Blackwoods Byway Committee

I presented the initial byways concept to the Blackwoods Byway Committee in Cherryfield on February 10, 2010. Members of the byway committee were very receptive to the concept of developing an additional byway in coastal Washington County. The feeling was that the the new "Coastal Byway" could be used to draw additional attention to existing byways in the region (Blackwoods Byway, Schoodic Byway); and that the three Byway could even explore cooperative marketing (e.g. "Experience Down East Maine's Scenic Byways").

I didn't get a strong feeling from folks regarding the brand one way or the other. But a couple of people had strongly thoughts about the proposed byways route. Recognizing the constraint of geography, the group agreed that it was important for the byway to be as linear as possible (e.g. to avoid parallel routes or T-junctions). They reminded me that signage can be used effective to guide the visitor experience (so that you don't need to the designate Route 189 all the way in to Lubec, for example, if you can make effective use of way-finding signage at the Route 191, Route 189 junction).

The committee didn't have strong feeling either way as to whether the designated route in western Washington County should follow Route 1 (through Cherryfield) or Route 1A. But they did feel that Milbridge would make a better "gateway" for the byway than Steuben, because of the concentration of services, the historic character of the village and the scenic views of the Narraguasus River/Pleasant Bay immediately east of the village.