PALERMO — Selectmen have learned that the Maine Emergency Management Agency failed to forward Palermo’s 2010 application for federal funds to rebuild Banton Road to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Consequently, board Chairman Sophia Glidden said Thursday there will be no grant this year. Given the state of the federal budget, she is not optimistic about a future grant, either.
“I’m a little bit perturbed, because we were approved by them (the state agency) last year and they sat on it,” Glidden said.
She speculated state officials might have been waiting for additional applications. An email request for comment from the Maine Emergency Management Agency was not answered Friday afternoon.
Selectman Paul Cowing said at least the town did enough preparatory work on Banton Road so police cruisers and school buses will no longer get stuck there.
Resident Bob Temple had an unrelated story about the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It has asked for a seismic evaluation of every building in Palermo, he said.
At a workshop, he asked who would pay for the survey. The answer, he said, was, “Good question.”
Glidden estimated the most recent earthquake in Palermo, strong enough to make her furnace shake, was within the last 15 years.
In other business at Thursday’s meeting, selectmen awarded the contract for putting up winter sand, but postponed action on fuel oil price quotes.
After opening three quotes for winter sand, they unanimously accepted the lowest price, $8.24 per cubic yard offered by Haskell and Son Construction of Palermo.
Selectman Harry Dean Potter said one of the fuel dealers he talked with suggested waiting to see if the price would drop before signing a prebuy contract.
Selectmen put off a decision to their Aug. 25 meeting. Meanwhile, Potter will see if he can get lower price offers.
The board’s only other decision Thursday was to appoint Potter as a member of the Waldo County budget committee.
Glidden said she talked with David Allen of the state Department of Transportation, who advised against putting up a “children playing” sign near Carr’s Corner.
Allen said he would inspect the road to see if the 45-mph speed limit should be reduced.
Mary Grow is a Kennebec Journal correspondent who lives in China.
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