BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 7, 2024
Though the Worcester family has dropped its pursuit of a $1 billion flagpole and patriotism park in Washington County, officials in Columbia Falls, the small Maine town where the park was to be located, still have concerns about the proposal’s impact. The Worcesters did not approach the town about annexing land in the unorganized territory — a move to avoid scrutiny by the state Land Use Planning Commission — until after legislators drafted a bill. The town has not been given a copy of any survey of the land, which would show who owns it, and does not know what may exist on it. David Perham, chairman of the town’s planning board, said the town was “surprised” by the Worcesters’ annexation idea and that the skyscraper tower and surrounding buildings would have been the largest development project ever in Maine’s history. “It was under very shady circumstances to begin with,” Jeff Green, one of the town’s three elected selectmen, said of the annexation bill.