There is a great need now for jobs and an opportunity to restore the state’s economy. Maine’s roads are the worst ever in a decade, and some bridges are more and more dangerous. How can the state claim to be Vacationland when you can’t get there from here … safely?

Public television had a wonderful historical film recently on the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Work Projects Administration following the Great Depression.

Thousands of jobs were developed, and the infrastructure was finally caught up, along with hundreds of state and national parks being improved.

With those jobs, many workers developed new job skills, which led to ongoing vocations.

Such needed, honest work also saved millions of dollars in unemployment compensation, while offering important jobs, training and needed improvements to the states.

Aren’t those worthy goals for Republicans, and Democrats as well?

Don’t those necessary jobs offer a priority for now and a prosperous future?

My father, a Kentucky farmer, worked in 1920 for a brief period for the Civilian Conservation Corps following Army service. Twenty-five years later, I stayed in the remaining CCC barracks at a state park in Carrolton, Ky., for two summers.

Our elected officials need to take on the most important tasks of jobs and much-needed failing infrastructure. They should review the successful CCC and WPA programs.

Such needed jobs now seem a better payoff in the long run than squabbles over who gets tax breaks that add to the deficit.

R. Stephen Drane, Auburn