FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners plan to send a letter to the state Land Use Planning Commission asking it to not vote on a Penobscot County mining project or other issues until a representative of Franklin County is appointed to the commission.

“We are not represented,” Commissioner Bob Carlton of Freeman Township said Tuesday at the county commission meeting.

Franklin County has the most Land Use Planning Commission permits of all counties and has no representative on the commission, county Administrator Amy Bernard said.

Commissioners voted in August 2023 to nominate Thomas “Tom” DuBois of Salem Township to represent the county.

DuBois was an engineer for 35 years when he retired in July 2021 from Main-Land Development Consultants in Livermore Falls. He has also served as part-time and full-time pastor of Western Mountains Baptist Church in New Portland for about 17 years.

The Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry voted 7-5 in January not to appoint him to the commission.

Franklin County commissioners renominated him later that month.

DuBois is scheduled to appear at 10 a.m. Feb. 14 in Room 214 at the Cross Building in Augusta before the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry for reconsideration of his appointment.

DuBois said Wednesday that he has been following the planning commission’s agenda and activities online since he was nominated last year.

The Pickett Mountain Mine Rezoning Application submitted by Wolfden Mt. Chase to the Land Use Planning Commission in January 2023 is expected to be on the Feb. 14 agenda, Carlton said.

The commission is a nine-member panel. One member must be appointed by each of the eight counties with the most acreage in the unorganized or deorganized areas subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, which includes Franklin County. The Board of Commissioners for each of the counties shall appoint by majority vote a resident of that county to serve as a member of the commission, according to state law.

DuBois said no one at the Joint Standing Committee’s session questioned his qualifications, adding that he was surprised and embarrassed about the decision.

“I think I am more than qualified for the position,” he said.

His said he believes he could get up to speed very quickly and vote on the mining project. He has been following along with the commission since November.

Carlton said the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry also rejected a representative nominated by Oxford County commissioners after it rejected DuBois’ appointment.

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