Bangor’s unsafe medians
I don’t know where Bangor got the idea to plug up Main Street with islands, but it is a bad idea and I feel it is unsafe. It already has caused one of the biggest traffic jams I have seen on Main Street, because if you have more than one car taking a left turn, which happens all the time on Main Street, the second car blocks the flow of traffic. If you need to take a left from a side road, you used to have the option of going in the middle lane and then merging in, but no more.
This winter, I imagine it will be even worse with big snowbanks on the islands, unless they are going to put the already too busy sidewalk plows out in the middle of the road plowing the snow back into the road.
Accidents along this corridor are bound to increase as already impatient drivers become more so. Maybe another solution would have been to add four or five crosswalks, like the ones by the library, federal building and on South Main Street in Brewer, another very busy road.
John McGinn
Bangor
Wind energy success
The news regarding the closure of the Great Northern Mill in Millinocket and Verso in Bucksport highlights the need to continue the growth of Maine’s new wind energy industry.
Maine’s wind industry has been a success in our rural economies. The industry has invested over $1.5 billion creating jobs, with an additional $2 billion to $4 billion planned in the next four years. The wind industry has also benefited rural economies through new income streams for large forest and farm landowners while installed assets generate tax revenues for local municipalities.
Our hearts immediately go out to the families that are affected by the plant closures through the loss of jobs. At the same time, we can’t ignore the effect this has on the forest landowners. These landowners make significant investment in properties that drive the Maine economy through forestry workers to the businesses in local communities that supply equipment, goods, services, and substantial taxes that keep local town offices and schools operating.
Large commercial forest landowners need diverse opportunities for revenues now more than ever. Landowners need to be allowed to lease lands to the production of clean renewable energy to supports their continued operations.
Wind is another of our abundant natural resources, and the state should support companies and individuals that responsibly harvest the natural resources to keep Maine’s economy humming.
My thoughts go those that are faced with losing a job. My thoughts also go to the opportunities we have for creating new prospects for future generations.
Paul Williamson
Maine Ocean & Wind Industry Initiative
Scarborough
National park support
I strongly support the creation of a new national park and recreation area along the East Branch of the Penobscot River, east of Baxter State Park. In 2012, I paddled down the East Branch of the Penobscot as part of a trip that began at Chamberlain Bridge, at the headwaters of the Allagash River, and ended in Medway. The East Branch is remote, wild and beautiful; it offers fantastic whitewater paddling in a world-class backcountry setting. It has changed remarkably little since Thoreau paddled it over 150 years ago. The river provides important salmon habitat, even more important now that dams have been removed from the lower Penobscot River. The forest along the river abounds in birds and wildlife, and the land has been designated as critical habitat for the threatened Canada lynx.
The park and recreation Area would connect with — and enhance — a vast network of conservation lands spanning 2 million acres across northern Maine. These lands include Baxter State Park, the Appalachian Trail (including the famed Hundred Mile Wilderness), the Debsconeag Wilderness and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.
Furthermore, the park and recreation area would generate badly-needed jobs in the Katahdin region, a region that has been struggling economically because of the decline of the paper industry. I urge others to support Elliotsville Plantation, Inc.’s proposal for a national park and recreation area and to visit this amazing piece of Maine’s North Woods.
Wendy Weiger
Greenville Junction
Maine for all
I feel a response to the column by Matthew Gagnon last Thursday titled “LePage is the real Maine” is necessary. Although I agreed with his overall analysis of the election results, I was sorry that he felt he had to play that tired divisive “who gets to be the real Mainer” card. Yes, Paul LePage is a quintessential Mainer, but so is Mike Michaud. And so are those who live in the “insulated liberal cocoons of elite media, academia or transplant coast,” as he calls them. There are many people who work in the media, work as professors or live in the coastal communities who were born here or have adopted this state as their home – they are part of this state too.
To imply that the values of Maine are the sole prerogative of the Republican Party and that if you don’t support Paul LePage you “don’t get it” reminds me of failed nativist movements that have plagued Maine in the past, like the Know Nothing movement of the 1830s and the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Except that in the past Francos like LePage, Michaud and Gagnon would have been the vilified enemy. So if we are going to work for the best interest of Maine let it be all of Maine and all Mainers.
Ray Estabrook
Belfast
Vet Centers offer help
I am writing in regards to the recent article “It’s an ugly truth,” which reported on 47 veterans who killed themselves in Maine last year. Veterans Centers are an important resource that should be noted. We have five Vet Centers, in Caribou, Bangor, Lewiston, Portland, and Sanford. They are staffed by fully licensed mental health professionals, many of whom are veterans themselves. There is no charge for this service and there is no wait list.
Our mission statement is “We are the people in VA who welcome home war veterans with honor by providing quality readjustment counseling in a caring manner. Vet Centers understand and appreciate Veterans’ war experiences while assisting them and their family members toward a successful post-war adjustment in or near their community.” Vet Centers provide services to combat veterans, their families, survivors of military sexual trauma, and the families of members killed in action.
We are just around the corner here in Bangor at the In Town Plaza. If you or a loved one are having problems related to your military experience, please call us or stop by to talk to us.
Constance Poulin
Glenburn