MAINE MONITOR • February 21, 2024
The state plans to fine the company behind the failed Flagpole of Freedom project $250,000 for building several dozen cabins, a restaurant, roads and parking areas in the woods north of Columbia Falls without obtaining necessary permits. Worcester Holdings LLC has to apply for after-the-fact permits by March 1 for the development, which the company is marketing as Flagpole View Cabins, or face fines of $100 per day for additional violations. Worcester “stripped, graded and did not revegetate at least seven acres of land” on the property starting in 2019. Over the next three years the company built a restaurant and 52 cabins, using them as worker housing and seasonal rentals, charging $169 to $229 per night. Worcester continued to advertise the cabins and takeout restaurant after being notified of violations by Maine DEP.