Exclusive | Troy Jackson officiated his wedding, but this Mainer is making a startling claim against him

AUGUSTA, Maine — Till attack ads do us part.A man whose wedding Maine Senate hopeful Troy Jackson officiated during the pandemic is now throwing his weight behind incumbent Sen.Susan Collins (R-Maine) in a scathing new ad.

Ronnie Pelletier, a firefighter from Jackson’s hometown of Allagash, ripped into Jackson over a cellphone tower the former Maine Senate president secured in the rural town on the property of his de facto in-laws.“A few years ago, I was working for the town, and a couple of gentlemen came into the office,” Pelletier recalled in the ad.

“The gentleman from the cell phone tower company had told me that the best reception and coverage would be from the schoolhouse lot that the town owns.”“Maybe a day later, Troy Jackson had pulled into my driveway,” he added.“He was riding them around, showing them the sites.

So after Troy Jackson got involved showing them the sights.The tower was then built on one of Troy’s family members’ properties, and the tower went down there.”“Make of it what you will.”Telecoms companies pay rent for the cell towers they install on people’s land.

It’s unclear how much Jackson’s in-laws are making, but rural cell towers can pay $500 to $1,000 a month, according to one industry site.Robert Parsloe, the owner of Wireless Partners, LLC, which installed the cellphone tower in Allagash strongly disputed Pelletier’s insinuations and insisted it was just a coincidence that it was placed on the property of Jackson’s relatives.“It’s just really expensive to build new towers.

It’s a pain.You alienate people,” Parsloe explained.

“We found this area … we knew nothing about landowners at that point.”“We found a willing landowner,” he said.“God forbid! I doubt you would want to put one of these ugly towers on your land, and I certainly wouldn’t want to put one on my land.

And so we were grateful that somebody said, ‘Sure, put it up there.'”Parsloe acknowledged that is comp...