When the Maine Dept. of Transportation withdrew from Gateway 1 earlier this year, it effectively ended the project just before many towns were scheduled to vote on whether to participate.
In Nobleboro, the state’s decision came so close to their town meeting that ballots had already been printed, and the vote was held March 18, albeit with the understanding that it was irrelevant. Nobleboro residents voted in opposition (84-146) to Gateway 1 at that time.
In the time since, many members involved with Gateway 1 have continued to meet, in the hopes that they can form a lasting interlocal planning agency, even if it the lacks the teeth afforded to Gateway 1 by the control of DOT planning funds.
In Nobleboro, the fact that the vote not to participate was held has some residents questioning the town’s participation in the current incarnation of Gateway 1.
Al Railsback served as Nobleboro’s representative to Gateway 1. In the time since DOT withdrew on March 1, Railsback has attended several Gateway 1 meetings, he said.
“I attended a couple of meetings to get information about what’s happening and where we go from here,” Railsback said. “I’ve pursued it only because I believe it’s a good thing. The Rt. 1 corridor is still a reality, and we’re still going to have to deal with it.”
At their meeting on May 11, the Nobleboro Board of Selectmen discussed the issue, and concluded: “If Al Railsback is there, he’s there on his own,” said Dick Spear, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. “We haven’t been notified of anything; we didn’t know anything was going on.”
Spear said the board’s decision was informed by their lack of knowledge about what’s happening with Gateway 1 and the town’s vote in opposition to Gateway 1 at town meeting.
Railsback agreed with the selectmen that he is there as an individual, not an official town representative. “I’m very interested in it, and I plan to keep in touch with the people involved.”
Railsback questions whether the vote would be different if voters didn’t “assume the program had been killed,” he said. “The vote was on a dead program, but what came across was that Nobleboro opposes Gateway 1.”
