As we inch closer to another summer of cars inching through Wiscasset (and Edgecomb and sometimes Newcastle), the Maine Department of Transportation is facing opposition at every turn in its latest effort to ease this historic traffic jam.
In addition to litigious landlords, mad merchants, and preservation purists, the DOT now has to grapple with a new challenge from an unlikely source: Midcoast Conservancy.
This nonprofit land trust wants the DOT to change its mind about razing the Haggett Garage, where it has been a tenant since its formation Jan. 1, 2016.
We appreciate Midcoast Conservancy’s desire to make a commitment to downtown Wiscasset. We have no doubt it is a good citizen of the neighborhood and would continue to be so, but we also have no doubt that it will contribute wherever it ends up.
We don’t want to see the DOT needlessly tear down this building, but if it needs the space for the project, and it says no other space will do, the improvement of the perennial traffic logjam trumps the inconvenience of relocation for one tenant of one office building.
As for the merchants, the closest we come to doing business in downtown Wiscasset during July and August is buying hot dogs at the Quik-Stop after taking the “locals bypass” up Hooper Street.
Relieving traffic downtown will make business better, not worse.
Look at Damariscotta. It has a bypass and its downtown is thriving. Wiscasset isn’t even getting a bypass! Downtown will still have heavy traffic all summer. And we think people will adjust to the new parking layout just fine.
To the preservation purists, Wiscasset today doesn’t look like Wiscasset 100 years ago or 200 years ago. Why do we want to freeze it in this time – 2017?
As a part of Lincoln County history ourselves and an organization that plays a significant role in documenting the county’s history, we appreciate healthy support for historic preservation.
But there is a difference between a desire to respect the past and a wish to freeze-dry the present, and the balance in Wiscasset is tipping toward the latter.
Don’t get us wrong – we have concerns about the DOT project. The new traffic light at the intersection of Routes 1 and 27 and the promise of two more scare us to death that traffic will back up so far we won’t be able to make it from our office to Sheepscot Road!
We also continue to support the concept of a pedestrian bridge between Red’s and Sarah’s as a piece of the solution, though we can only imagine what the preservationists would say about that.
But something needs to happen to address the traffic issue, which affects the entire region – not just Wiscasset.
We are confident there is no perfect solution. But let’s work with the DOT, not against it, to make this effort as effective as it can be.
