A public hearing at Songo Lock Elementary School in Naples Wednesday, Jan. 30, will give residents and business owners the chance to comment on state plans for a new bridge over the Naples Causeway.

It once it appeared the hearing might be hostile. The Maine Department of Transportation has nixed a 12-foot high drawbridge over the Chute River in favor of a fixed span at that height. But discussions this week at a Naples meeting indicate a worthy third alternative can be considered – fixing the existing swing span.

When announcing the change in plans for a new bridge in December in Naples, Department of Transportation engineer Jim Wentworth rightly noted the state is in no position to spend as much as $18 million on a drawbridge when the department is also seeking to double the amount of bridges repaired yearly to between 30 and 40 while spending an additional $120 million a year for bridge repair and maintenance.

Getting the extra money was a stretch even before the Legislature confronts what could be a more than $100 million budget gap. The gap certainly does not help the prospects for a new drawbridge in Naples.

The gap could help the prospects of fixing the existing drawbridge, though, if estimates show a comparable cost between renovation and building a fixed bridge.

Wentworth could not provide a definitive estimate at Wednesday’s meeting at Naples Town Hall, but the idea was especially attractive to Frank Gerrish, owner of the Songo River Queen II. Wentworth has promised more details for the hearing Jan. 30.

Renovating a 50-year-old bridge would be daunting, and the work must be coupled with repairs to the seawall and dredging the river. Daunting, but worthwhile, even if the cost is more than a $6 million fixed bridge project that would block water access from Long Lake to Sebago Lake for 5 to 10 percent of boat traffic, including the Songo River Queen II.

That access is more than a century old, and just as critical economically now, although the nature of the business is now more tourist-oriented.

Jim Allen of the Naples Marina estimated in December he would lose 10 percent of his slip rentals with a fixed bridge. Talbot said forcing the Songo River Queen II to one side or the other of the Causeway would eliminate either the popular traditional cruise through Songo Locks or the leisurely jaunts through Long Lake.

The Songo Locks excursions are not only 60 percent of the company business, they are a tradition spanning almost four decades in Naples. The potential for lost revenues raises the specter of taxpayer money going to recompense business owners instead of the state taking in a share of the tourist money so critical to Naples and the Lakes Region.

If the cost of renovating the existing drawbridge falls between estimates of building a new fixed bridge or a drawbridge, the state should be ready to spend more for renovations. Spending that money now gives businesses the chance to grow and provide more sales and other taxes to the state.

David Harry, editor