We have the Millinocket Historical Society that are all volunteers working to keep our town history alive and we have the backing of many citizens that want their history preserved for the future generations that will come.

We also have a so called culture center that claims they will protect our culture and heritage and they have the credit union, the hospital and the Chamber of Commerce backing them.

The head of the credit union, the hospital and a past president of the chamber are all on the board of Magic, the Millinocket Area Growth and Investment Council.  

Instead of going to people on the board of Magic, the so called culture center should find out from the people of Millinocket if they want to continue to support anything going in the old Newberry’s building.

It is the people of Millinocket’s culture and heritage that are being promoted to be used to help an organization that will make money off our history and culture.

The culture center was going to be a community center with a movie theatre and shops, a space for articles from the museum, tax money was spent without any accountability and now they want a grant from the state which also is taxpayer’s money.

Before any more taxpayers go into a building, there should accountability, receipts from work done; the town council should have an accounting about the thirty thousand that was giving for the building. No accountability, no more money from the taxpayers.

The Chamber of Commerce should look at the new business plan and see if anything that goes into the cult center will hurt any business that Millinocket already has; like coffee shops, craft shops and a fitness center; we have those business and Millinocket does not need more of any of them.

Millinocket has culture and we always have and for anyone to come to our town and after a few years’ and thinks that they should be the spokesperson for our community without asking the citizens of this community what they want; it is not the board of directors of any organization that should have a say in our culture; it should be the people that work for those organizations and that have lived here and have been a part of the community for a good part of their lives.  

For those that think the Newberry’s building can be fixed for businesses to go into; invest in it but don’t ask the taxpayers to help pay for it.

If I want to see the history of logging, which is part of my heritage; I will go to the Lumber Museum in Pattern. That was started by a man that did want to protect and preserve our history and culture and thanks to him and the people of Pattern; we are very grateful for the wonderful museum that many have enjoyed. That is money well spent.

Let the town of Millinocket protect our culture and heritage but let us do it right; we have lost too much of our history to put our heritage in the wrong hands.