To the editor:
I admire men with conviction, and dedication to a cause.
Messrs. Burbank, Lane, and Barletta are determined to push the subject of something called a “connector road,” facilitating traffic movement through the design and construction of an intra-island road designed to alleviate the crush of heavy seasonal traffic.
I respect these men and completely understand the driving force that impels them. It is a project that for me, rates neither a favorable or unfavorable position.
Pragmatically, however, the project lacks the necessary cohesiveness to pull together the community effort to make it happen. It is a project that mightily favors Rockport; a project that without Gloucester approval, dies at birth.
A new book is available at the Rockport Public Library. “The Island Woods,” by Mark Carlotto, published in 2012, is an overview of the natural resources of this island, the area central to Dogtown, and it is succinct and detailed, its narration easy to follow.
It is current enough for the author to mention the construction of a “connector road” several times. Given the scope of the book, Mr. Carlotta’s focus on this connector road is the Olde Rockport Road.
Lacking any civil engineering skill, or interest, I am not familiar enough with Mr. Burbanks’s proposal to comprehend its impact on island natural resources. What is clear, no such connector road can approach acceptance without the advise, consent, and participation of Gloucester, and why should Rockport expect Gloucester to leap at this opportunity?
The original concept, focused on the need for an emergency escape from Rockport involving ambulances. That concept went wide of the current mark, and now calls for a full blown traffic roadway to offload the flood of traffic we experience in the summer. To keep such a road confined to local use will require the installation of a Klingon cloaking device.
A feasibility study? Who defines it, pays for it, and brings the project into a state of reality?
A project management system would need creation at the beginning of this activity.
Remember the long-involved effort made by Rockport to lead the MBTA into our environment with that agency’s claims for much-improved performance.
Remember how this ended?
Read “A Master Plan for Downtown Rockport 2011,” and digest the blowoff given Rockport by the MBTA, an ending many townspeople expected at inception.
HERB WESCOTT
Rockport
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