LePage to Feds: Tear Down This Barricade

AUGUSTA – Republican Gov. Paul R. LePage announced Tuesday that he will travel to Edmund Township in Washington County where federal officials have barricaded a state-owned boat launch due to the partial federal shutdown.

Echoing President Ronald Reagan’s famous exhortation for Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, LePage said in a press statement that he is calling on the federal government to remove the barricades.

“This ramp is a lifeline for local working fishermen, and it is a disgrace that the federal government is interfering with their livelihoods,” said LePage.

First reported by The Maine Wire, the Edmund Twp boat launch was barricaded by federal officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday. Federal officials said Friday the boat launch, and Cobscook State park where it is located, would remain open. However, they reneged on that promise over the weekend — a fact local fisherman learned when they discovered wooden barricades at the entrance to the boat launch.

[RELATED: Feds threaten blockade of Washington County boat ramp…]

“Cobscook Bay State Park is a state-managed park, and we will continue to support our working fishermen whose livelihoods rely on access to this boat launch. The shutdown is the result of a failure of leadership in Washington, D.C., and it is inexplicable that the Obama Administration would punish local fishermen and any others seeking access to the ocean for it.”

The governor said that he is willing to provide funding and personnel to assist in the reopening of the park if necessary, an action the civil emergency he declared will permit.

Steve Robinson
Maine Wire Reporter
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