The Sears Island saga, updated in your May 16-17 issue, represents an apparently endless and fruitless, but expensive, experiment with the central economic planning. Hasn’t Maine heard enough about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the failure of its centrally planned economy?

If industry needs a port at Searsport, why haven’t private investors come forward to expand Mack Point, or to develop Sears Island? The rosy predictions of the Booz-Allen and Hamilton report that a container port at Sears Island would thrive were disputed in a study commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency and also by the Maine Times survey (November 28, 1986), that found no one interested in using the port. Yet the state has continued to invest money in what now, in the recession of the 1990s, will surely be a useless white elephant.

Your report, however, hints at the obvious future use of Sears Island, namely as a state park. While this would not provide many year-round jobs, neither would an unused port. Many jobs would be created to construct the roads, boat-launching ramps, parking areas, campgrounds, trails, and other facilities. Local businesses would benefit from patronage from tourists intercepted (or rescued) from the hordes heading to or from Acadia. Ask Bar Harbor if that park is valuable to their economy. It also would enhance the quality of life of inland Mainers who might want to enjoy their own coast once in a while. Rutherford H. Platt Professor of geography University of Massachusetts Amherst