Reading the news accounts of yet another press conference from the people opposed to the Plum Creek plan, I found myself wondering, “Who are these people that claim to speak for me?”

I am a Greenville resident and business owner who grew up in Rockwood and am growing tired of seeing the same few people claiming to represent the “concerned” citizens in the Moosehead Lake region. As a contractor with projects throughout the area, it has been my experience that the majority of year-round working people who form the core of this community welcome the opportunity that the Plum Creek plan presents.

The working people that I know have jobs and kids and no time to drive all the way down to Augusta on a Tuesday morning to get before the television cameras. I look at the people who are out in front opposing this plan and I see people who have their piece of paradise and don’t want to let anybody else have their share. People throughout Maine need to understand that these people don’t speak for my family and me and my friends.

Plum Creek has spent the last three years meeting with people like me and listening to our ideas and they have made significant changes to their original plan that will benefit this community for generations to come.

We can’t afford to let people with no real ties to this community keep making decisions that will affect the working-class people in the Moosehead Lake region for the next 30 years.

I only hope that the LURC commissioners will understand that the Plum Creek plan is the best option for the people who live and work in and around the Plum Creek lands.

Michael Theriault

Greenville