Sign of (stimulus) things to come?

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To mdj from Manchester, I've been driving the "stimulated" section of 101 since before the expansion and this end was not done 24 years ago. it was somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago.

This end was not in need of re-paving and the signs are simply a shameful reminder of the waste and ineffective stimulus that we can expect are pervasive across the nation.
- Brian, Epping

Response to - mdj, manchester
Repaving a highway to benefit stores that get over 90% of their goods from foreign countries to put 250 people to work for four months is nothing to get excited about.
It certainly is a waste of money. Let me clue you in. These idiots in Washington, don't know anything about business. The one they are running is technically bankrupt! And something else. You and me are shareholders in their business. It is run so badly, they have to force their shareholders to give them money to keep it afloat!
- Steve, Raymond

Folks,

Please remember some valid points...

1) 101 was expanded 24 YEARS AGO!
2) How many people have moved to that area in the last 24 years?
3) How many baby boomers have had kids and now drive that route everyday?
4) The WalMart distribution center in Raymond did not exist when 101 was expanded. That site alone serves literally hundreds of trucks each day.
5) Big stores like the Lowe's and WalMart in Epping and the Super Stop & Shop in Exeter did not exist 24 years ago and they all get deliveries by large tractor trailer truck.
6) When 101 was expanded 53 foot tractor trailers were NOT the norm as they are today.

Applaud the state for dealing with this now rather than waiting and having to dig up the whole project.
- mdj, manchester

What happens in six to eight months when projects like these are done, do the people working them go back on unemployment? Come on we are just taking the problems of today and sliding them down the road a bit (pun intended). Do you think that when the projects are done that companies like Pike Industries will find it in there good heart to just keep these employees on payroll? NO of course not and there is only so much money to go around and when it's gone it's gone. Hopefully the money being made finds it's way through the system and starts businesses hiring again. I know that's what the hope is because if this doesn't work we sure will have some nice roads to not be able to afford to drive on.
- Dave, Goffstwn

wow, the liberal democrats are hard at work with those signs! it's a good thing too, because if it weren't for those signs I'd certainly believe that we are heading into a depression. good thing those signs are telling me otherwise!
- scott, chichester

This is only funding for a short time fix, truth be said this highway should have been finished and done a decade ago and a half ago, why a top coat wasn't applied is beyond me. Personally I think the state ran out of money and forgot about it so they could get Everett Turnpike worked on.
- Jack Alex, Manchester

I can't help but laugh looking at the photo of the American recovery sign. Like all ego maniacs who think they know how to spend other peoples hard earned money they still fail to save our tax dollars by putting up a propaganda sign.

Wait until pay back day comes for that highway and it needs to be redone and we have not yet paid it off with this newly printed money and the inflation soon to be. We can use that sign to burn and warm our hands over.
- Ross, Derry

To Brian in Manchester

Majority rules? So, it's OK to ignore everyone else? That's tyranny, and Federalist Paper No. 10 dealt with such a thing.

"Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." -- James Madison

In other words, just because the majority wants it, doesn't make it good or that it should be done.

Don't be so short-sighted.
- BW, Concord

Brian from manch- right on!
John A - are you kidding me? Al-qeada and Iraq....even Bushies own boys couldn't draw a parallel between the two no matter how hard they tried. Sorry.
And to LA - Derry, we wouldn't have to worry about getting out of Iraq if we didn't have to line the pockets of Cheney & Co for 8 very long years.
- Ed, Manchester

That is a brand new highway only a few years old.. I drive it every day.. This is a waste of money...this is only going to hurt summer travel and the business that rely on it. Now the part between Milford and keene should be made into two lanes.. Just because we have the money it should not be wasted on things like this. NH needs real jobs. Lets cut the cost of doing business in NH so companies will come here instead of going south.
- PETE, DEERFIELD

*Did NOT elect this Congress or President*

So what will these workers do in August?

The signs are just more of pushing Obama's stimulus plan on everyone. The media will gobble it up and "look at how he's saving the world".

And you say the money spent in Iraq? I don't see Obama pulling anyone out! Aren't there MORE kids being sent to Afghanistan soon???

All talk, no substance.

Of course you won't see the news that he really hasn't done anything in the first 3 months but god forbid we can't get through the 7 o'clock hour without hearing about their stupid dog...(the one they said they were going to adopt but didn't...I'm sure Kennedy shoved the poor puppy down their throats huh?)

Ugh I can't wait until 2012.
- L.A., Derry

Bottom line: majority rules, and people who voted for the winners generally like what is happening, and the rest of you can tell it to the teabag!
- Brian, Manchester

Tom W, Candia - Remember that big job fair everyone was whining about? Well, WMUR was showcasing employers prior to the event to let people know who was going to be there. One showcase was on the NH DOT, where 42% of their current workforce is eligible to retire. They were hiring many, including engineers. You may want to look into it.
- Tracy P, Fremont, NH

Ed in Manchester - Nothing in return? How about 8 years without an Al Qeada attack on US soil? That's nothing to you, huh? You don't think they tried?


Dave in Sandwich - The Dems in Congress had nothing to do with it for the past few years, huh? I seem to remember things were better before they got in.
- John A., Manchester, NH

Seriously,this was just don less than 2yrs ago.
- Moe, Epping

According to a report by WMUR earlier this week, the only segment of the workforce in NH not suffering decline is the construction industry. Modeled after the New Deal, the new Stimulus Plan should be successful in creating and maintaining such jobs.

I would prefer that the money had gone to more varied segments of the workforce, but I do see the wisdom in injecting money into projects that can put people to work relatively quickly. Expediting paving and bridge work seem like logical ways to accomplish this task.

As for the signs, they are probably required for the federal funding. I am not sure I like them, but they surely will get, and keep, us talking about this subject!
- Dan, Auburn

When I was employed I drove that stretch of road daily, it is in great shape. As an unemployed high-tech engineer I would settle for any job...where do I apply for the road work jobs ?? They say 250 people will be needed...can I get me a road job around here? where to apply?
- Tom W, Candia

I would rather see the filth on Route 101 cleaned up. There us an obnoxious amount of trash everywhere.
- Pat, Raymond

a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money - that stretch of road is fine. What is the state thinking?
- CAS, Candia

Do I even need to make the point again? Obama DID NOT engineer the near collapse of the American economy. If the previous administration had been on the ball and had not driven our economy into a ditch, there would be no tea parties today, no stimulus bill, possibly even no President Obama. So y'all ought to extend a big thank you to GWB for just about everything you are now complaining about.

But now we're here; and at this point, restricting spending - the GOP 'Big Idea', and something avidly recommended by so many of the commenters here - would very likely make the recession deeper, longer, and more painful, according to most economists. Many say we are still not spending enough to promote a full recovery. But hey, they're just economists- what do they know, right?

And ACORN? Can't you get a new boogieman? I'm surprised- Spike is usually above spreading this kind of simplistic, misinformed BS. See below:

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/does_the_stimulus_bill_include_a_52.html
- Dave, Sandwich

"The idea IS to SPEND money on things that were not going to be done !"


Then let them do it with their money, not mine. I have better things to spend it on than busy work.
- Jim, Manchester

I agree with Michael and Santos. I drive that stretch every day and the road seems fine because it was done only a few years ago.
And I have to admit that I have not even noticed these signs. What a waste.
- Dennis, Hooksett

That whole stretch was paved in the summer of 2007. It is great shape - significantly better than the majority of roads in this state. What a ridiculous allocation of resources.
- Becky, Exeter

Quit your whining… you elected this Congress and President…

The last stimulus program during the great depression lead to the WPA (Work Projects Administration) and the CCC - Civilian Construction Corps with their “sidewalks to no-where” not to mention paying “artists” to produce “works of art”.

Don’t you get it ?? The idea IS to SPEND money on things that were not going to be done !!! If these things really needed to be done, the local, state and federal government would have funded them already…. This is spending just for spending’s sake.

Those signs DO cost money.. money spent in NH having NH people produce them. Every dollar spent stays right here, every vendor paid for paint, every metal dealer paid for the sheet aluminum, every dollar of “take home pay” for everyone in the chain is spent by somebody on something… it all makes the giant wheel of the economy spin wildly !!!! (at least that's the theory)
- Bob, Francestown

Guinta: get out there and get some of this money. Manchester's roads are a disaster.
- Tom, Manchester

The signs should say "Putting People to Makework." While reinforcing NH-101 may increase the state's productive capacity by unknowable amounts, stimulus money is also going to ACORN to perform "community organizing" (for example, to occupy apartment buildings against their owners and to fraudulently register voters).

When we borrow money to start projects, both productive and unproductive, on the basis that any spending is "stimulative," we divert savings that would otherwise have been used in ways its owners believed were productive. With much of the stimulus package, we are taking next year's seed corn out of the silo and eating it.
- Spike, Brentwood NH

Give me a break, people! Complaining about the cost of signs and road improvements that need to be done. Infrastructure improvements are long overdue in NH and if you read the article fully this work was planned already for 101. Using stimulus money there frees up money for work elsewhere. What do you people expect -- you want better roads and then you complain about wasteful spending!? How do you think this stuff is going to get done without spending money -- are you living in La La Land!?
- Jaimoe, Rollinsford

You people crack me up. In your minds it is perfectly ok to spend 1 billion a month in Iraq and get Nothing in return for all those precious tax dollars spent , but to repave a highway here in the good ol' USA and put a few people back to work....you balk. Amazing.
- Ed, Manchester

Not only is the money being spent on something that was not needed - we had to pay to have a sign made to advertise it? Must have been a "pet" project for someone in Concord! No wonder our taxes keep going up with such wasteful spending!
- Johanne, Dunbarton

"Putting people to work" - hilarious! Rather than push policies than promote growth through value-creating jobs, Obama gives us government funded sinecure.

I'll have a cup of tea, please.
- Tom, Campton

I saw a piece on the craptacular WMUR that indicated that the paving that was done did not include the finishing layer, and without it the road would deteriorate faster. I don't understand why the state is spending money on those signs, when it should be spent on better retroreflective lane marking technology. Every year they repaint with the cheapest stuff they can get. With an aging population, having the best marking materials on the road helps make night time driving safer as night vision deteriorates with age.

Michael, money has been spent. It was spent when the signs went up, when the cones went up, and when the State Trooper sitting in his car this morning on the Westbound side logged on to his detail. If you'd like to save some money, have flaggers on the job instead of police officers. Maybe you could save money if you didn't have a vanity license plate on your cars, too.
- Texter, Newfields

Waste of money this will only employ a handfull of people and really does"nt need to be done;-( Waste of millions
- Dave, Concord

These projects are a waste of money and won't stimulate anything. To gain a rational understand of what has happened to us financially, I recommend you read a book called "Crash Proof" written by Peter Schiff. It confirmed most of my long held suspicions and also went into detail about how and when things started sliding down hill.
- Steve, Raymond

How much did the signs cost? Is that part of the stimulus package?
- Bill, Andover

I wonder what the total cost is to put up all these signs? Is that really necessary?
- John, Dover

Just how many people will be employed doing this project? The press is already reporting that the recovery is working. Well, you tell me if this Stimulus is working. How much money has been spent on this project so far? How about None.
- Michael King, Epping

Santos and Michael

This is why there are Tea Parties today.
- Bob, Salem

Interesting. I drive that stretch every day and would say that it is in better shape than just about any other stretch from Manchester to the coast and better than portions of 293 or the turnpike. Why not concentrate that alleged stimulus money on roads and bridges that are actually in need of repair or wait until the road shows actual deterioration? This seems like pointless busy work to employ a few people at very high cost for a few months when they'll be out of work again. "Putting America to Work" indeed.
- Santos, Goffstown

If I remember correctly Rt 101 was recently paved from Raymond to Exeter and possibly beyond. Why are we paving it again? Are conditions really "rapidly deteriorating" on the new paving job to require an even newer paving job?

How about giving the money to where it's really needed: I-93.
- Michael, Manchester