To the editor:
For some time the Department of Transportation has been working on a proposal to build a North/South Highway from I-95 to the Saint John Valley. This is a very good concept and one that has been helped along by the funding made possible by our own Senator Collins. As part of this project many routes have been explored and have meet with varying mixed views from citizens from Fort Kent to Houlton. In reality though, beyond all the local desires for the new road is a financial hurdle that will likely drive the ultimate design and possibility of its completion. The money allocated thus far is not sufficient to build the whole route and with increased pressures on new road funding this entire project being completed is unfortunately not likely to happen in any current budget. This being said the most current portions that are being entertained are a bypass of Presque Isle, one of Caribou and some upgrades to Route 161.
Here is where I feel we need to be more conscience of what the Presque Isle portion may mean for current businesses and future residences to be built here. After over three years of having a business on the corner of Academy and Main streets and now one block up on Academy St., I have had a unique view of what the traffic flow is in our downtown. The admitted problem with congestion in the State St. to Academy St. sections caused by local trucking traveling from the west (Ashland and Mapleton) to McCain Food’s and Huber and from the east to Tater meal and the plants in Ashland, combined with trucks from the Caribou Area coming to these same locations causes the center of town to be congested with heavy trucks. I see hundreds weekly going by my office.
We have very little North/South trucking issues as the trucks from the valley mostly go on 1A avoiding PI altogether and our north bound trucks mostly are delivering to PI businesses and are necessary traffic McCain’s and Huber traffic form the south all use 1A from Mars Hill and also are not an issue for us. Because of these realities I began to be more interested in how the I-95 oriented bypass would solve these issues for us.
In the process of educating myself I have read the studies and have spoken to Ray Faucher from the DOT, because his presentations were about the issues I had been seeing first hand. In conjunction with this DOT study I also had some insight as a staff volunteer for Sen. Richard Kneeland by being involved with the Senators dealing with the DOT, going back 10 years, when he secured funding for a truck connector road. It would have been located approximately from the end of the Parkhurst Siding Road (Flo’s Inn) over the farm owned by McCain to the end of the Station Road in Easton. This was in the stages to be engineered when the I-95 extension plan came into being. By now it was around 1998 and the DOT elected not to build this connector road and instead elected to combine it with the highway project.
PI should have never rolled over and accepted this as a compromise. Had we forced the issue we would have a workable truck connector that would help alleviate the downtown congestion.
Coming forward to today we are being presented four or 5five new alignments for roads as possibilities for the I-95 corridor bypass of Presque Isle. All of these roads center on an easterly bypass of the city. They all will begin near to Danny Stewart’s farm (the “Pumpkin Patch”) on U.S. 1 to the south and eventually come to an area near to the intersection of the end of State Street and the Fort Road, then proceeding over the river to connect back onto the Caribou Road to our north.
The issue with route as expressed in the meeting that was held in combination with the City Council, Tom Stevens and the Planning Board on Oct18th was that this is allowing traffic to flow better in a North/South direction but does little to alleviate the East/West trucking issue. The route infringes on valuable farmland and hems the city with a false barrier for our future growth.
We have developed north to the river west to the stream and the Mapleton line and are hemmed by Clark Brook Hill and the State Park to our south. The logical and preferred place for Presque Isle to grow is to our East. The bypass, unlike many roads, is limited access and cannot be crossed but at two or three places. This will split farms and cause difficulty for future development of sewer and water infrastructure once the city grows to need these services to the east. The road will connect to the current Rte 1 North and South of the city and really does not make for an appreciably more speedy trip past town.
Beyond the issues of curtailing development to the east there is a financial loss to the taxpayers as this property (bypass right of way) had it a commercial or residential use could be producing property taxes for us. The next cost is why do we need to spend millions of dollars for a bypass when the short connector (mentioned earlier) could help to remove the truck traffic at a much lower cost?
In the meeting the most worrisome item I heard was that the DOT expects that this will remove 7,000 vehicles a day from Main Street. I realize many are passing through, but how any spend money, eating, buying gas or fuel, impulse buying from seeing a store window? If you multiply this number for a year that is 2.5 million vehicles that will go by PI and not see our shops, restaurants, gas stations, car dealers, and service businesses. If just a small fraction of these cars spent a dollar or even $10 isn’t that a lot to lose for speeding someone’s trip past PI by a couple of minutes? Would it not be better to encourage the DOT to use these funds to make changes in the other parts of the Route 1 Corridor for wider shoulders and better passing zones to benefit the whole county? The millions spent on this short section of road could do a lot of good if put to the use of upgrading the balance of the route. If travel ease North and South is the goal this would really make an impact.
The Planning Board members have looked at this issue and have made some very sound judgments as to what our current and future needs are for traffic and have put it into the comprehensive plan which is in the development stages. The have rightly identified the crucial need for a good route to take the east west trucks to their destinations and out of the downtown. They also have questioned the appropriateness of the easterly by-pass route for many of the reasons I have related above. They have done their homework and with their PI hats on they have made sound choices for our growth.
Well if everyone agrees why do I care and what was this long letter for? As the meeting progressed it became apparent that the City Manager has not been directed to fight the easterly proposal since many of the councilors have either given up hope of changing the mind of the DOT or have a more regional view of helping our neighboring communities by allow them to zip past the city on there way back to the old route one south of town. If the whole highway project were to be built this time savings would be different, but in reality we are not talking about that.
I’m afraid that the council has been mislead about how the citizens feel about a by-pass. One councilor said “when did all of this talk of not wanting an easterly bypass come up?” He is a good man I’m sure is telling the truth. So do you know who is to blame? Me, you and everyone else in town who has not been engaged in the process enough.
Well it is now crunch time and the comprehensive plan needs to be voted up or down with the recommendations of the Planning Board. In the coming month more meetings will be held regarding this issue by the Planning Board and the City Council and finally a public hearing on the matter. I hope you will attend these meetings and see for yourself what is going on before it is too late.
Presque Isle
