WATERVILLE — The City Council is expected Tuesday night to consider approval of an agreement with the state to add another left turn lane from upper Main Street onto Waterville Commons Drive to help relieve traffic congestion and improve safety.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., and members of the public can view it by going to a link on the city’s website — www.waterville-me.gov.

The agreement the council will consider for construction of the left turn lane is a Municipal Partnership Initiative, in which the city and Maine Department of Transportation would each pay for half the project.

The added left turn lane would be for vehicles traveling north on Main Street and turning west onto Waterville Commons Drive.

City Manager Michael Roy said Friday the total cost of the project is expected to be between $40,000 and $60,000, and the city would pay for its share from the annual paving account.

Walmart, Home Depot, Staples, Ruby Tuesday and other businesses are off Waterville Commons Drive. Bangor Savings Bank and Fireside Inn are on either side of the entrance to the drive. Roy said a sliver of property on the Fireside Inn side of the drive would be used to allow for the extra turn lane to be constructed.

“The state has approved it as a project for funding,” Roy said. “The design work has been completed on that project and we have an estimate — I think somewhere between $40,000 and $60,000 — to create a new lane.”

The agreement between the state and city allows the city to bid the project out and supervise the construction, Roy said. He said the city and state have been discussing the project for more than two years.

Three lanes of traffic will remain on upper Main Street, he said.

“But instead of a left turn and middle turn and right turn, you’d have two left turns,” he said.

The council must take two votes to approve the MPI agreement, and may take only one vote Tuesday.

In other matters, councilors are expected to consider taking the first of two votes needed to amend the public safety ordinance pertaining to the Fire Department to add a fee schedule for emergency medical care and ambulance transport.

The Fire Department has bought two used ambulances and plans to use them to transport patients when Delta Ambulance is significantly delayed, according to Roy.

With the fee schedule added to the city’s ordinance, the Fire Department would be able to charge patients for ambulance transport. The fee schedule would become effective May 1.

The proposed fees are:

• $525 for transport that includes basic life support, nonemergency, plus mileage.

• $715 for basic life support emergency transport, plus mileage.

• $725 for advanced life support nonemergency transport, plus mileage.

• $1,000 for advanced life support emergency level one transport, plus mileage.

• $1,400 for advanced life support emergency level two transport, plus mileage.

• $200 for paramedic intercept, per intercept.

• $75 for paramedic intercept (partner), per intercept.

• $525 for EMS evaluation, no transport.

• No cost for lift assist.

• $25 for lift assist after three lift assists per month, per response.

• $22 for mileage.

The council is also expected to consider approval of a lease for Vacationland Skydiving to begin operating at the city-owned Robert LaFleur Municipal Airport. Vacationland would lease office and hangar space on a trial basis for five months, from May 1 to Sept. 30. The rent would be $800 per month.

The council voted 6-0 March 18 to lease the space to Vacationland, but noted a lease would come before the council for consideration.

Councilors are also to consider:

• Approval of a contract for up to $150,000 with Maine Highlands Contracting to complete repair work on the Waterville Public Library roof. The work was included in the list of needed repairs in the city’s 2019 bond.

• Awarding a $24,845 contract to Sherwin-Williams Co. of Waterville for paint to be used for striping streets, parking lots, crosswalks and parking spaces.

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