BANGOR (AP) – A University of Maine dean is defending the longtime manager of the school’s blueberry research farm after representatives of three blueberry processors asked that he be demoted or fired.

At a Jan. 22 meeting, officials from Allen’s Blueberry Freezer, Jasper Wyman & Son and Cherryfield Foods Inc. asked for the removal of Delmont Emerson.

The processors were upset about Emerson’s comments after a jury in November found that the three companies conspired to fix prices paid to Maine’s blueberry growers in the late 1990s, the Bangor Daily News reported.

The companies are appealing the decision that awarded $56 million in damages to the growers.

Emerson, 69, has worked at the university’s Blueberry Hill research station in Jonesboro for more than 50 years, including more than 20 years as manager.

Bruce Wiersma, dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Foresty and Agriculture, said he didn’t take the processors’ request too seriously and told them he wasn’t going to fire Emerson.

“I have been a dean for a long time, and it’s not unusual for constituent groups to be upset with research or what we put out,” Wiersma said. “I just figured these guys were mad. I didn’t take them seriously. Del has been an outstanding employee.”

Shortly after the jury’s decision, Emerson told the newspaper that he thought the verdict might result in the loss of a processor or two but that the industry was not in danger of collapsing.

In the story, Emerson said talk of layoffs by one of the processors was a move for “publicity,” and went on to add: “Once the dust settles by next spring, all the growers will all start up and get right back into it. Everyone is taking a wait-and-see position now. Nobody wants to see the processors go out of business, that’s for sure.”

David Bell, executive director of the commission, said some processors were bothered that Emerson was identified as a “UM expert” in the headline that went with the story. Some also felt Emerson should make comments to the media only as an individual, not as a representative of the university, Bell said.

At the Jan. 22 meeting in Wiermsa’s offices in Orono, the company officials also suggested that if Emerson stayed on the job, the Maine Blueberry Commission would not give $100,000 to rebuild Blueberry Hill farm. The representatives at the meeting – Roy Allen of Allen’s Blueberry Freezer of Ellsworth, Kim Higgins Jasper Wyman & Son of Milbridge, and Sid Reynolds of Cherryfield Foods in Cherryfield – are members of the eight-member commission.

The commission, a state-created organization for the blueberry industry, voted in December to table a proposal to give $125,000 to rebuild the Blueberry Hill facility.

Allen on Monday declined comment about the meeting. Reynolds could not be reached for comment.

Higgins said he approached the dean looking only to “clarify, yes or no, that what Del Emerson said was his personal opinion, not the university opinion.”

Wiersma said he spoke to Emerson about his comments to the newspaper at the request of commission members. Citing his promise to the dean not to speak to the media as a university employee, Emerson declined to comment Monday.

AP-ES-02-10-04 1132EST