The list of corporate and state actors trying to industrialize Sears Island and Penobscot Bay extends back at least to 1969. One of the most notorious of these was the Maine Department of Transportation’s 15-year, $22 million unsuccessful attempt to build a cargo port, withdrawn in 1996. Yet the State of Maine proceeded to purchase Sears Island in 1997 without a plan, treating the culturally, economically and environmentally significant island, pivotally located near the confluence of the Penobscot River and Bay, like just another piece of real estate to exploit.

What was the story behind the state’s acquisition of title to Sears Island?

After trouble getting Legislature funding for half the purchase, MDOT obtained the other half in the form of a special Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grant having a pay-back restriction if grant obligations were not met.

But how could MDOT return $2 million to the FHWA after failing to undertake grant requirements when that $2 million was already spent toward acquisition?  Find the answer and more about the rather extreme, perhaps unethical and possibly even illegal contortions employed in the state acquisition of Sears Island on this Substack page, hatmatack.substack.com.

Stephen Miller lives on Islesboro