Gov. Granholm, send money now

March 22, 2006

(Editor's note: This letter was addressed to Gov. Jennifer Granholm)

To the Editor:

It has recently been reported that your office has plans to fund the local match requirements on federally funded road construction projects. We have $12 million dollars at stake in Otsego County and desperately need your help.

With the recent loss of over 200 jobs at Georgia-Pacific, Otsego County's second-largest employer, our need for jobs is great and the likelihood of passing a local millage to fund the $4.5 million match for the I-75 crossover project is now slim. As residents, we know that the source of gridlock in our area is not due to local traffic problems, but results from the interstate splitting our town in half and the heavy volume of commercial and tourist traffic along M-32, the east/west northern truck route.

Otsego County as a tourist destination needs this project to relieve the traffic congestion that exists in Gaylord and to spur the future growth of our community in the areas that it belongs. Currently, commercial progress consists of cutting down acres of trees further and further out of town and converting them to cement jungles. We have a business loop, and the addition of the overpass for through-traffic and the at-grade road would enhance the access to our commercial district and keep progress in the areas that it was intended for.

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We are asking for your help in this matter to ease the hardship due to the loss of so many jobs with the plant closing and to help us mold the future growth of our community.