Do you favor authorizing the Piscataquis County Commissioners to issue general obligation bonds or notes in the name of Piscataquis County in the principal amount not to exceed $952,000, the proceeds to be used for the purpose of county economic development, and to assist in the creation or preservation of new or existing employment opportunities for the residents of Piscataquis County, through allocation of funds to the following projects:

. Extension of Greenville Industrial Park – $131,000

. Completion of the Composites Incubator building in the Greenville Industrial Park – $150,000

. Water line extension related to the Pleasant River Lumber Co. expansion in Dover-Foxcroft – $400,000

. Purchase and/or development of land for the Eastern Piscataquis Industrial Park by the towns of Brownville and Milo – $271,000

Piscataquis County deserves a chance to remake its economy, stop the departure of good jobs and attract new residents to this beautiful part of the state. To do this,

it needs to invest in itself in a way that will strengthen the businesses it has while anticipating new industries around the region. The bond voters there will see Nov. 2 is a small but crucial step toward the county’s future.

Campaign season is rarely the time to haul out uncomfortable facts about yourself, but the Jobs for Piscataquis political action committee has been refreshingly blunt. “Piscataquis County is one of the poorest counties in Maine,” its flier about the bond question states. “It’s time to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and stop waiting for the state and federal governments to come to our rescue.” In promoting this bond question, that’s exactly what it is doing.

Each of the four projects in the question strengthens the entire county – the expansion of a lumber mill and the simultaneous investment in a facility for high-tech wood composites is an ideal example of what Piscataquis could achieve. The water line in Dover-Foxcroft would keep a major, traditional business here and thriving; the wood-composites center, with help from the University of Maine, would help develop new businesses by offering lower-cost leases and equipment rental, business-plan counseling and assistance with loans and legal services.

As with many other communities around the state, Milo, Brownville and Greenville need new or expanded places they can market that offer land immediately available for development. Industrial parks give these communities a chance to attract companies that will provide help to the region while at the same time focusing the communities’ marketing on specific types of industry.

Piscataquis is the only county able to issue voter-approved general obligation bonds, an authority given by the Legislature in 2002 because it recognized the size of the towns in the county prevented them individually from raising sufficient funding. Bonds such as the one on the Nov. 2 ballot are the counties’ chance to work together to improve the future for everyone. Piscataquis voters should give it their support.