Of all the possible outcomes we thought about as this Gateway 1 project ground along, we never thought our new Governor would give his blessing to the DOT kicking it to the curb March 1.
Wow.
Apparently all that talk about changing the way the state does business wasn’t just talk. That’s refreshing.
Of course this means close to a decade of effort involving millions of dollars and thousands upon thousands of hours of labor – mostly volunteer labor, but sprinkled with plenty of state-paid planning expertise – was just tossed overboard like an immature lobster. That’s disturbing, especially if the decision was made out of a blind adherence to principle over prudence.
Ironically, the state’s action eliminates the local control option Gateway 1 opponents based their opposition around; the very control LePage’s action was intended to support. If just four more of the 20 towns involved had voted down further participation this year, Gateway 1 would have gone away on the strength of the will of the people. Now with a sweeping executive decision, LePage has made any local decision a moot point.
Officially, at the moment, Gateway 1 has been set aside for other priorities. It may be revived in some fashion at some future date; it may not. We don’t know.
We don’t even know what the final Gateway 1 was going to look like. At the time of its apparent demise, it was still in development.
We do feel the final form was going to end up somewhere in the middle, far short of the un-apologetic anti-American denial of basic property rights its detractors worried about and equally far short of the rosy future its strongest supporters dreamed about.
The fallout will become apparent in the coming days and weeks and years, and make no mistake there will be fallout. The governor just threw out a plan that was more than six years in the making. There is still plenty of money on the table in various stages of development, and some towns are still going to the polls with the questions on their town warrants.
These little pesky details will become known in time, and when they do, they, more than any poll or pollster, will ultimately tell us the wisdom of the Governor’s action.
Time will tell. In the meantime, right now, we’ll give Gov. Paul LePage credit for walking the walk he talked about on the campaign trail, for better or worse.
