Painting

marks of

direction
There were multiple public meetings and millions of dollars spent to address traffic concerns when the Wal-Mart Supercenter was proposed in Auburn. There were angry words and reassuring traffic studies.

There was a huge expenditure of energy and money and still the intersection approaching Whiteholm Plaza is dangerous and confusing because neither the city of Auburn nor the Department of Transportation has re-applied what sparing white and yellow lines were painted on the roads there years ago.

Sure, there are lane signs hanging overhead, but they don’t define the path nearly as well as a fresh coat of paint would.

People who travel that intersection frequently have it figured out. Those who don’t, drift across lanes because it isn’t clear until drivers approach traffic signals exactly where they should be.

Many an angry stare has been delivered to drivers who cross Turner Street intending to drive straight up Mt. Auburn Avenue but find themselves in the right-turn only lane as they approach the former Wal-Mart site, forced to squeeze back into the traffic flow.

City and traffic planners surely know of the congestion because the concept of a 1,901 space parking lot and a 40 percent hike in traffic was well wrung out in public discussions. Traffic studies exist and there were early warnings of increased accident rates at the now highly-traveled crossroads.

The paint on the Longley Bridge was re-applied last week and the clarity of traffic flow there is now almost startling. That kind of clarity along Mt. Hope Avenue and Turner Street is long overdue.


Taxing silence


The town of Oxford doesn’t want to take ownership of an increasing number of foreclosed properties. Neither does Mechanic Falls, and neither do a growing number of municipalities where property taxes are increasingly strapping already overburdened families.

In Oxford, the average overdue tax bill is less than $400 because most of the foreclosures are on mobile homes situated on leased land. In other towns, longtime family homesteads are bearing liens for the first time as people struggle to pay tax bills.

In most cases, town managers are able to work out payment plans through understanding selectmen and councilors, but that puts greater burden on remaining property owners to pay their own bills and subsidize thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes.

In the rush to push through some kind of health care reform before the end of the legislative session, the debate on property tax reform has fallen nearly silent. It can’t.

During the campaign season the topic of tax reform was a top priority among voters and candidates and, since the economy hasn’t turned around and the state deficit continues to grow, that hasn’t changed.

We urge property owners to speak up and ask legislators to survey their constituent towns on foreclosure rates.

If reforms are not built this year, the unacceptable consequence will be ever higher local tax rates and more people pushed out of their homes.


[email protected]