State officials have to stick their heads in the lion’s mouth from time to time; it goes with their jobs. This month we report on two such times, both involving the Department of Transportation. One is an effort by the DOT to plan the future of coastal Route 1 in hopes of avoiding community dust-ups like the one three years ago in Warren, where folks stood in the way of bulldozers in hopes of saving trees. From the DOT’s standpoint, at least, it was a public relations disaster; the “Gateway Project” is the agency’s attempt to forestall another one in the future.
The other has to do with Sears Island, a place that’s probably responsible for more gray hairs among politicians and bureaucrats than any other in the state. As we report this month, the DOT held a meeting May 30 on its Sears Island Planning Initiative. Like the Gateway Project it’s an apparent effort to get the “stakeholders” together before they climb into their bunkers and begin firing.
Did it work? Well, there was some shouting and the moderator had to step in. But participants heard the beginning, at least, of a discussion of Sears Island’s future before a specific project is proposed. In a polarized society like ours, where we so often talk at rather than to each other, it’s encouraging — sort of.