I looked upon the gray highway

Which is Route 90, or Main Street, Aurora

Felt the bite of winter cold

And Lo, in a heartbeat,

Saw flowers bloom, and students in short sleeves

Thus went winter directly into beautiful spring.

Then on that same highway, came a stream of garbage trucks, gray monsters charging through the daylight and evening hours, leaving the sour odor of diesel fumes. Followed by the first of many tourist buses, 14-feet high, and equally as smelly as the 18-wheelers. Worst part is, that they park on the sidewalk of the church across from my house, and some idle their engines while their passengers are occupied with the tourist attractions. Still more of the fumes for real people to breathe.

You notice these things more when you are outdoors for the first time over an extended period. But you also notice the freedom of the motorcycle riders, who wave joyfully as they pass, or roar out their identity with loud mufflers and echo cans.

You notice the bicycle riders who are truly the unsung heroes: no wasted fuel for joyriding. And you notice the lowly walking public, enjoying the sunlight, warmth and the beauty of this time warp we call Aurora.

Tourism is a two-edged sword: as long as it is balanced with some thoughtful planning to make it less obtrusive for those who live in the middle of the attraction, it can be acceptable. Let's not bring it on wholesale, without estimating the impact, and writing town or village law accordingly: Take some property at either end of the village by eminent domain, for a bus park and turnaround. Hire a constable and stop every third garbage truck for any valid reason: see what happens to the traffic patterns after that is in effect for six months.

If we do not act now, we will become something like Savannah, Ga. My wife and I took a seniors tour and stayed downtown in a commercial hotel. The whole point of the tour was to look at a pre-Civil War town layout, which was, untouched by the past century. Downtown was 1990 commercial, but the residential sector was beautiful with ordered streets, multiple parks, Spanish Moss, ante-bellum mansions and huge century-old oak trees.

The incongruity and the crime was that there were 20 or 30 tour buses parked or moving through the very narrow residential streets, leaving a blue fog of diesel, all day long. Seems like the Savannah city government could do something, but once established, those patterns are hard to break. Let's not have it here.

William Dugan is a former supervisor for the town of Ledyard.