Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-12-18
Bridge at Bath
Carleon's Views
What Would Cost

AT a hearing in Augusta before
their Chamber of Commerce, Tues
day, Decembor II, 1922, in defending
our location of a bridge at Bath,
said we had rough estimate from
Mr.. BraZor Of the j. II. Worcester
Engineering Company cf Boston,
Mass, that q bridge could be built
across tho kennebec river at Bath
for about $2,0O0,000.C0, and if that
was so | had plan to finance this
2,000.00O.00 bridge that | wished to
submit to them, and as the reporters
got 1t somewhat mixed and Nv abb
breviating did not fully explain the
plan, thought that Your paper might
be willing to publish it as | stated
it. 1t seems as if there should be
room enough in these newspapers to
state a project as large and important
as this is, SO that the peol.'e can I'M
dcrstand something about it.
We have an offer from the Maine
Central Railroad to pay $100.GO000 a
year rental for the privilege of cross
ing this bridge with their trains. My
opponents admitted that a State
bond issue ought to be floated at
about 4Gl. The interest on $1,000
100000 of bonds at that rate would be
sS0,O00.00 a year. We thought that
operating the draw could be done for
S2,500.00 year, and that $7.500.Oo q
year would paint this bridge and keep
1t in repair. We would have the int
crest on the bonds paid the I Grafton
and maintenance of tho bridge taken
care of, and $l0,00000 out of this rail-
road lease money left toward a sink
ing fund to take up the bonds.
The state has two old ferry boats
here, each more than twenty years
old, and have an investment of about
SI00,000G0 here in this ferr. prop
erty. This year the operating eN-
penses and repairs will amount to
about s21,000.00 more than the rev.
cnue and charging 10Tl depreciation.
which isn't enough on this old prop
erty. there will be a deficit Of
S31 100000. which the state must pay.
This deficit is total loss TO the state
Of Maine, and before long they will
have to have q new boat, which is
likely to cost from S100,000.00 to
$50, 100000, and in few years they
will have to have the pilinS all re-
newcd in the slips. They have been
built two years and are about ono
i.alf worn out now. and this will en-
tail quite an outlay, so this deficit
isn't likely to be any less, as higher
fares is sure to drive business else
where, or stop people altogether from
coming here, and the boats in the
busy season now have all the travel
they can handle.
This S31 100000 deficit. added to the
100000 Maine Central Railroad
rental we would have left makes
100000. The State can use this
S41 10000 each year to take up these
bonds, put them in the State Treas
ury, collect the interest on them from
Railroad, or cancel them and take the
interest, thereby. getting interest on
the money they are now paying on 4
deficit created by these ferries.
AT the outside reckoning, in COM
parison with the Portsmouth bridge,
it couldn't possibly cost $4,000, 10000.
One argument which led to this figure
of $2,000,000.00 as the cost of n
bridge here at Bath, was that such
prominent engineers as the Worces-
ter Company and Waddell engineers
told me that a bridge could be built
now for one-half of what it would
have cost when the Portsmouth
bridge was started. I understand
from an article written, reported 10
have come from the Governor, that
the whole project at Portsmouth is
likely to cost about $4,000, 100000. At
the present time, according to the