MARLBORO — It's good to see the road builders at work again on Route 5. Real people doing real work. At a time when jobs are hard to get. And the roads and bridges need attention. Thank you, Uncle Sam, for stimulating our local economy.
Soon, trucks will also be digging up Main Street, Brattleboro, because the sewer pipes need replacement (a scheduled project we've known for years).
The sad side is that the Main Street trenches could also have held both new downtown heating pipes and new fiber cable, had the public sector been on the ball.
You see, both ideas were proposed in 2007, the former on March 29 and the latter on Dec. 19. Vermont Yankee replacement electricity would have joined the mix, too.
The prospect of downtown heating pipes looked like a huge renewable breakthrough. Using European technology and experience, combined heat and power would be co-generated in one or more Windham County biomass plants and delivered to local homes and businesses.
Then the Selectboard, as well as the Windham Regional Commission executive director, applauded a municipal fiber communications proposal that would have established fiber-optic service to any home or business in the county that wanted it.
So, what happened? Now get this!
Vermont's economic development people trusted Vermont Yankee and FairPoint. (In the immortal words of Red Sox announcer Joe Castiglione, “Can you believe it?”) The town followed their lead, and what you see is what you have.
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To say that private corporations have their limits is this century's understatement.
What got us out of the Great Depression was jobs - some civil, eventually some military. They were created by public action.
Today's political leaders are placing us in a non-spending bind. They haven't learned.
Even the G-20 seem to have blown it.
Ask Ireland! Austerity today does not work!
Can we do better? Perhaps we can, and it will take public money to do it.