UNITY — The town is holding a special Town Meeting on Wednesday to address concerns over crumbling sidewalks along Main and School streets.

The Board of Selectmen is recommending taking no more than $38,600 from tax increment financing funds to repair sidewalks within the TIF district. The money would go toward the sidewalk on Main Street in front of New Horizons Health Care as well as School Street between the intersection with Main Street and the food hub.

Unity Town Clerk Samantha Mank works Monday inside the town office, where $5,000 worth of new heat pumps will be installed following voter approval at a special town meeting Wednesday. Staff photo by David Leaming

The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Unity Fire Station.

Large chunks are missing from the sidewalks and are difficult for people who use wheelchairs, said Emily Newell, chairwoman of the select board. Some residents who use wheelchairs are being forced to use the breakdown lane instead of sidewalks, she said.

The select board was eager to get this job done, Newell said, which is the main reason they called a special town meeting.

Select board members received the $38,600 quote a while ago, she said, so the price may have gone up. If the town approves this amount and it’s not enough, they will go ahead and repair as much as possible, Newell said.

Along with the sidewalks, the select board is also recommending that the town appropriate $5,000 from surplus toward heat pumps for the Town Office. Heat pumps were proposed when the building was first designed, but they weren’t installed due to budget constraints. Now, the building is heated with in-floor heat, and one pump would go in the meeting room and another in the office area, Newell said.

Select board members are also proposing the town use TIF money to buy a fire service rescue vehicle for the Unity Fire Department. The vehicle would be a utility body vehicle without a water pump that would be used only to carry tools and equipment.

“The firemen are pretty excited to see that,” Newell said.

The Unity Fire Department currently has three tanker pumps, but Newell said they think they only need two. The third is mostly being used to carry tools, so replacing the third tanker with a simpler utility vehicle would save maintenance and testing costs, she said.

Most of the money for the new vehicle, which would be bought used to save money, Newell said, would come from the undesignated fund balance and 38 percent would come from the TIF fund for a total of $25,000.

In other business, the town will also discuss appropriating $2,000 for improvements at the Kanokolus Boat Launch. The select board discussed adding picnic tables, grills, signs and a swimming float.

Madeline St. Amour — 861-9239

mstamour@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @madelinestamour

Related Stories