Of all one might say about the Selectmen of Bolton, Manchester, Columbia and Windham CT, they certainly are persistent. Last week, these officials penned yet another letter as part of their effort to push through an ill-fated plan to expand Route 6 into a Hartford-Rhode Island expressway - this time to the regional heads of the Army Corps of Engineers and the US EPA.

The letter complains that the Corps specialists who will review the new DOT application for a wetlands-filling permit (MTR #243) have a "preconceived bias" from reviewing and rejecting similar proposals over the last five years and goes on to ask that they be replaced. Corps officials maintain that they will approach the new proposal with an open mind.

But EPA reviewers have said they will reject out-of-hand any plan in which the road runs north of the Hop River - as the re-hashed proposal does - because of the damage caused to wetlands and wildlife. Either agency can stop the road expansion project. The Hartford Courant reports one of the letter's authors arguing that the highway expansion "makes sense to the people of Connecticut." At this juncture, it seems to make more sense for the local road lobby to admit defeat.