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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – A family who wanted to build the world’s tallest flagpole in rural eastern Maine has been given a nod after building more than 50 cabins without obtaining environmental permits from the state. Under the agreement, the company agreed to pay a penalty of $250,000.
The Environmental Protection Commission on Wednesday approved a consent agreement signed late last month by Morrill Wooster, the patriarch of the family of the company that owns the land.
The Flagpole View Cabin was built from 2019 to 2022 in sparsely populated Columbia Falls, near where the family wanted to build a flagpole taller than the Empire State Building. The flagpole was to be the centerpiece of a multibillion-dollar development honoring veterans.
Under the consent agreement, the company has until Friday to apply for subsequent permits for work already completed.
Lawyers for the Worcester family said the development was intentionally kept small to avoid the need for special permits from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Lawyer Timothy Pease said the developers had obtained the necessary local permits and were not causing environmental damage.
“First and foremost, the Worcester family and its affiliated companies want to have a good working relationship with all federal, state, and local regulatory authorities. “We feel this is in the best interest of the United States,” Pease said in a statement Wednesday.
About a month ago, the Woosters announced they were abandoning plans for the flagpole project. The plan would include the construction of a village with a vast monument naming every veteran killed since the American Revolution and a 4,000-person living history museum. – Seating auditorium and restaurant.
The Wooster family, which operates Wooster Wreath Co. and Wreaths Across America, which provides hundreds of thousands of wreaths to military cemeteries and cemeteries around the world, believes the project brings people together and honors veterans. It was advertised that there was.
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