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Editorial
Wednesday, July 8, 1998
HIGHWAY NEEDS
The letter sent by the head of OMYA's American
operations to Governor Howard Dean last month
expresses exasperation with the permit process in
Vermont and also a lack of understanding about how the
process works.
OMYA has sought permits for an expansion to its
marble operations at its plant in Florence and its
quarry in Middlebury. But John M. Mitchell, president
of Pluess-Staufer Industries, the U.S. branch of OMYA,
said the plant would take its $160 million expansion
elsewhere if the company didn't get the permits it
needed.
That is a serious threat, though Mitchell said it
was not a threat. And it is a sign of why the state
needs to pay attention to the infrastructure that
allows its economy to grow.
In fact, the Dean administration was baffled
about what night have provoked Mitchell's ire in as
much the Agencies of Commerce and Community
Development and of Transportation have been working
with OMYA to resolve its difficulties. It is possible
that Mitchell's letter was written for the benefit of
his own bosses at OMYA.
The main concern about OMYA's expansion has been
the increased truck traffic on Route 7 from Middlebury
to Florence. It is now widely understood that the
section of Route 7 south of Middlebury is not an
adequate roadway. Doubling the number of trucks
traveling through Brandon has been a subject to which
the District 9 Environmental Commission has had to
give serious thought.
The state has begun working with OMYA to develop
a railroad connection to lessen the traffic. The fact
remains that, when major investment in Vermont is in
danger of being diverted because our main traffic
arteries are inadequate, that is a sign for state
government to pay attention to the problem.
At the same time, Mitchell is misguided if he
thinks a phone call to the governor can or ought to
solve his problems with the permitting process. His
letter expressed impatience that the governor's office
had been slow to respond to his appeals for help on an
Act 250 permit and a wastewater discharge permit.
In fact, the governor generally does not involve
himself in the quasi-judicial process of Act 250, and
Mitchell is mistaken if he believes the governor can
pick up the phone and order compliance with OMYA's
request. Vermonters don't want political figures
working to short-circuit the environmental review
process.
Still, Mitchell's public blast has raised the
stakes in a public way, reminding those involved in
the regulatory review that timely action is desirable
and unwarranted delays can be costly. Sometimes that
is a message that bureaucrats need to hear.
The larger problem remains inattention to
Vermont's highway system. This problem has been
highlighted recently, not just with the issue of Route
7, but with the bottleneck of Route 4 and the
misguided effort by the Legislature to curb the
traffic of large trucks through Woodstock. In fact,
-- Legislature and the Agency of Transportation is
likely to worsen traffic through Woodstock. By
cracking down on 53-foot trucks, the state forces
shipments through Woodstock to travel in 48-foot
trucks, which will require 10 percent more trips to
transport an equivalent amount of cargo.
These issues are likely to receive more attention
as Vermont assesses its priorities for the use of an
infusion of federal transportation money. Short-term
non-solutions, as in Woodstock, will no longer do. It
is time the needs of the highway system, viewed as a
whole, get attention.