It was an announcement that came
out of the blue two weeks ago.
The Worcester family,
the ones behind the annual
reads across America campaign,
which places Reeves on the graves
of fallen soldiers and veterans,
announced plans to build what would
ultimately be a billion dollar park
on their land in Washington County.
It's a project that has drawn
praise from some curiosity from
others and some harsh criticism.
The park will be an hour and a
half from Bangor and 20 minutes
from the Canadian border.
We decided to go there and see
for ourselves what the Worcester
family has in mind.
A park 2 on our veterans and
at the center of it all,
a flagpole taller than the
Empire State Building.
It started out not too massive.
It was like 200 feet.
Moral Webster is the founder of Worcester
Reef Company in Columbia Falls.
He's also the driving force behind an
elaborate idea to make his land of
Balsam firs a destination by July 4th,
2026, a mission he's taken on
with his sons Mike and Rob.
The whole park will take 10 years,
but we want something that could
be could happen and it would
happen around the significant.
Birth 250th birthday of the country.
Phase one of the proposed project
includes a 1461 foot tall flagpole,
complete with an elevator ride to
the top memorial walls honoring
some 24 million US veterans,
a theater and open trails
for campers and hikers. I'm
sure even as a as a wreath company,
it's a struggle to to hire people.
Everybody struggling to hire people,
so this is something that you think
could employ. A couple 1000 people.
We at full when the full build out is on,
we estimate actually about 3000 people.
We think that full rollout
build out will be 10 years,
so we have some time to recruit.
Bring people in
3000 workers just to build
ultimately 9000 more full time jobs.
Once the park is complete,
we want as many people that live
here now to work in the park.
If they'd like, these are going to be
very good jobs at a year round and so on.
But we also know that the population is
not here to actually man the entire park,
so we're going to have to go all
across the state and maybe even into
Southern New England to recruit people
to come here to to work on this.
Is there a plan for for housing?
Once you get those people
here to Columbia falls
a lot of the accommodations that
are built will originally house the
workforce that will eventually become.
Rental spaces and things like that
for people that are on vacation.
What's unusual about the project
is that it will not be a charity,
but there is a fundraising
aspect for the build.
That fundraising includes a
park founder ship program.
The first few people to donate
between 660 and $1800 gain lifelong
access to the park along with their
names honored within its walls.
If we're not totally successful and
reach at least 25% of the money that's
needed to make this happen, we will.
Honestly, have to refund that we
don't want to spend somebody's money
if it's never going to be built.
We feel and it's really looking very
good at this point that this will happen.
The billion dollar project is
still in the planning phase,
and while the WORCESTERS have
been working on it for 13 years,
it certainly came as a surprise
to others who say why Washington
County a question we posed to County
Commissioner Chris Gardner. I think
it's important to note that you
know this is a private endeavor.
And we recognize that what the
workers are trying to put together
here is a monumental task,
both literally and figuratively,
and it is in our nature.
Unfortunately, it's become our
nature that all we do is try to find
the reasons not to do something.
I know that there are going to be struggles.
I know that there are going to be
hurdles that they have to reach
and this family has shown through
its all of its other endeavors,
that they're up for the task.
Is it going to be easy?
No. Is it going to succeed?
We will find out
the plan was. Give people
jobs without changing the
characteristics of the county,
but to employ 12,000 people.
That's that's a big difference.
Sure. I mean, I like to say we're going
to file that under good problems, and the
fact of the matter is Washington County.
Right now we look at our population
of what it is and we somehow think
that that's what it always was.
You know, I do a lot of work in Eastport,
for instance, the population of
Eastport today is 1300 people.
At the turn of the century 1900,
there was 5000 people in the sport Maine,
so this idea that somehow bringing
more people to Washington County is
going to somehow change who we are.
Well, the reality is they might allow us
to get back better to who we once were.
One big criticism we got from a lot
of people on social media was that a
billion dollars can go a long way toward
helping living veterans take means.
Veterans homes. For example,
according to the data we found that
amount of money could house more
than 24,000 veterans for one year.
Since funding for the project
is coming from private funds,
we asked the worcesters how it
will benefit veterans beyond
being a place for them to visit.
It doesn't really fit the
mold to be a nonprofit,
but that's that's a good big benefit.
Because now we can take a large
portion of our profits and share
with those veterans causes.
So instead of competing with those causes,
which there are 45,000 veteran causes around,
you know around that subject,
and they're doing great things.
They're you know,
supporting homeless veterans,
feeding homeless veterans,
all these different things
that they're working on, and.
We would actually align with those,
choose some of those to
support with our profits,
and I think it that that also
gives us the best opportunity to
sustain this over a long time.
So I think we can provide a lot of
benefit to those organizations.
We reached out to the main Bureau of
Veterans Services for their reaction
to the park and in a statement they
say they appreciate all efforts in
recognizing the service and sacrifice
of individuals who have served,
but their Bureau will continue to focus
on addressing the immediate needs of
Maine's current and former service
members along with their park plans.
The Worcester family adds that
they are looking into other access
roads to limit congestion.
This could bring through route one.