I want to say "hurray" for Maine as I know by tomorrow there will be a lot of negative comments and nay-sayers. There is something positive in this, including the 2.5 million going to the city of Bangor to clean up Birch Stream and Penjajawoc Stream . The importance of this cannot be minimized if only for health reasons for the many people of Bangor and surrounding area affected by this. Many children (and others) had gotten sick in recent yrs from the pollution in those streams.

This is why I do not buy the BDN.

Then why do you look at the website? Your just cheap, stop acting holyier than thou.

Way to go Maine! Well needed jobs for well needed projects! Way to stay on top of things!

nothing will get fixed all the money will go the same place the bonds for bridge and roadwork went. which is?oh ya no one knows..we just vote on the big bonds every few years . what got fixed?

I fear that it be quite some time before anything but politicians pockets will be "stimulated".

We are experienced at being on the dole. That's why we are first out of the gate on spending this "free money". Yeah, there's a lot of pride to be had in being an experienced bum. And for the first poster, chersully2000: state your own ignorant opinion and forget about what other people write. Who do you think you are? The word police? Why does everyone have to agree with you? Is it your high IQ? Is it your vast storehouse of knowledge? Perhaps, it's your financial savvy? Or is it just that you're a state worker with your tusks in the trough. Oink.

If we have 300 million Americans and an average family is a size of 4 that is 75 million households. The stimulus package was $787 billion. This equates to debt of $10,500 per family. The approximate population of Maine is 1,321,505 people divided by 4 equals 330,376 households. 330,376 households times $10,500 equals $ 3,468,950,625. So we the people of Maine will pay out almost 3.5 BILLION dollars to the government and then we receive 50 million back! We get back 1.5% of the money that we need to pay out. Just think of what we could accomplish if we could keep 100% of our own money. More taxes are NOT the answer. People need to think about facts and figures instead of “Yaaa! My team is winning! (Dems VS. Reps) we the people are getting screwed by our elected public servants.

This is borrowed money folks.. you will be paying it back for decades long after the temporary jobs have disappeared. The next shoe will drop when the stimulus money dries up and replaced by .. well actually nothing but overwhelming debt.

Yet another crock of political BS...they haven't created 750 jobs so far, and I'm sure they can't back that statement up with real proof. The shell game continues, and Maine taxpayers are still paying the price.

Good news: 750(temporary) jobs are created (supposedly)/ some roads are upgraded/ water quality may improve in Bangor. Bad news: Other roads get to deteriorate/ still high unemployment Questionable news: We were the first state to spend all the stimulus money. Well at least it wasn't all bad. How about that weather? Should I wear my rain hat or my fog hat? I'd rather get a sunburn!

bassman4447: "nothing will get fixed all the money will go the same place the bonds for bridge and roadwork went. which is?oh ya no one knows..we just vote on the big bonds every few years . what got fixed?"

basically every road in ellsworth is getting fixed. One is already done, they are rebuilding rte 1a, rte 3 to trenton, court st, red bridge rd, and bridge hill. All new roads for us, well should i say for the tourists.

Anyone who thinks all of this "stimulus" is a good idea is among the lambs being led to slaughter. Wake up!!

Our elected officials...the ones we elected without really learning about them, because we fell for their slick TV ads....are ruining our country. They keep us in bondage to them by convincing us it's a Liberal vs.Conservative, Rep vs. Dems thing. They want us at each other's throats so we won't see what they are really doing. Stop falling for it. Americans unite and take back your country!!

Mrman4000...if thats not "fuzzy math" I don't know what is...please if you're going to spout numbers, at least look them up first...check the US Census...US households are about 105 Million, Maine's households are over 500,000 ...even if you used the correct numbers, you're assuming every household is on the hook for the same $$...never mind that any major city (take NY) for example has higher incomes (means higher tax $$) and higher populations...for instance, NY city alone has over 19 Million people w/ an average income 20% higher than a Mainer's (US Census numbers, not made up fuzzy numbers)...Plus if you would have read the article here, Maine is getting at least $180 Million for the projects mentioned, let alone the other millions $$ in projects not mentioned...Sure this could still come back to bite us if the stimulus doesn't work...but stop making up numbers w/ 2nd grade math to try and prove a point...

Also, vote no on all and any bond issues, stop this plan it forward, do only what is in the coffers to do this year, stop the legislation that allows rigs over 80,000 pounds on our highways. Vote Collins out, wait out Baldacci, hope the next gov scraps everyone at DOT and starts with new ideas for the new century instead of the lame left overs from the past twenty years of an old century that make NO sense in this new financial and economic climate.

Collins and Snowe turned their backs on the people that voted for them, so now we get rewarded with first turn at the trough. This whole deal reminds me of those stores where you and rent-to-own a VCR for $20 a month for 3 years.

Yet paving jobs got cut....Are we first in the state to do that?

This will stimulate us to be complacent until the money runs out, I'm afraid. I hope I'm wrong.

include a $10.7 million reconstruction of slightly less than 3 miles of Route 1A near Ellsworth this is way to much for only 3 miles. whose buddy is getting this contract

While getting some money moving through the state economy (even though it still just comes out of our pockets anyway), is probably a good thing, I'm not sure I'm very proud that I live in the state looking for the biggest or first handouts. In fact, if I was running the paper, I might just bury this headline. But then again this is Maine, where we love to budget and spend money before we even have it. Love those "projected" revenue streams that get spent 2-5 years before they are generated, and then when they don't live up to projections, its a major crisis. If I ran my household budget that way, I'd be living on the street.

great news...now Mainer's need to know who the employers are so that they can sign up for all these shovel-ready jobs....I hope they start hiring soon...a lot of folks are just barely making it by..

pcme2000: "include a $10.7 million reconstruction of slightly less than 3 miles of Route 1A near Ellsworth this is way to much for only 3 miles. whose buddy is getting this contract"

That road is awful, it needs to be reconstructed. holes so big your car can fall in it plus the tourists need a safe journey to bar harbor.

plus some of the money is being used to reconstruct the redbrige road. all the traffic is being sent there.

"Many children (and others) had gotten sick in recent yrs from the pollution in those streams."

Just another fine example of an idiot who believes everything she reads in the BDN. The Birch Stream crowd who made the claims of their children getting sick were a bunch of welfare low income moochers trying to milk what they saw as deep pockets.

Nothing ever said in this rag about the subject was ever proven out by why let the facts bother you.

Does Birch Stream have water qualtiy problems?

Of course it does but so does every waterway that runs through a heavily populated area.

Will bad water make kids sick?

Sure if you let the little welfare puppies go play in it and swim in it like these poor excuse for human beings were doing.

LubecKDeck: For your information, since you are so smart......I never said anyone did not have a right to their opinion. Never said that. I just stated mine. Boy, you sound like a real nice person. I never said anyone had to agree with me. I wonder what your problem is....I have ever right to think the way I do and state it, as you do. Just to call someone ignorant for an opinion! I might see someone calling someone ignorant here if they were being vile or attacking them personally but not for an opinion. You had better learn what the word ignorant really means.

re 10:57 AM Last paragraph. Well, I guess not surprising coming from you as that is something you would say. You must be a very compassionate person.....glad not everyone thinks as you do. These are children involved here who were born into circumstances without a choice in the matter!

tcosta, I am basically for the stimulus money coming into Maine, but you need to stop insulting people and try and figure out if they have a valid point. Maine isn't getting it's proportional share of the stimulus money. It is easier for us to put our government money to work right away because we don't have (yet) two major governments to bother with before getting projects approved. As much as we may complain about city hall, it is nothing like the labyrinthine hellscape that is NY city hall. That being said, Mrman4000's math was perfectly fine for the point he was trying to make since he was using the census bureau's estimate of the population of the United States and Maine and only incorrectly figured on the average household number being 4. The difference that makes in his math of what Mainers will pay out of pocket is about two thousand dollars off. That's two thousand dollars off of the 3.5 billion dollar figure, not the ten thousand dollar figure.

ydnar723: Actually, lots of states are hurting right now and trimming budgets.

In Michagan, some counties are actually turning their roads back to gravel because its cheaper than repaving.

The blind leading the blind.... how convienent. I'm sure Ellsworth is getting paved for Bar Harbor, but F the rest of the state right? Bad roads = Less tourists = less $$$$/Less Jobs. But whatever.

to go to gravel.... then every town needs at LEAST one grader and operator on duty at just about ALL times. Which would include the town purchasing a grader, or contracting one. We grade town roads in our town and others. In order for the roads to be gravel there will be ALOT of upkeep, like when whiny on this road call complaining her car is all muddy and the road is rough because it just rained for 3 days... there goes money down the drain. Id like to know how that will turn out, is the state going to supply this equipment and foot the cost because it's a state road, OR are they going to turn the responsibility over to the towns and pay them?

Can you say wash board???????

Not my abs, the road.

"Free Money?" asked Gov. Baldacci. "I'm in."

First you need a DUMB TRUCK DRIVERS license 'then you can apply.