A historic building in the US has become the subject of an international dispute after it was swept away to a Canadian island during a blizzard.<\/p>\n
McCurdy’s Smokehouse in Lubec, Maine, is the last traditional herring facility in the US and is on the National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n
But last week’s “bomb cyclone” tore one of the five buildings from its supports and floated it to a Canadian island.<\/p>\n
A fight over its remains created tensions between Canada and the US.<\/p>\n
Rachel Rubeor, president of Lubec Landmarks, a nonprofit organisation that works to preserve the smokehouse,\u00a0told the Bangor Daily News<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday that Canadian officials refuse to let her team salvage the building’s remains, until the legal claims by Canadian scavengers can be sorted out.<\/p>\n “The bureaucratic nonsense is hampering us bigtime,” she said. “Let’s face it. It’s not like we’re terrorists or anything.”<\/p>\n Large portions of the building’s roof, flooring, fireplace, and side walls survived the storm.<\/p>\n But Canadian “vandals” have begun cutting off parts of the structure with “chainsaws”, Ms Rubeor said.<\/p>\n Her comments angered her Canadian neighbours, who felt she was attacking the people of Campobello Island in New Brunswick.<\/p>\n A representative for the New Brunswick energy and resources department told the BBC they heard about the dispute on the 8 January, and told her she could remove it the very next day.<\/p>\n A Canadian and an American contractor have been commissioned to bring back the remains by the 17 January.<\/p>\n Carol Dennison, chairwoman of the Lubec Board of Selectmen, issued an apology for Ms Rubeor’s comments on behalf of the board.<\/p>\n Ms Dennison\u00a0told the Bangor Daily News<\/a>\u00a0that the board is “deeply sorry for anything that has caused any sadness from Lubec for our Canadian friends.”<\/p>\n Ms Rubeor, who has since apologised for her remarks, said she hopes to spread out the remains among the other four McCurdy’s buildings.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"