‘Ring Route’ favored

There have been numerous articles appearing in the Bangor Daily News lately regarding the I-395 and Route 9 transportation study. Unfortunately, what has become clear is that the news and letters printed are thoroughly biased against the 3EIK-2 alternative (aka the Ring Route).

It has been intimated that the entire town of Holden is against this alternative. This is not the case. There are many people who support 3EIK-2, not just those few individuals repeatedly quoted and printed in your paper who decry its merits. We, and many of our neighbors and friends, support 3EIK-2 because it has by far the fewest overall impacts to all three towns involved.

Yes, it would cut diagonally through Holden, but isn’t prevailing topography a more significant factor in road alignment than a political line? Yes, it goes along the edges of some major deer yards, but isn’t that preferable to running through the middle of them? Yes, it cuts through rural backlands, but isn’t that preferable to closely paralleling existing residential roads and impacting existing communities? Yes, two residences may be razed to build the road, but isn’t that preferable to destroying 10 to 12 homes for another alternative?

Yes, property owners will be affected, but hasn’t 3EIK-2 been designed to more closely follow property lines so that fewer properties are split? And no, it does not directly benefit the town of Holden, but isn’t an investment in an east-west highway system to promote regional and international commerce worth the sacrifice of some Holden land? Maine Department of Transportation statistics show that 3EIK-2 would have far less impact than other permutable alternatives studied. We believe, as do many others in Holden, Brewer and Eddington, that selecting 3EIK-2 as the preferred alternative is the most prudent decision.

Doug Schmidt

Deborah Schmidt

Holden