The president of University of New England’s proposal for a mediator to negotiate with Biddeford officials has landed with a thud.
Twice now UNE President James Herbert has reached out to Mayor Liam LaFountain seeking a meeting with a peacemaker present.
Judging from a second letter from Herbert to the city’s top elected official the school president’s request won’t be getting its baccalaureate.
“As you know, you are in receipt of correspondence from UNE on April 15 requesting an independent mediator to address disagreements and litigation,” Herbert wrote April 27.
The college and city have been mired in a fight over whether the school will be allowed to build a research pier in the Saco River.
The project received the green light from a coastal regulatory board but city officials are delaying its moving forward.
Lawsuits have been filed back and forth, apparently frustrating Herbert’s plans to proceed.
In his latest letter Herbert complains to LaFountain about emails from anonymous sources – including so-called mooring owners – opposing the pier plans.
The school is also fighting a moratorium the city imposed on future projects already approved.
“Let’s sit down around a table, like adults, with an independent mediator and resolve these differences,” Herbert said. “Because otherwise we end up in protracted court battles. We need to be working together, not fighting each other.”
In a statement to WMTW-TV, the mayor talked around Herbert’s insistence on a sit-down.
“City leaders are committed to advancing a positive and mutually advantageous relationship, based on facts, data, and our shared history,” LaFountain said. “The process needs to play out logically, and with patience and wisdom, and I’m confident it will.”
Translation: see you in court, dude.
UNE is a liberal cesspool of a college