by Honor Fox Sage, President
Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association
We are writing to clarify any misunderstanding that newspaper coverage of the June 26 Bypass Task Force meeting might have created. It suggested that the group had arrived at consensus on a bypass route, the northern N2a route that the Maine Department of Transportation had earlier identified as the one it preferred. But the procedure that was followed at the meeting actually left unanswered the question of what was the first, or at least the compromise preference of the individual members.
The members were asked, in a straw poll at the task force meeting, "Does anyone on the task force strongly oppose the potential preferred route N2a proposed by DOT?" No member raised a hand, but this clearly was not the same thing as asking members what bypass route, if any among the three options still alive, they favored. Our sense is that there remains considerable division among task force members on that question. And in that case, what can the task force, which is an advisory body, finally recommend to DOT?
Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association (SVCA) continues to advocate a linked set of choices. No-build has been our preferred alternative throughout the past decade of bypass discussions. Next, we have consistently supported prompt and full implementation of traffic mitigation measures, including those now being undertaken or considered by DOT. Finally, as a last resort, if levels of traffic congestion continue to be unacceptable in future years and DOT, the affected towns and local citizens conclude that a bypass is necessary, the SVCA would support the N8c long-bridge route. It scores ahead of the other proposed bypass options, in DOT's own estimates, both for its environmental effects and for its efficiency in routing traffic around Wiscasset.
We believe such a step-by-step approach is particularly appropriate now due to the uncertainty brought to traffic planning efforts by the extraordinary rise in petroleum and gasoline prices over the past year, and the likelihood that these prices never again will come close to the low level we all enjoyed during the years when the DOT was preparing its traffic growth projections.
We would like to commend the people of DOT for the professional skill and the dedication they have brought to the bypass planning project. We urge them to bring the same level of commitment to completing the steps they have announced for reducing congestion in the immediate future, such as traffic pattern modifications and installation of electronic signals to warn when backups begin to occur.
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