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July 14. 2012 11:56PM
Fred King (r.), Coos County treasurer, had several questions last week for federal officials regarding their purchase of land for the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge. He talks with Scott Kahan(l.), regional chief for the National Wildlife Reguge System, as Paul Casey, refuge manager for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, listens. Eighty people turned out Thursday at White Mountains Community College in Berlin to hear and participate in a discussion of plans for the refuge. (BOB HOOKWAY/Union Leader Correspondent)
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Federal officials eyeing purchase of more refuge land
Spending on NH land criticized
Fred King (r.), Coos County treasurer, had several questions last week for federal officials regarding their purchase of land for the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge. He talks with Scott Kahan(l.), regional chief for the National Wildlife Reguge System, as Paul Casey, refuge manager for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, listens. Eighty people turned out Thursday at White Mountains Community College in Berlin to hear and participate in a discussion of plans for the refuge. (BOB HOOKWAY/Union Leader Correspondent)
Federal officials eyeing purchase of more refuge land
BERLIN — If you ask Fred King, the U.S. government shouldn’t be spending $500,000 an acre for land in the North Country.
“Five hundred thousand an acre?” King, of Colebrook, said last week. “On Long Island Sound, that might be all right, but not along the Magalloway River.”
King, a former state senator and current Coos County treasurer, questioned the wisdom behind the government’s land dealings. He pointed to one transaction — the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s purchase of a camp on a quarter-acre in “Little Berlin” in Wentworth’s Location — as a prime example of federal waste.
The government paid $125,000 for that property, which was appraised for “less than $30,000,” he said.
“That’s $500,000 an acre,” King said at a forum Thursday held to discuss issues related to the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge.
The question of whether the government should keep buying land in its efforts to own as much of the refuge as possible dominated the conversation as federal wildlife officials met with about 80 area residents at White Mountains Community College.
King told the audience he believes the government intends to buy up all 62 privately owned parcels in a 15-acre area there, then tear down any camps standing on them.
“They’ll pick ’em off one by one,” King added during an interview Friday.
At $500,000 an acre, he said, taxpayers would pay about $7.7 million for those purchases.
King made at least two attempts Thursday, without success, to get Fish & Wildlife officials to say whether they intended to buy all the properties or to show him where his figures were wrong.
King said he doesn’t accuse Fish & Wildlife of failing to be a good steward of the property. And he said it had done an admirable job over the years of preserving the area’s wildlife.
But he accused the government of buying land in New Hampshire and Maine that it doesn’t need and can’t afford, and he said it’s doing the same nationwide.
“They had a 1990 meeting in Errol and told us at that time that the refuge would be 1,600 acres,” King said Friday. “I was all for it at that point, but it’s gotten completely out of hand.”
Early this year, refuge manager Paul Casey said the property now comprises about 76,900 acres either owned or managed by the government.
Bob Hookway may be reached at bhookway@newstote.com.
“Five hundred thousand an acre?” King, of Colebrook, said last week. “On Long Island Sound, that might be all right, but not along the Magalloway River.”
King, a former state senator and current Coos County treasurer, questioned the wisdom behind the government’s land dealings. He pointed to one transaction — the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s purchase of a camp on a quarter-acre in “Little Berlin” in Wentworth’s Location — as a prime example of federal waste.
The government paid $125,000 for that property, which was appraised for “less than $30,000,” he said.
“That’s $500,000 an acre,” King said at a forum Thursday held to discuss issues related to the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge.
The question of whether the government should keep buying land in its efforts to own as much of the refuge as possible dominated the conversation as federal wildlife officials met with about 80 area residents at White Mountains Community College.
King told the audience he believes the government intends to buy up all 62 privately owned parcels in a 15-acre area there, then tear down any camps standing on them.
“They’ll pick ’em off one by one,” King added during an interview Friday.
At $500,000 an acre, he said, taxpayers would pay about $7.7 million for those purchases.
King made at least two attempts Thursday, without success, to get Fish & Wildlife officials to say whether they intended to buy all the properties or to show him where his figures were wrong.
King said he doesn’t accuse Fish & Wildlife of failing to be a good steward of the property. And he said it had done an admirable job over the years of preserving the area’s wildlife.
But he accused the government of buying land in New Hampshire and Maine that it doesn’t need and can’t afford, and he said it’s doing the same nationwide.
“They had a 1990 meeting in Errol and told us at that time that the refuge would be 1,600 acres,” King said Friday. “I was all for it at that point, but it’s gotten completely out of hand.”
Early this year, refuge manager Paul Casey said the property now comprises about 76,900 acres either owned or managed by the government.
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Bob Hookway may be reached at bhookway@newstote.com.