The op-ed column by Bruce Kyle published in the Dec. 1-2 Bangor Daily News, titled, “Resort of last resort for Washington County,” was read with great interest. I’d like to make a few comments.

There is no one in Washington County or Charlotte County, New Brunswick, who is proud of the drug problem we have in this area; and many good people are diligently working at addressing the problem with some success. Yes, we find this drug problem and our economic woes disturbing and embarrassing. The poor economy fuels the fire for drug abuse, whether it be alcohol or narcotics. And, in turn, these problems make this area less attractive to business and industry.

So we have a dilemma. But make no mistake; just because there hasn’t been an uproar regarding our problems doesn’t mean our community and business leaders in Washington County have not been working hard along with our legislative delegation to urge the powers that be in Augusta to help us gain the necessary tools to decrease our unemployment and expand our economy in order to enjoy the type of economy that the rest of the state and country have enjoyed.

We have a plan and a direction, but need a little help. We are not Oliver Twist saying, “Please, sir, may I have some more?” and we are not “taking a thumb in the eye without a whimper.” Having met with the transportation commissioner on a number of occasions,

I cannot believe he feels the people of Calais or the rest of Washington County live in paranoia. He has been responsive and sensitive to our problems and needs.

The governor recently visited Calais and other county areas. He made poignant remarks about our economy and how pleased he was at the progress made regarding our soon-to-be built Heritage Center.

He recognizes our educational problems and our need to work together within our county to accomplish the tasks ahead in economic, drug and educational issues.

It must be difficult and frustrating to have an area of your state to be prospering and the other to be one of the poorest in the country. But I’m proud that we are working diligently on these problems in conjunction with the state. I applaud Gov. King for his candid comments and thank him for taking the time to visit our area and listen to our problems.

We in Washington County cannot sit back and tell ourselves that Augusta will fix our problems. We must do that ourselves and I feel we’ve made a good start with the Heritage Center and the Greenway which connects Calais and Key West.

We seemingly are perceived as a victim of decades-long neglect and subsequent social decay.

That perception is right. We are now aware of our problems and feel that by pulling together we can reverse a process that began at the turn of the 20th century when Washington County was an area booming with industries, from sardines to lumber and shipping. The transportation systems and infrastructure changed, but we did not. Some products were more cheaply transported by means other than ship. We fell asleep only to wake up and find that our population in Calais alone dropped from 8,000 to 10,000 people down to 3,700 people. There should be neither fingers pointed nor blame placed – that is irrelevant. The importance lies in correcting the problems.

A resort in Washington County would be a boon to our tourist industry from here to Bar Harbor, which is a legitimate and logical link. We need a drawing card for people to see what a beautiful area we have. Although a resort would not be a fix-all for this economically depressed area, it could jump start a stagnant economy that could attract ancillary business and/or industry and allow us to share in the economic growth at the same time as other areas of the state and country.

Judith Alexander is the former mayor of Calais.