Don’t pave Michigan Road

To the editor:

Last year, Michigan Road was widened from the intersection at Shirley Lake Road north to the intersection at Lake Shore Circle. Now I understand that it is scheduled for paving this year in June.

That would be just fine; however, there is 1,200 feet of Michigan Road north of the intersection at Lake Shore that is hardly a four-wheeler trail. That area was supposed to be improved four years ago. A survey was done, trees were cut, a promise from someone in planning was made that the road was scheduled for widening that fall, and that was the extent of it. Nothing further was done.

Our neighbors at the north end of Michigan Road have been enduring a road not usable during break up and having to plow themselves all winter with no place to push the snow off the sides.

Now they have had to move to town, abandon their beautiful home and are in foreclosure. They just could not afford another winter of trying to plow the road.

Then, on top of that, MEA would not even give them the same quote each time they applied. Why? Most times they said they would not bring power down until the road was improved.

Would you bring this to the attention of those in power to halt the paving and just improve this section. We do not need paving anyway. The gravel is just fine. The paving just creates even more four-wheeler traffic from children ages 4 to 16; something that should be against the law, but seems to be tolerated on borough roads throughout the Valley.

John Bradley

Willow

Fund program that works

To the editor:

As federal spending dries up in one area, it still goes up somewhere else. Twelve years ago there was one federal program that did work — $2 million went for kilns and planers.

Out of that money, about 12 full-time jobs were created. The first go-around was 80 percent funding. With some money left for a second go the next year, funding was dropped to 60 percent. I have been trying to get it to happen again ever since then only to fail, on both the state and federal levels.

Last year was asking for funding from our governor, only to be told that the state has a good loan program. For some reason, neither really wants to create jobs, they just say they do. Now the state Department of Commerce and Economic Development is getting federal money for China trade so manufactures can sell their goods. They sent out 160 letters with invites to go to China and show their goods and hope for future markets.

Guess what? There were 160 no-gos. I called the Department of Commerce and talked to several people, and I managed to convince one of them to try and secure funds for more kilns. State budget will be done by May this year and it might not happen. I was also told that federal budgets are drying up and it might not be able to happen.

I urge everyone who would like to see a program that works, call your reps and economic leaders and ask for funding so our natural resource can have value-added and jobs created.

Jim Colier

Wrangle