Today, I was driving from Calais to Lubec and saw the most ridiculous thing ever: A road stripe-painting truck was putting the centerlines on the section of U.S. 1 north of Whiting – you know, the part that is so crumbled it looks more like a four-wheeler trail than a U.S. highway. It seemed crazy for them to be putting paint on this crumbled mess of a road. It badly needs to be repaved.

Last week, I drove to Bangor on the Airline (Route 9). To get to it, I took Route 192 from Machias to Wesley, and on the way back, Route 193 from Deblois to Cherryfield. Both of these vital connector roads are in extremely rough shape.

When Donald Trump was campaigning for president, he said he’d propose a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure to fix our crumbling bridges, roads and obsolete airports and railways. This would provide needed jobs in construction.

When can we expect this to happen? From what I hear, Trump and the Republicans controlling Washington have now put tax cuts for the wealthy as their top budget priority. I guess if they fly in their helicopters and personal jets, they don’t need to worry about the rough roads the rest of us have to deal with.

I would urge that Rep. Bruce Poliquin, Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Angus King take a drive Down East to see what we’re dealing with. That might actually shake things up. (But please, take it slow to avoid damaging your car.)

Samuel Winch

Lubec

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