Go with cargo port

As a third-generation business owner who’s vitally interested in (no, worried about) the future of local businesses and jobs here in Maine, I join Gov. King and the Greater Bangor Chamber of Commerce in support of the Sears Island cargo port project.

Currently, central Maine is not served by port facilities adequate to compete in a global market. I’d like to underscore a few of the points made in a recent position paper by our Chamber of Commerce:

The Mack Point facilities cannot handle modern cargo ships with an average beam of 100 feet and an average draft of 28 feet.

Mack Point has limited storage capacity and a pier that was designed in the 1920s for coastal schooners.

The berthing area is only 100 feet wide with an average depth of 32 feet at mean low water.

The world is shrinking around us. As Gov. King is fond of pointing out, Maine is not merely at the top right corner of a map of the United States; it’s really at the midpoint between California and Europe! In order for business to compete and create jobs, Maine must construct the necessary transportation facilities to service a global economy. While I, too, don’t care for the notion of exporting wood chips overseas, Sears Island is much more important than just wood chips.

As Maine continues to participate, fully, in the current recession, it becomes imperative that we create transportation infrastructures like the Sears Island cargo port and improved rail lines, if we’re going to provide jobs for our children … and their children. W. Tom Sawyer Jr. Sawyer Environmental Services, Bangor