Bennington Banner
June 7, 1999
Editorial

Go a little easier on us, Governor

Governor Howard Dean blew into Bennington Thursday with a message of some importance to those interested in improving the economy in this end of the state. We thank him for the message but wish he hadn’t delivered it in such a heavy-handed manner.

Southern Vermont needs a natural gas pipeline, he announced to the Banner editorial board, and it needs better roads. Most people in Bennington County would readily agree.

Specifically, he touted the new proposal by out-of-state investors to build a gas pipeline in two proposed plants in southwest Vermont, which would convert the gas into electricity. He went on to endorse an Agency of Transportation proposal to widen Highway 7 between Mt. Tabor and East Dorset in order to create a passing lane. These projects, Dean says, are vital to efforts to increase manufacturing employment in Bennington County. He may be right – but we haven’t heard enough yet to be sure. Neither proposal has received enough public airing to date to convince residents that it is the correct solution to a specific infrastructure shortfall.

Questions about the natural gas proposal will likely be answered during the next few months. The companies involved in this complex enterprise are just beginning to answer specific questions about the impact it will have on Bennington, Rutland and points in between.

The road project is a much simpler affair – but it’s already generated controversy because the AOT, in its haste to begin work, failed to warn the project in a timely manner.

But the governor is in a major hurry and he blew into town with what sounds like a threat connected to his message: He proclaimed that if the local business community doesn’t get behind these projects, he’ll quit working on bringing jobs to the area. We think such strong-arming at this point is both inappropriate and precipitous.

If the gas pipeline investors are able to present southwestern Vermont with a well-thought-out proposal, we believe they’ll receive the support of most citizens hereabouts. If not, they won’t. The same is true for the highway widening proposal. Once it’s properly aired to the communities affected, it either will or won’t sell itself.

Give us a chance, Governor. We need time to examine these projects and determine the merits of each. And if it turns out that either of them is flawed, we certainly expect that you won’t turn your back on us for pointing this out to you.