A state senator apparently forgot to stop, look and listen before trying to name a Maine railroad crossing for a Florida tourist with no local ties.
Locals in the picturesque coastal village of Wiscasset can’t figure out what Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, was thinking.
Or, more to the point, why she sprung it on them with no warning.
At a recent hearing they questioned why Ross would name a crossing for someone from Florida with no connection to Maine.
Sen. Talbot Ross claims that James Weldon Johnson, whom she described as a civil-rights advocate, deserves his memory to be honored even though he has no links to the Pine Tree State.
But townspeople said Johnson is already memorialized by a community bench that was placed in his name after he was killed 87 years ago by a train at the crossing.
Moreover, they felt blindsided by the lawmaker’s strange proposal.
The generic crossing is not otherwise identifiable to the average Mainer other than by its location – across from the iconic Red’s Eats.
But Ross, former House speaker and first black woman elected to the state legislature, apparently believes Johnson’s legacy by far eclipses a lobster-roll takeout stand, no matter how popular Red’s is.
“This was a man who spent his life trying to move democracy forward for all Americans, not for just black people,” she told selectmen.
Townspeople are unmoved.
Almost aghast, actually, at the lack of logic attached to the idea.
They agreed Johnson, once a leader of the NAACP and author of a poem that became the black national anthem, was a worthy citizen but questioned dedicating the crossing — in addition to the bench — to him.
He had no ties to Wiscasset other than getting killed while vacationing in the oceanside community when his car was hit by a train June 26, 1938.
“I guess I could make the argument that my great-grandfather was a wonderful man, my grandfather was a wonderful man, my father was a wonderful man, and they all took their last breath here in Wiscasset as well,” said Chet Grover. “So, I would say, where’s our memorial?”
Additionally, some pointed out that there is already the bench dedicated to Johnson’s memory built two years ago by Heather Jones, who was a member of the Select Board.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of if this person deserves this or not, or if there’s a bench or not,” said Laura Mewa. “I really think it comes down to, how many memorials is one person going to have? We have a bench, now we’re going to potentially have a crossing, so next year are we going to have a street named and then a building? When does it end?”
Selectman James Andretta urged fellow board members to reject naming the crossing for an out-of-stater.
“It’s my duty to vote in favor of the residents,” Andretta said.
Naming the crossing for a Floridian would be in stark contrast to the Donald Davey Memorial Bridge just a few yards north of the rail line.
The bridge linking Wiscasset and Edgecomb is marked by plaques memorializing a local Maine deputy sheriff killed 40 years ago when an oncoming tractor trailer crossed the center line, slamming into Davey’s southbound patrol car.
We don’t need to hear any more from Rachel Talbot Ross .
She has done enough damage to Maine .
Hey R.T.R. Go sit down and shut up !
Wiscassett is OFF LIMITS to the “ Rachel Ross “ crowd . It’s too far North for her and her loonie friends to be messing up , like they have done to Portland South . We don’t need any of this woke black BS up here .
“was killed 87 years ago by a train at the crossing”. No, to be more accurate, he evidently ignored warning lights and drove onto a crossing in front of a heavy train that would probably take hundreds of feet to come to a complete stop. So he essentially killed himself, in the process creating trauma for the train crew who have to witness this.
Awe, feck it! Just rename Route 1 as “The Honorable and Noble James Weldon Johnson Historical Civil Rights Highway Corridor” and be done with it!
/sarc
more of the democrat plan to erase history….. promote false idols and destroy traditional american/maine vaules.. look at the quarters in your pocket bet you will have to google to see who the hell the people are on them… its widespread and by design..
Look at this stupid woman. An idiot non plus ultra. Mainers wake up, don’t vote from this gang
Aren’t there some deserving Somalis we could name it for ? That’s what will be next !
( Sarcasm )
R.T.R. get your head in the real game in Augusta or take your lunchbox and go home. Your DEI is showing and you are not helping. Selected not elected.
Good story, but jeez can you guys stop using the BS AI art? Like there has to be hundreds of thousands of photos of trains taken here, even some at the very crossing in question. But yet you use a photo of a VIA Rail passenger train from somewhere in Canada. Don’t be so lazy, do a few more minutes of works guys.
If anything, I think it should be named the waterville, Wiscasset, and Farmington Crossing because that is the narrow gauge railroad that the Maine Central drove out of business by not letting narrow gauge railroads cross its tracks. They couldn’t go over or under either.
That;s what the old wharf upriver of the bridge (some pilings still left) and the old ships downriver were from — the proposal was to use the railroad to transport local lumber to the ships and sail it down to Boston/NYC/etc and to return with coal (then the primary heat source) and use the railroad to take it up country.
The narrow (2 foot) gauge railroads were ideal for going up rivers because they only needed a 5-6 foot right of way as opposed to the 12-14 feet that the standard gauge trains needed. Maine had developed using the rivers for commerce.
It’s the same thing as I-95 and the railroad and I-95 followed the same routes for the same reason — cheaper to build it there, not that it was where the people were living at the time — and the Maine Central actually killed Wiscasset by not letting the WW&F cross.
Otherwise, it would have grown to be what Belfast is, Belfast having the standard gauge Belfast & Moosehead railroad.
I saw the Daniel Davies crash the next morning, all I can say is that the trailer truck was upside down on top of the cruiser and both were WAY off the west side of the road, it’s where the road curves to the right if you are going north but it was before the actual curve. The wreckage was all the way off the grass to where there is a stone wall, with none of the grass torn up, and I couldn’t figure out how the two vehicles had gotten there.
One,yes — drift off the road asleep or get lost in the fog — but not both.
Davies (Lincoln County SD) was responding to assist with something involving drugs, probably was going fast, may have had blue lights on — which would have blinded the oncoming truck driver in the fog, and the truck was probably going 70 (posted 55 MPH) but I don’t think that anyone really knows what happened.
He was well liked, it was tragic — but I don’t think anyone knows what really happened.
There were a lot of officers who died in cruiser wrecks in the ’80s.