The Bangor Daily News recently published a commentary by Richard Campbell announcing his opposition to the proposed east-west highway. Campbell is a candidate for Congress for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District; the 2nd District covers most of the northern two-thirds of Maine. We support Tim Woodcock, also a candidate for the 2nd District because he understands that we must pursue bold initiatives to strengthen our regional economy.

Most of Maine’s 2nd District is under great economic stress. Throughout the 1990s, while the national economy was booming, we were falling behind. The Census 2000 revealed growing opportunity gaps between the northern two-thirds of Maine and the southern third. Most disturbing was the flight of our young. In the 1990s, in almost every county of the 2nd Congressional District, the youthful part of the population declined.

The reason we are losing population is simple: We simply do not have enough decent jobs with decent benefits. To the contrary, our job opportunities tend to pay less, they often have little or no benefits, and they are often insufficient to support a family forcing many of us to work more than one job. Statistics prove these points. For example, median income in the 1st District is $51,488 and in the 2nd District is only $39,188. More than half of all of Maine’s wealthiest citizens live in only two counties: York and Cumberland. As Tim Woodcock has put it, we in this part of Maine, “work harder and longer for less.”

The east-west highway and the extension of Interstate 95 are not silver bullets. Because safe and efficient transportation connections are essential to any healthy economy, these projects are essential to the long-term economic health of the northern two-thirds of Maine. Put another way, isolation will not create a strong economy and our region proves it.

Five years ago, the state of Maine commissioned a task force to study why large areas of Maine were not prospering while other areas were. In 1998, the Task Force to Study Equal Opportunity for All Regions of the State issued its findings and recommendations. Chief among them was that the difficulty of safely and efficiently moving people and goods in the western, eastern and northern portions of Maine was strangling their economies and that the construction of an east-west highway and the extension of Interstate 95 in Aroostook County would open these regions to more normal economic growth.

Both projects are essential because they complement one another. For much of Aroostook County, goods moving to or arriving from the west use Interstate 90 beginning in Massachusetts. An east-west highway would place much of Aroostook County within two to three hours of a transit system tied to Montreal, upstate New York, and the transportation systems to which they are connected. This would greatly reduce the time and expense of shipping west to or from Aroostook County.

There is, moreover, a growing awareness throughout this broad area that we are all part of a larger region. Recently, the legislatures of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the St. Lawrence County (New York) Economic Development Corridor Working Group, passed virtually identical resolutions asking the U.S. Department of Transportation and the federal Canadian transport agency, Transport Canada, to jointly conduct an assessment of sufficiency of all forms of transportation links in the region: road, rail, port and air. This resolution has been supported by both of Maine’s senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. In Vermont, more than 100 members of the House of Representatives co-sponsored this resolution.

Better transportation is essential but, by itself, is not enough. We must continue to work and to improve our education and health care systems and to lessen taxes and make all of Maine friendlier to employers.

We stand at a critical juncture for the future of the northern two-thirds of Maine. To find solutions to our weak region-wide economy, we must forge new alliances with Maine’s neighbors. We cannot shrink from this task just because it will require hard work and the creation of new coalitions. Because, unless altered, our young will continue to leave, our communities will not be replenished, we will struggle to maintain our education, health and transportation systems and we will watch our very way of life slip away.

Tim Woodcock has the experience and the vision to bring new opportunities to our part of Maine by initiating a new era of regional cooperation and by working for projects such as the east-west highway and the extension of Interstate 95, which are essential to strengthening our economy and reclaiming our future.

Sam Collins is the president of S.W. Collins Co. in Caribou; Norman Ferguson is a state senator from Hanover (Oxford County); Harry Bailey is a former state representative from Grand Lake Stream; and Tim Varney is a Bangor businessman.