya said. A number might have been assigned it at one time, Conlogue said.

A hotel, restaurant and inn, conference and wedding facility, adventure lodge, agriculture center and 58 houses, compounds or cabins, are part of Polstein’s proposal, which aims to make Hammond Ridge a top New England tourist draw.

Polstein said the upscale resort could accommodate as many as 400 guests and that earlier estimates placing the project’s bottom line at $15 million are conservative. He would not reveal how many people the resort would employ or identify the financiers he is courting.

Polstein had hoped to apply for a zoning variance and submit site plans to the state Land Use Regulation Commission this month, but said Friday that February was more likely.

Polstein, who was absent from Thursday night’s meeting, agreed the road was hazardous, and echoed Busque and Gonya in saying that the road needs improvement regardless of what he does.

“It makes sense to see some improvement to the road,” Polstein said Friday. “It’s an infrastructure issue.”


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