Be welcoming to our visitors

State treasurer candidate Mike Boland was surprised by the amount of traffic he encountered Wednesday on a stop in Portland.
His eyes grew wide in disbelief when he heard the explanation: a show featuring antique gas engines and tractors would draw tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world to the city this week. And enthusiasts had already started to arrive.
Traffic had grown even more congested by this weekend, a pattern that will continue throughout the coming week.
The extra cars on Meridian and Votaw streets and throughout town can be an inconvenience for those of us who travel them on a daily basis. But instead of grousing about the couple of extra minutes it’ll take us to get from place to place or to wait in line, it’s important for us to remember all of the positives the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association’s show bring to our area.
It serves as an enormous economic driver.
Visitors to the show stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants and shop at our stores. Many come back year after year and have made themselves a part of our community, even if only for a short time.
Most places our size would do anything to attract an event that brings in as many visitors as this week’s show, not to mention the Vintage Motorbike Show, the various National Center for Great Lakes Native American Culture activities and the inaugural Military Vehicle Show and Swap Meet scheduled for next month. We should be thrilled that our fairgrounds and the adjacent engine show grounds tend to be a bustling hub of activity during the summer rather than lying dormant.
So while looking over row after row of engines and tractors is not everyone’s idea of a good time and the traffic may be a bit of a bother, let’s be welcoming to our guests.
Their presence has helped boost our community for 49 years. And we would be only too lucky to have them with us for another 49. —R.C.