Pond camp owner launches bid for village to secede from Roxbury
Buy a PrintTranquil views like this one on Wednesday of a West Shore Road camp on Roxbury Pond (also called Silver Lake), in Roxbury will be changed forever in a year when a wind power developer constructs its proposed giant windmills along the wooded ridge in the background.
ROXBURY — In an effort to gain local voting rights while making a last-ditch attempt to prevent a wind power developer from installing 22 turbines on town hills, Robert Montgomery launched a secessionist movement on Wednesday.
Montgomery, a former Auburn resident who recently moved to Rumford, is also a Roxbury Pond camp owner. His family has owned two camps in the Sunset Cove area for 60 years. The pond is also called Silver Lake.
He said he pays $4,000 a year in taxes on the property to Roxbury, but is not allowed to vote, because he is a seasonal camp owner.
Montgomery said he and a group of other camp owners are in the process of forming a delegation to meet with Andover officials to talk about seceding from Roxbury and joining Andover.
They also want to create their own town or village called Silver Lake, within the town of Andover, and annex into it all Roxbury land west of the Swift River and north to Byron, and east of Andover and south to Mexico.
“The people have had it with the town of Roxbury not following the will of the people at Roxbury lake,” Montgomery said, reiterating what he said he was told after Tuesday night's Roxbury selectmen meeting.
There, selectmen voted 2-1 to deny a citizen-initiated petition that would have prevented — pending majority town meeting vote — wind power developer Record Hill Wind LLC from installing its proposed $120 million windmill project on town hills.
Roxbury Pond residents who list their voter registration town or city as other than Roxbury, have not been allowed to vote on the wind power project, which will directly affect their properties.
The giant windmills will be very visible from atop the ridges lining the pond's eastern side.
“This is it, we're leaving,” Montgomery said. “We're sick of being totally ignored. Roxbury Pond has always been the bastard child of Roxbury village.”
Anne Morin, a member of the Silver Lake Camp Owners Board of Directors, said early Wednesday evening in Roxbury that Montgomery's secession movement isn't adhered to by the association.
“We're not behind it, but it's a nice thought, calming and soothing, but I don't see that getting any support at this point,” Morin said. “But, at this point, anything to stop the (wind power) steamroller gives people hope.”
She was referring to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's green light given on Tuesday to Record Hill Wind principals Angus King and Robert Gardiner by conditionally approving their project.
All that hangs in the way now is Maine DEP Commissioner David Littell's consent and signature on Record Hill Wind's site plan review permit. That is expected to happen Thursday, Aug. 20. Once it does, the project can commence construction.
And that is what Montgomery says he's trying to thwart, by getting camp owners to secede from Roxbury and claim the privately-owned land on which the towers are to be built as belonging to the yet to be officially recognized town or village of Silver Lake.
“I say, 'Good luck,' to him, but I don't think it's ever going to happen,” Morin said.
For decades, Roxbury Pond camp owners have contemplated seceding from Roxbury to become their own village, but it's never happened. Montgomery believes he and others can succeed.
“I'm not against wind power, just what they're trying to do at Roxbury Pond,” Montgomery said. “This is going to explode.”
“Like I said, the Frye bridge is not the bridge at Lexington and Concord, but, hopefully, we can get to the association meeting and fire the shot heard round the world,” he added, referring to a local bridge near the Roxbury town office and the start of the American Revolution.
tkarkos@sunjournal.com
candiceanne says
It is very easy to have a say. Become a permanent resident and register to vote. Just remember you can only have one permanent reidence and register and vote in one place. Take your pick, be a visitor property owner or a resident voter but you can not control the destiny of residents if you are a resident out of town or out of state. And if you aren't smart enough to understand that it explains this crazy sussession plan because you can not vote on that matter either since you are not a resident and voter and those who are wont vote for it.