Searsport Harbor dredge plan public info meeting in Bangor 2/24/14 AUDIO

Audio recordings from the  February 24, 2014 public information meeting on the proposal to expansion-dredge Searsport Harbor, held at the Cross Center, in  Bangor, Maine.

A powerful showing by Penobscot Bay's fishing community thwarted Maine DEP's seeming plan to reduce public participation by moving the event more than 30 miles from Searsport.

Introduction to the meeting 5 minutes

Barbara Blumeris. John Henshaw in background

Speaker 1 Barbara Blumeris, regional chief, Army Corps of Engineers 12 minutes

Speaker 2  Steve Wolfe Army Corps of Engineers
* Part 1. All about dredging. 13 minutes
* Part 2 About dumping dredge spoils 20 minutes



PUBLIC SPEAKERS
1. Intro and Ron Huber, Friends of Penobscot Bay 2min35sec

2, Arch Gillies, Islesboro Selectboard 3min 10sec

3. Robert Young, Young's Seafood.  2min 45sec

4. Tony Kulik 2min 15sec

5. Representative Joe Brooks Winterport & Q&A 4min 14sec

6. Meredith Ares, Searsport Selectboard & Q&A. 2min 37sec

7. Nancy Galland & Q&A 5 minutes

8. Anne Crimaudo 50 seconds

9. John Porter, Bangor Chamber of Commerce 2min5sec

10.Bob Zeiglar, ME Port Authority 95sec

11. Bud Hall, Angler's Restaurant + Q &A 6min.

12. Patrice McCarron Maine Lobstermens Association 3min

13. Nancy Daley 2min 41 sec.

14. Harlan McLaughlin FOPB and Q&A 3min

15. Steve Hinchman 3min 15sec

16. Army Corps explains why it's there 75sec

17. David Cole 4 min

18. Mike Dassatt,  Belfast lobsterman 2min

19. Unnamed Southwest Harbor resident 3min 15sec

20 Steve Miller and Q&A 5min 40sec

21. Penobscot River & Bay Pilots 2min

22. Amy Browne WERU 2min 28sec

23. Christian Smith, Fisherman 1min 40sec

24. Nick Battista, Island Institute 2min 45sec

25. Becky Bartovics, Sierra Club  3min 30sec

26. Army Corps, Final remarks  50 sec

Mainah-Mata Disease: the coming blow to Penobscot Bay lobstering from mercury contamination

It will be called "Mainah-mata Disease",  after the historic deadly poisoning of the Japanese village  of Minimata by spilled mercury. The slow and steady mercury poisoning of the dedicated lobster eaters of the upper Penobscot Bay and lower Penobscot River, due to the spillage of that deadly liquid

metal into the upper estuary of Penobscot Bay has been underway for some time.

Were it not for the disastrous consequences to the bay and state's fishery,  and the political consequences for the LePage Administration, the state would also close the water of the upper bay, where unsafely mercury tainted lobsters were also found.

The headlines alone are a horror.  

"Penobscot River closed to lobster, crab harvests"

"Mercury_contamination in Penobscot River lobsters was known for 8 years"

Fisherman to find new place for traps after lobstering banned downstream from former chemical plant

Randall Parr on the Quest for Public Banking in Maine.

Should Maine set up a public bank, as North Dakota has, to reduce hazards from the economic piracy of the Too-Big-To-Fails?

On Feb 8  2014,  Randall Parr of Appleton, Maine came to WRFR community radio to discuss the concept of public banking.

Click here to listen to Parr's 50 minute interview with producer Ron Huber, as  we discuss that and the evolution of banking over the millenia,  and Parr answers questions from a caller - and with myself as a proxy reader, questions from Maine bankers!

Randall Parr is an economist and data architechture consultant.  A former naval officer, Parr has taught economics at colleges in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Parr was instrumental in bringing a public banking proposal, LD 1508 An Act To Create a Public State Bankbefore the Maine legislature in 2013

In an op-ed later that year, following the bill's defeat, Parr wrote that

"One state that emerged from the 2008 panic-recession without budget shortfalls was the “State of North Dakota Doing Business as Bank of North Dakota,” the nation’s only combined state-public bank."

"Without a state-public bank — which Maine’s Legislature had the opportunity to create earlier this year — Maine lawmakers had to raise taxes in 2013 to meet revenue shortfalls in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. A public bank could have insulated Maine from reduced tax revenues during economic contractions, increasing liquidity, jobs and personal income, as the Bank of North Dakota has done for that state."

With that bill down, what next? Listen and find out.