BELGRADE — Town officials and a nonprofit spinoff of the Friends of Belgrade Lakes Village group have agreed to work on an agreement that will allow the group to pay for additional sidewalks and streetlights as part of the state’s proposed 2018 road improvement project along Route 27.

That and the details of the new Town Office construction occupied most of the Board of Selectpersons’ regular meeting Tuesday night.

Board Chairman Ernie Rice repeatedly told attendees that the cost of the extras on Main Street in Belgrade will not be borne by taxpayers. He said a written agreement is necessary to allow the money to flow through the town to the state.

“We are the ones who are going to have to square up with the state,” Rice said.

The state is planning a full reconstruction of Main Street, which is Route 27 in Belgrade village, between the West Road intersection in the village and the Mill Stream dam, a length of 0.36 of a mile. Estimates for the state project now stand at $2 million.

Diane Oliver and Liz Fontaine, both members of the nonprofit group, said the agreement would help them apply for grants and that parking was their No. 1 priority.

Advertisement

They said they hoped to raise $350,000 to $400,000, an estimate they received from the state for the work. Oliver said the group hopes to apply for a grant of $200,000 to $400,000 through a state Department of Transportation bicycle and pedestrian program.

The group would be responsible for raising a portion of the money.

“If you’ve got the money, that would be something that would really enhance the village,” Rice said.

Ernie Martin, DOT project manager, told the board that he anticipated a final public hearing on the road reconstruction project to be held in February 2016. If state funding comes in for the 2018 project, “I want to be ready to get it going,” he said.

The project would eliminate about a dozen parking spaces along Main Street because of space constraints.

Martin said the project will retain some on-street parking and put in new granite curbs and a new bituminous sidewalk along with redoing the road.

Advertisement

The town is required to pay 20 percent of the cost of the sidewalk. Now the town is only on the hook for 20 percent of $35,000, Martin told board members.

“If the Friends want concrete or brick, that’s money they have to come up with in working with the town,” Martin said after the board meeting. That group, too, would have to pick up the entire cost of streetlights.

He said the plans call for the sidewalk and streetlights to be on the west side of the street and utility poles to be on the east side.

Martin said the department still is working on drainage and utilities for the project and has identified some issues with septic systems and leach fields in the state’s right of way or in the excavation area that need to be addressed.

On Tuesday night, selectmen also approved a contract with Don Bridges Jr. for $107,286 for plumbing and heating work and related materials for the new Town Office.

While the project has been in the works for some time, residents in late August voted 58-26 to appropriate up to $1.2 million to build a 5,000-square-foot Town Office on an 11-acre lot in a former gravel pit on Town Pit Road off Route 27 already owned by the town.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.