A Down East town has questions after world’s tallest flagpole project is scrapped

Though the Worcester family has dropped its pursuit of a $1 billion flagpole and patriotism park in Washington County, officials in the small Maine town where the park was to be located still have questions and concerns about the proposal’s impact.

Nothing was small about the proposed Flagpole of Freedom Park , which would have featured an observation tower taller than the Empire State Building that doubled as a flagpole flying the largest American flag in the world. Hotels, restaurants, half a dozen museums dedicated to American military conflicts, nine miles of remembrance walls displaying the names of U.S. veterans, and a 4,000-seat event venue were to be spread out on the surrounding landscape.

Because of the now-scrapped proposal, which would have been developed over a large swath of forested land, Columbia Falls enacted a temporary development ban and is preparing next month to adopt new development restrictions. The restrictions, contingent on voter approval, would not allow “incompatible” uses in a new land use district that would include the undeveloped northeast corner of the town where the controversial project was planned.

Some town officials also say they still have questions and reservations about a law approved by the Legislature in April 2022 that would allow the town to annex parts of neighboring unorganized territory. The law, drafted and adopted at the Worcesters’ behest, was aimed at incorporating 16 square miles of the unorganized territory into Columbia Falls, so it would oversee all of the land where the park was to be built.

“It was under very shady circumstances to begin with,” Jeff Green, one of the town’s three elected selectmen, said of the annexation bill.

He said the Worcesters didn’t approach town officials about their interest in the project until they had already held a couple of community meetings at Morrill and Karen Worcester’s home on Centerville Road. He said the Worcesters also did not approach the town about annexing land in the unorganized territory — a move that some saw as a way to avoid scrutiny by the state Land Use Planning Commission — until after legislators drafted a bill.

Green said the annexation proposal is not on the annual town meeting warrant for March 19, and is not something the town knows much about. The boundaries of the land that would be annexed are spelled out in the bill , but 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, he said.

“We don’t want to open up annexation of land based on handwritten deeds,” Green said. “We don’t have enough info about the actual property. The selectmen will not make a decision on it.”

Tim Pease of Bangor, the Worcesters’ attorney, said the family decided to drop the proposal after getting feedback from area residents at public forums over the past year. He said the Worcesters expect to explore other ways to honor the service of veterans, but currently have no other specific proposals in mind.

“They are no longer going to pursue this project in Maine or anywhere else,” Pease said. “They did a lot of listening.”

Attempts Tuesday to reach the Worcesters directly were unsuccessful.

No one answered the door Tuesday at the home of Karen and Morrill Worcester, who founded Wreaths Across America in 2007. Rob Worcester, one of their sons who frequently served as a spokesman for the proposal, was out of state on Tuesday, according to a woman who answered the phone at the family’s best-known business, Worcester Wreath Company.

Some town officials also could not be tracked down Monday or Tuesday.

Nelson “Tony” Santiago, the select board chair who testified before state legislators in favor of the annexation bill, did not respond to multiple voicemail messages left at his home. A sign taped inside the town office door on Tuesday said it was “closed due to medical emergency” and directed visitors to call Santiago’s home number if they needed assistance.

David Perham, chairman of the town’s planning board, responded to a reporter’s message Tuesday. He, like Green, 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.

Perham said there was some public concern raised over whether the park would be run as a for-profit enterprise , as the Worcesters had originally proposed, or if they would establish it as a nonprofit organization, as they did with Wreaths Across America .

One of the town’s concerns was that, if the park was established as a nonprofit, it would generate little direct tax revenue for the town, but it still would receive town services such as fire and ambulance coverage, he said. But the idea of establishing it as a for-profit entity was problematic for nonprofit veterans organizations, he said.

“They were not getting the funding support they wanted from veterans’ groups,” Perham said.

Perham, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and former fire chief for the town, declined to share his personal feelings about the park proposal, but said he and other town officials got plenty of feedback from area residents on the Worcesters’ idea, both in favor and opposed, over the past two years.

Perham said there has been much interest from people outside Washington County in moving to the area since the COVID pandemic hit four years ago, and that while many want economic development such as broadband internet access, they also want to preserve the area’s existing appeal.

“People also want to hang on to the scenic beauty. They’ve gone up to their camps for generations and they don’t want that to change,” Perham said. “Some people come here because it is the way it is.”