March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Save Loring panel examines lawsuit

CARIBOU — The Save Loring Committee on Thursday reviewed a proposed lawsuit intended to keep Loring Air Force Base open. Loring was one of several U.S. bases targeted for closure by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission earlier this year.

Severin M. Beliveau, an attorney for the plaintiffs, reviewed the 31-page document by telephone from his office in Augusta with members of the committee.

“We’re ready to go,” said Beliveau. He said the heart of the complaint regards the quality of life criteria upon which the Base Closure Commission made it decision to close Loring by September 1994.

The document presented Thursday would undergo a couple of minor changes before being issued to all the plaintiffs on Friday, Dec. 13, Beliveau said. The court filing should take place no later than Friday, Dec. 20, unless the defendants want other changes in the document, said Paul Haines, chairman of the Save Loring Committee.

The lawsuit coincides with a similar suit filed on behalf of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. That suit was dismissed by a federal judge and is under appeal.

“We have a good case and it’s worth going for,” said Haines. He said he would offer no percentages as to whether the case could overturn the decision.

Plaintiffs are U.S. Sen. William S. Cohen, U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell, Gov. John R. McKernan, U.S. Rep. Olympia J. Snowe, the towns of Limestone, Ashland, Caswell, Mars Hill, New Sweden, and Van Buren, and the cities of Caribou and Presque Isle, Aroostook County, Save Loring Committee, Paul D. Haines, American Federation of Government Employees and Alan Mulherin, and Mulherin individually.

Named defendants in the lawsuit are Donald Rice, the secretary of the Air Force, Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense, the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission and its members James A. Courter, William L. Ball III, Howard R. Callaway, Duane H. Cassidy, Arthur Levitt Jr., James C. Smith II, and Robert D. Stuart Jr.

Haines said the Save Loring Committee’s bills were all paid and that it had $47,977.70 in the bank.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like