Dear Editor:

The Boothbay Board of Selectmen has agreed to use $6,375 of town funds to finance a video which will, to quote Ryan Leighton of the BRCTV, “be an informational piece and used strictly as a tool for you guys (selectmen) to educate the voters ... Our idea is to produce a 6-8 minute video which concisely illustrates what benefits can happen.” This hardly passes muster as “unbiased.” It is, rather, a misuse of taxpayers’ money for a partisan purpose.  

An unbiased report would interview and study all sides of the roundabout proposal. A month ago, at a town meeting, the board was asked to find an objective traffic consultant unconnected to the local DOT to give an independent report since the DOT was already committed to the plan, given the work already done and paid for at the behest of the roundabout’s prime benefactor.

The board, instead, hired a consultant recommended by the DOT. This is neither objective nor does it pass the smell test of real reporting.

And yet, once again the money is to come from the citizens … many of whom are still waiting for answers about “why this plan? Why that location? Why disrupt the traffic flow on the road which is, remember, the evacuation route of the peninsula? What accident ratio has there actually been at the intersection of Route 27 and Corey Lane? Why do we need to spend $1.13million to "improve traffic flow" on those few days each year when there is a surge of traffic?  

Since we don’t have a speed problem and the main purpose of a roundabout is to diminish speed (see: Google/http/www.fhwa.gov/publications/research/safety/00675 et alia), why is a roundabout needed? And if it is, might it not be more appropriate further north, where Route 27, Country Club Road and the newly designated lanes for the new club entrance merge? Clear answers to all questions, concerns and alternatives would help the public not feel the "selectmen are doing things behind closed doors,” as the Register quoted one of them as regretting, and would clarify if support of the plan could be justified.

Rhoda A. Weyr

Boothbay