Since 1960 I have lived in Presque Isle and am now a retired optometrist.

I was born in Calais in the 1930s and grew up in Milltown, Calais, Alexander and Machias.

My family – a grandfather and an uncle – ran Varnum’s Dairy, which was located four miles west from the intersection of Routes 1 and 9 – we called it Jake Quinten’s corner.

My mother’s brother Harold worked for about 40 years on the Moosehorn Preserve, so I’m a bit aware of its history.

When I lived in Milltown as a small child, some of the first milk I drank came from Foster Higgins’ dairy farm where that state highway department is now planning to locate a new bridge.

Why would any “intelligent” group want to turn right at Jake’s corner, travel down Route 1 through the town of Brain Cross in the Moosehorn preserve and turn left in Milltown, when they could go straight ahead at the end of Route 9, cross the river and connect easily with Canadian highways?

Could this have something to do with politics in Augusta?

Dr. Norman K. Varnum

Presque Isle