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Tuesday, March 3, 2009Stimulate This!
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After weeks and weeks of doom and gloom coverage regarding the economy, congress has passed a humongous spending bill that in the short term may or may not help and in the long run will definitely burden future citizens when it is time to pay back the colossal amount of borrowed dollars. Much of the package is pure special interest pork; however with so much money being thrown against the wall, some of the spending will stick and may actually help. Take for example the possible container ship program, proposed for the Port of Oswego. |
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With a mammoth ocean vessel such as the newly christened Emma Maersk (www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/1205) expected to deliver thousands of containers to a new port facility scheduled for completion in late 2011 at the mouth of the St Lawrence in the Strait of Canso. (www.straitsuperport.com). Smaller lake ships will be used to deliver containers to inland ports not accessible to the 1200' monster ship. The Oswego Port is proposing to handle one or two ship arrivals bi weekly and distribute the individual containers via trucks to nearby cities. Good news for the area, you bet it is, and the cost is certainly not prohibitive. You see, much of the infrastructure for this operation is already in place. This includes the lake, the Oswego Harbor and the east side port facilities. The lake ships up to 700' in length are self loaders/unloaders making the operation most affordable. Let us hope that our elected representatives will hop on the bandwagon and make it happen. This is a sensible project that will provide increased commerce and of course needed jobs. To me it is a no brainer. How will it affect fishing? Well anything that helps local economies will help fishing be it for charters or recreational anglers. The port itself will receive structural enhancement and in the middle of it all will be three local 1st class marinas serving the boating community. Now if you pop in a fourth nuclear plant for the Nine Mile area you have a real healthy stimulus for the Central New York economy. Good economies bode well for increased fishing probability as discretionary spending should increase. Both of these projects are a far cry from many of the pure pork projects that many politicos seem to favor such as one program spending big bucks on tattoo removal. Ouch!!!! A new page could be added to the Port's history that I believe it will provide economic opportunity and be viewed with pride. In a round about way it could enhance fishing opportunities. It will still be great to be a Lake Ontario Troller. Like the movie suggested, build it and they will come for sure! I hope they build it. Stimulate brother, stimulate! | |
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