Growing up in Millinocket, I was always taught that when faced with a complex problem, it makes good sense to study it thoroughly. I’ve carried that lesson with me all my life, whether it has been as a father, a soldier, a mill worker at Great Northern Paper or a state representative.
So when faced with an issue as complicated and controversial as the east-west highway, I believed taxpayers deserved thoroughness from their Legislature. That is why, when Sen. Doug Thomas asked me to support his bill for a comprehensive feasibility project for the study, I supported it because I thought he had done his homework and this was something communities throughout rural Maine were supportive of. It’s clear to me now that he didn’t and I shouldn’t have supported the measure.
I am pleased that Gov. Paul LePage has agreed to pause the study, but frankly, we should just cancel it. The people don’t want it, and based on the information I have received so far from experts and the feedback I have received from residents of the towns in question, I don’t either. It’s money that would be better spent on our schools.
As I campaign for Senate District 27, which covers many of the towns the highway would pass through, I am stopping to listen to folks’ concerns about the project; I wish more leaders would. Their concerns are valid.
For one, they are worried about the project splitting communities. I remember hearing from friends and family in Penobscot and Aroostook counties how the expansion of Interstate 95 not only split towns in half, but properties as well. It had the effect of isolating folks in a town from one another.
Imagine having to drive 20-30 miles out of the way just to get to the other end of your property, or to visit someone who used to be your neighbor. A good chunk of our local economies are dependent on sportsmen. What will happen to our snowmobile trails?
Rural isolation is a big problem up here, and a huge barrier to job growth. Do we really need to divide the state more than it already is? It’s bad enough that we’re increasingly seeing two Maines; do we really need to see two Sangervilles?
Beyond the obvious issue of eminent domain, people are concerned that property values might plummet. And what about revenue? If tourists are doing most of their driving on a limited-access highway, they’re not stopping in our general stores, they’re not experiencing the Maine way of life that attracts them here and we’re not getting the benefit of their business.
I understand the benefits of a good construction project, but the thought of turning rural communities into pass-over towns to benefit a private toll road is truly frightening.
Regrettably, my opponent, Sen. Doug Thomas, has tried to obscure the issue. For years, he believed every line fed to him by Peter Vigue, and uncritically pushed this project. The other day, he flip-flopped and called for the process to be slowed down. But in a radio interview soon after, he repeated that he still supports the highway’s construction.
I believe that folks in this district deserve to have their voices heard. My values and beliefs come from this district and the people I have served in the Millinocket area. My current campaign is based on listening to constituents in towns like Dover-Foxcroft, Guilford and Palmyra. I’ve attended several public hearings on the east-west highway, and have heard people ask tough questions. I’m not convinced anyone listened, however.
That’s the problem with our leaders in Augusta right now. They listen to a lot of interest groups, but I’m not sure they’re listening to the real people who are impacted the most by their decisions. They stand up for the interests of lobbyists, but not enough of them have the gumption to stand up for working people. I learn a lot more from constituents at church suppers than I do from a company sales pitch.
Critical decisions like the east-west highway are too important to swallow the arguments of one interest group hook, line and sinker, or to flip-flop back and forth on due to an impending election. I have a record of asking tough questions, and have always been willing to stand up to my own party if that is what is best for my district.
Rep. Herbie Clark is running for State Senate in Senate District 28.
I don’t agree that connecting Calais to Coburn Gore is the right maneuver, either. I’d be for a more southwesterly connection in the direction of Albany, NY.
Having said this, it is hard to imagine a piece that could sound any more self-serving than this one.
…and what (pray tell) is in Albany that is worth a new road? I-95 / I-84 and I-87 get me to Albany just fine, and the traffic is light.
The USA needs port capacity, as South Louisiana is temporary (the Mississippi will be changing its course soon) – NY/NJ is pretty much maxed out, LA/Long Beach is maxed out.
Searsport and Eastport have deep water and space. Searsport has double-stack rail capability. The elements for container shipping are there, except…..
Highway capacity crossing the Hudson River. I-84 is a very busy road, especially east of the Hudson. Further south is even busier. Interstates 90 and 495 are very busy in Massachusetts, east of Springfield.
It takes all modes, and the highway mode needs improvement. More capacity is needed. Rail has a place, but only a place. For better or for worse, the highway has a significant place, too.
Albany is the place where we can connect to I-90 west, I-88 west, I-86 west via I-88, I-81 south via I-88, I-80 or I-76 west via I-88/81. That improves highway access to nearly all parts of the country and avoids the congested Hudson River crossings.
We live in a just in time society, we want goods, we want them cheaply, and that means we need to be able to move them.
I agree that you can get to Albany, but it isn’t all about you getting to Albany, Tux, and it isn’t even all about Maine. Maine joined a Union back in 1820, and really ought to be thinking in terms of what is good for the Union as well as what is good for me/my town/my state.
And if you are going to Albany via I-84 and I-87, that should be evidence enough that something better is needed. Traffic on I-84 is light? West of Newburgh, NY, yes. You go to Albany that way? If I chose not to use 495 and the Mass Pike, I’d run 101 and 9 across NH and VT and come in that way.
Warren Spaulding, PE
Retired MaineDOT
Region Manager, Eastern Region
Bangor
I expect my legislator or senator to vote for what’s best for Maine, particularly my district or county. Playing the “what’s best for the Union” or “what’s best for global trade” doesn’t play here.
If there were a compelling public interest, the State would be the proper initiator of this kind of project, not for-profit private business interests.
You have another point of view, and that’s OK. It is what democracy and debate are about.
You’ll probably carry the day, too, as nearly all legislators and senators will vote the interests of their small constituencies, and will likely miss the opportunity to think in a somewhat bigger way.
Medieval Poland was eventually done in by its numerous small fiefdoms acting in their own local, parochial interests.
And you are arguing a straw man, anyway. Nowhere in my post did I suggest that a politician should disregard the interests of Maine or its municipalities. What I said was that it would be good if they looked at the big picture. Someone has to do that once in awhile, whether it is popular with the local constituents or not. Do you want your elected officials to be statesmen, or panderers? You cannot have it both ways.
Warren..much has chnaged and Maine’s ports will be in even bigger trouble when the panama Canal expasion is finished in 2014
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http://www.supplychainquarterly.com/topics/Logistics/201201panama/
what you say here..what vigue has been psouting everywhere just flies in the face of global realities that all experts in shipping and ports know.
It is just plain foolish to a point of ridiculous to assert that a highway will make a portin Maine wolrd
Ridiculous.
Lindsay, for every “expert” you produce who says the current, canal-driven, worldwide shift in shipping has no opportunities for the Northeast, there is another expert who says there ARE opportunities…An example from the global supply chain publication, World Trade:
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“The expanded canal will create additional options for carriers. “[The expansion] will create more competition and, ultimately, lower costs of goods, both imported and exported,” says Kurt Nagle, president and CEO at the American Association of Port Authorities.
Ports in the Northeast U.S. are gearing up for the expansion by making significant infrastructure upgrades, both on- and off-dock. Their strategy is simple: convince companies that by taking an all-water route from Asia to the Northeast through the Panama Canal with a short truck haul to the final destination—as opposed to unloading cargo at a West Coast port and rail or truck that cargo inland, especially to the Midwest and East Coast—they can save thousands of dollars in costs per container.”
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Why should we believe your experts solely, which you hand pick to support your defeatist views, and ignore other experts who see economic opportunity for our region? The debate points out the need for an independent, up to the minute, economic study to see if Maine’s ports can take advantage of the worldwide shift in shipping if connected to a modern highway that could take cargo, quickly and economically, from the Eastport region to Midwestern markets.
As you well know Brandon..this quote out of context from the supply chain analysis misconstrue s and misrepresents the entire thrust of the report. You are using the same deceptive practices o support your fierce loyalty to Vigue and this toll road as Vigue himself has used throughout. What many of us are trying to do here is seek the truth.
Lindsay, as you well know, there are very many smart and credentialed experts who recognize that the unprecedented expansion of the Panama Canal means unprecedented opportunity for the ports of the East Coast, including the northeast. This is why ports up and down the Eastern Seaboard are hustling to complete upgrades that will make the ports attractive to shippers who will transport cargo aboard the huge new ships. Lo and behold, it turns out that precious few ports along the entire seaboard have water as deep as Eastport, deep water that is essential for the navigation of these herculean new cargo vessels. But, because of defeatists in our midst who have a thousand reasons why Maine can’t compete, we are sitting on our hands.
Lindsay, you post a lot and it is well known that you are in opposition to doing this. That is OK, and it is your right to do so.
You’re arguing a straw man, though, re: my post. I never said that building the E/W highway would save Maine’s ports. I said that Maine has a resource in potential deep-water cargo ports that could be developed. Were they to be developed, the highway mode would be important.
Ridiculous, I suppose to someone who already has her mind made up. I thought I laid out a reasonable case. Respect my right to do so, would you please?
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How about finding innovative ways of using existing roadways and having the Canadians fund it?
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Exactly! Put the Tolls at the Border Crossing and improve the Maine Roads with the revenue!
The Private Investors just siphon the Life blood out of the Maine with tolls anyway!
Run for office Mooeheadlake! I like your thinking!
Herbie, great Op-Ed piece. Now, stick to it and take the inevitable ‘hit’ that’s coming. Character and performance are what the voter’s are looking for, not fluffy and wishy-washy press release’s.
Herbie is just another pandering politician who has been quite ineffective at providing jobs for Mainers, as you know better than most, Mike.
Who is he pandering to here?
The environmental industry and the poor misguided residents that have listened to them.
These same people running around “organizing” the opposition are the same old same old that continuously oppose anything that would be good for the economy of rural Maine.
Sadly, some will listen to and believe them.
NO PARK FOR MAINE
Agreed, NO PARK but instead responsible development of the timberland’s, the game and the resource’s. Herbie took a look, listened to Thomas and then made his decision. Now if if some of you don’t like the decision he made, fine. Run for office so YOU can make the decision. This highway is a joke and Clark finally saw it for what it is, a giveaway to the Canadian trucking company’s that doesn’t benefit Maine long-term in any way, shape of form. Now if the existing roads had all of this supposed Cianbro money available for re-building the existing roads, then no one here would be screaming. Instead Cianbro would be out there getting the roads be-built for the truck’s to move freight from Coburn to Calais. That means immediate JOBS, now, not a year from now, and those job’s would be filled by Mainer’s, not the Canadian’s that Cianbro is trying to bring in under the excuse that American worker’s don’t have the skill’s that the job requires. So why isn’t it happening ? Why is a Highway that’s so clearly adverse to Maine’s economy being pushed so hard when it’s gonna be an asphalt Edsel ?
And if arguing for responsible development is being a qualification for being misguided, fine. Call me qualified. It won’t be the first and dammed sure won’t be the last. That’s what that pesky document so many people use for Charmin are complaining about, The Constitution. Read it some time. Ignorance is no excuse for being lazy or weakminded. But it does go a long way in letting others do your thinking for you when times are tough. You have to decide which side of the fence you want to be on, nobody else………..
“…those job’s would be filled by Mainer’s, not the Canadian’s that Cianbro is trying to bring in under the excuse that American worker’s don’t have the skill’s that the job requires.”
Where did you get this “fact?” The investment would not be from Cianbro, but from private investors, and the investors don’t necessarily want to invest in fixing potholes. Don’t you read the papers? Nobody in America OR Canada will be hired to build a road until the project gets beyond obstructionists like yourself. Secondly, who says Cianbro is hiring Canadians, not Mainers? Every day, you make up ridiculous BS and try to pass it off as fact. Did Vigue kick your butt in competitive business ventures sometime in the past or something? By the way, it’s public knowledge that Vigue employs in the neighborhood of 2,000 Mainers. How many people have you employed over the years, Mike?
Go check the Dept of Labor’s folk’s. Same with the Immigration folk’s. How many H-1 or H-2 visa’s or work permits does Cianbro put in for based on their claims of not being able to find US worker’s that don’t have the skill’s and experieice that Cianbro itself claims is required ? And go and try this nonsense with the AFL-CIO Labor Trades council folk’s. Writing job descriptions so tightly and specifically that only certain people can qualify is one of the oldest tricks in the book when you want to justify discriminatory hiring practices. It’s also a great way to run a job-site payday kickback scheme.
And as far as Vigue hiring Mainer’s, how many are long term’s ? Long term employment is what’s needed up here, not flash-in-the-pan quickie jobs that are good for less than 90 days and then POOF, they’re gone, which is all this Highway is gonna be good for. That’s what Bombardier can bring to Brunswick as far as aerospace is concerned, not to mention Maine overall with their railcar manufacturing business, long term job’s and investment’s. Vigue’s legacy Highway is gonna bring vanishing jobs and leave a huge useless scar across Maine. And Lord Whiteman’s comment about fee’s to cross the easement from North to South Maine isn’t that far removed from reality either. If it’s a buck, someone has already looked into it. That Nutting opened his mouth about this, and actually endorsed it, just shows us all how far this type of moosepoop has spread. Now you got Maine actually requiring you to pay a Private Company to go from one side of the State to the other. And some of you claim to be small government advocate’s ? Folk’s start smelling the coffee before that get’s taxed too !
“Go check the Dept of Labor’s folk’s. Same with the immigration folk’s.”
No, Mike. You’re the one making claims of some sort of wrongdoing here. Rather than making yet another set of unsubstantiated allegations, why don’t you show us what you’ve got? Where’s your smoking gun? Where are your “facts?” Don’t make an allegation and then run away. Back up your claims with some resemblance of evidence, at least. Then we might have some reason to believe you’ve got just cause to make an allegation, other than your allegiance to the unions.
As for your belief that the Canadians at Bombardier are going to come here and invest in Maine, there are other states that are less hostile to Canadian businesses than Maine is, and that’s where Bombardier will go.
Also, Cianbro has been employing Mainers since around World War Two and that will continue, with or without an EW Highway.
Yowsa..you are choking on the kool aid here..spitting up on all of us..you are just parroting a meme of the ultra conservative right and Vigue specifically that all who speak up for stewardship earth,this earth and future earth hate jobs and econmic progress.
It just ain’t so and if you look at where jobs are growing fastest it is not in natural gas or off shore drilling or deep drilling or tar sands..
Make sure that you include Paulie and Company in this mess. It took the Millinocket Town Council folk’s and Cate St coming together to get the new bio-coal plant up and running. All LePage has done is make a mess of the area with his State money being witheld, and now being sued over, simply because Paulie’s word isin’t worth squat, and has been called as such in more than one Maine community that he made ‘promise’s’ to. We’re all still looking for the Brunswick Air Station Project to show signs of life from the DECD and Bombardier. Who’s holding that one up ?
“We’re all still looking for the Brunswick Air Station Project to show
signs of life from the DECD and Bombardier. Who’s holding that one up ?”
I imagine that semi-articulate amateur “economists” such as yourself are part of the reason Bombardier isn’t jumping at the chance to invest in Maine. After listening to the unceasing, rabid, anti-Canadian, “up yours” rhetoric of people like you and your fellow anti-highway bloggers, Bombardier’s Canadian executives are probably holding their nose and laughing at you while you kiss their hands on bended knee, begging for an investment in Maine. Why would they risk investing here, when the anti-Canadian business sentiment could result in anti-Canadian legislation or anti-Canadian activism, such as what you and your anti-highway chums engage in?
Highly successful Canadian companies like Bombardier are far more likely to invest in Maine if we take Vigue’s “alliance” approach as opposed to your “up yours” attitude.
Brandonsaid..true to his usual style and revealing his caliber and character:
I imagine that semi-articulate amateur “economists” such as yourself are
part of the reason Bombardier isn’t jumping at the chance to invest in
Maine.
why do we have to put up with folk like Brandon here? Why aren’t they being booted?
“Why aren’t they being booted?”
I have to chuckle. Lindsay, you’ve called Vigue, and the other supporters of the highway plan, every name in the book, and have been quite liberal in your use of name-calling regarding me. I’m sure you’d love it if the critics of your unilateral “facts” were suddenly to lose their First Amendment rights.
By the way, do you agree that a Canadian firm like Bombardier is likely to be dissuaded from the idea of investing in Maine by all this heated anti-Canadian business rhetoric that we hear from the highway opponents, or don’t you?
Banishment of those who don’t seve community from the consiution of the Iroquois Confederacy
19. If at any time it shall be manifest that a Confederate Lord has not in mind the welfare of the people or disobeys the rules of this Great Law, the men or women of the Confederacy, or both jointly, shall come to the Council and upbraid the erring Lord through his War Chief. If the complaint of the people through the War Chief is not heeded the first time it shall be uttered again and then if no attention is given a third complaint and warning shall be given. If the Lord is contumacious the matter shall go to the council of War Chiefs. The War Chiefs shall then divest the erring Lord of his title by order of the women in whom the titleship is vested. When the Lord is deposed the women shall notify the Confederate Lords through their War Chief, and the Confederate Lords shall sanction the act. The women will then select another of their sons as a candidate and the Lords shall elect him. Then shall the chosen one be installed by the Installation Ceremony.
When a Lord is to be deposed, his War Chief shall address him as follows:
“So you, __________, disregard and set at naught the warnings of your women relatives. So you fling the warnings over your shoulder to cast them behind you.
“Behold the brightness of the Sun and in the brightness of the Sun’s light I depose you of your title and remove the sacred emblem of your Lordship title. I remove from your brow the deer’s antlers, which was the emblem of your position and token of your nobility. I now depose you and return the antlers to the women whose heritage they are.”
The War Chief shall now address the women of the deposed Lord and say:
“Mothers, as I have now deposed your Lord, I now return to you the emblem and the title of Lordship, therefore repossess them.”
Again addressing himself to the deposed Lord he shall say:
“As I have now deposed and discharged you so you are now no longer Lord. You shall now go your way alone, the rest of the people of the Confederacy will not go with you, for we know not the kind of mind that possesses you. As the Creator has nothing to do with wrong so he will not come to rescue you from the precipice of destruction in which you have cast yourself. You shall never be restored to the position which you once occupied.”
Then shall the War Chief address himself to the Lords of the Nation to which the deposed Lord belongs and say:
“Know you, my Lords, that I have taken the deer’s antlers from the brow of ___________, the emblem of his position and token of his greatness.”
??
All toll roads should be abolished. they create huge traffic jams at the booth’s!
Americas infrastructure is as bad as my basic english comprehension skills. We need to improve the existing roads making them wider . How about increasing my old buddie “Clearence” so the trucks don’t get stuck under bridges.
Changing the no left turnsign/traffic island routine that towns do on purpose to stop that trucks. i see all to often. ALSO more public rest rooms! the smell of a rest stop can be quite atroucious. WHERE ARE THERE ANY PEDESTRIAN BRIDGES OR TUNNELS? wouldn’t it make more sense in high trafic volume areas to have ways that pedestrians don’t endanger themselves and impede the flow of traffic We need quick ,effective transportation to keep cost of our shippping down. we don’t need a slimeballs stealing more of our worthless currency. IN THE POCONOS there were heards of dead and dying deer on the highway a dozen on the treeline waiting to cross . In the space of 10 miles I saw at least 30 on the street in various stages of trauma. About A exit ramp there was one trying to get up I almost stopped to get it. Common sense told me i would be as that deer so I left all that fresh meat. SANGERVILLE WIL BE AS THAT! you will see heards of deer trying to do as they have done for eons. and the accidents will be a nightmare.
Ya!
Close down the north/south highways too.
What the heck are they good for, anyway?
I’m all for spawning economic growth in this state, and I’m sure most here would agree that I am quite far to the right on most matters. But I have tried to wrap my head around what this highway would mean to Maine and the people affected by the highway, I just can’t come up with anything good unless I’m missing something. I-95 certainly didn’t make Houlton and Lincoln a “boom town”, what makes anyone think this one will make any other small town along the way into an economic success? The highway will divide our state geographically into two more pieces which will pose challenges for a lot of people that use our land for economic reasons and for recreational reasons. This highway will be passing through some very “important” areas west of Dover Foxcroft that are used for a multitude of outdoor activities, and will have a profound effect on how we use this area. It will be the first time that AMC, Nature Conservancy, RESTORE the North Maine Woods, MSA, and SAM will all be on the same sheet of music. This is something the governor needs to step away from and kill it.
Another major point that never gets mentioned is the fact that this road is being built by and for Canada.
Canada will have 100% control of that 500ft wide strip of land and Canadians, not Americans will say what does and doesn’t get done with it.
Would Texas allow Mexico to split their state in half? Would anyone who care’s about the future of their nation allow this?
You will need a passport to get to the northern side.
Speaker of the house Republican Nutting was just in Belgrade Maine telling some people there that they must pay the railroad $75 per year and carry special insurance for the privilage for driving the homes they have lived in for decades.
If Nutting will do that for the Rail road’s righ of way across a privete road whats to stop Cianbro or Canada charging to croos their lands?
For many reasons, this project is wrong. Cancel it for good.
agree and also thanks Mr. Clark. Yes much more at risk that just taking of property by eminent domain and yes..we learn more about community and the heart of Maine at Community pot lck suppers than we do at orchestrated, manipulated corporate sales pitches. How is it possible that folk like Sen Thomas and all the other water boys for igue never thought to go back to their constituents and ask what they thought? What doe sit mean that it took Thomas so long to even get a glimpse of that?
What really changed your mind? You supported the Thomas vote, and after witnessing the hue and cry from those affected by this dim witted idea, you decided to oppose it. Besides, your change of heart, it will also play favorably with your intended constituents.
For more than 40 years, Canadians have been attempting to dig a ditch across Maine from New Brunswick to Quebec. And, the idea has been repelled repeatedly. It’s on record with all newspapers.
It’s always pushed as the economic savior of Maine. Proponents weep and moan about the area’s current poor economy that will be swept aside with the addition of this 2,000-foot-wide autobahn. How families, businesses, and communities will be bestowed with riches upon its completion.
If you’re lucky, the Canadians will permit you to get on the highway at one of six entry-exit points, which are envisioned along the route with $100 bucks in your pocket for toll fees. It’s $200 for truckers.
Built with private funds, a large amount will no doubt come from rich Canadians, eager to transport their goods directly to the Quebec and upper New York markets. Privately funded and operated, and presumably policed, it is a rare bird, which will eventually come home to be supported by the state it cuts through.
It’s laughable when pushers react to opposition by urging a “take a look at I-95.” With few exceptions, it isolated many communities from the revenues, it was supposed to bring. The highway once provided numerous missile launching ramps along its route, a deterrent to Soviet attack during the Cold War.
I concur with much that has been said here about the E-W Highway/Corridor and believe that Rep. Clark has made a good point about how it is that leaders and citizens need to be informed and employ some critical analysis to what is being put on the rural economic development discussion table. Clark also makes a valid point that impact is not simply about economics, that a transportation corridor project of this magnitude would fragment the social/geographic structure of rural towns like Sangerville. In an earlier op-ed I made the point that enhanced highway infrastructure N-S out of Piscataquis County, as well as much improved E-W rail infrastructure, have been known to be regionally beneficial economic development strategies that would yield some social and economic benefit to the communities and small businesses in the most rural and isolated region of this state. In looking at who benefits, clearly our Canadian industrial neighbors are the primary beneficiaries of an E-W Highway/Corridor, which in effect would kill jobs in the more fuel-freight efficient E-W rail industry. However, I still fail to see how these rural Maine communities will benefit from a largely industrial strength pass-through toll road from Moncton/St. John to Montreal.
Herbie Clark.
Democrat Hack!
Sure hope the wind doesn’t blow the other way tomorrow, Herbie. You may not have your sails set right, and run up on the shoals for good.
You’re obnoxious. Make a valid point or shut up. Your right wing cat calls are getting old, troll.
That’s not very nice!
Not nice, but true.
So we should vote for Doug Thomas? He who thinks we need a constitutional amendment to protect us from what he previously proposed.
AMEN to Mr. Clarks story.
I say pave the entire Allagash wilderness.Build a UFO landing pad for Quimby’s friends.