Millinocket needs a home for it's museum. With all the talk about preserving our culture, I have to say I agree, we do need to preserve our culture. The Millinocket Historical Society has been preserving our culture for some time now, but has run out of room to display all the wonderful items they have collected over the years. It is time for the relics of our culture and history to have a home of their own.

Rather than grants and state or local taxes going to fund a project that has been called at one time or another a private enterprise, a for-profit, or a non-profit, the citizens of Millinocket need to get behind our own town museum. That is where the reminders and relics of our culture are. These treasures belong to the town and the town should provide an adequate home for them. They do not belong in a closet, or in any private enterprise's project.

Just because an entity chooses to call themselves a cultural center, it doesn't necessarily give them the right to define our town's culture. Our Historical Society and the items in the museum are the finest example of our town's culture there is. Our memories and the items generations have given to the museum define our culture. Let's preserve and protect them with a place they can call home, a home the town of Millinocket owns, not an entity that can't even decide exactly what they are. The museum has been put on the back burner long enough, it is time to take action and give it the respect it deserves.

As for the proposed cultural center, the concept may not be a bad idea, but I strongly feel that town or state tax money should not be funding a project such as this. Add to that the controversy that this has caused and continues to cause, and any merit the concept may originally have had is lost in the division that it continues to bring to the town.

Unfortunately, the majority on the town council has chosen to send a resolve supporting a state grant for this project. I hope all citizens who oppose the use of local or state funding for this will voice your concerns either by phone, letter, or email to our town council or the Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs.

Preserve our town's culture, find a home of it's own for the museum.