Browns Mill Park ready for recreating

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Earlier this year the Browns Mill Park opened at the former tannery site off Vaugh Street by the Piscataquis River. During a Nov. 12 selectmen’s meeting Town Manager Jack Clukey said the closure report for the project has been completed and is expected to be closed out by the end of the year.

    “The Maine Leathers project, now renamed Browns Mill, we just have to go with the formalities,” Clukey said. “We have to document the whole clean up aspect of it, for the most part that just needs to be finalized,” he said, with both the DEP and EPA reviewing the documentation.
    “Moving forward we just have to maintain the integrity of the containment areas,” he said. The park locations where tannery waste is being stored will need to be mowed several times per year and monitored to ensure tree roots do not breach the buried containers.
    Select Vice Chair Cindy Freeman Cyr asked what would be the next steps now that the cleanup has been finished. “We have some good things going on with ski trails and the access to the river,” she said.
    Clukey said he would be talking with the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council about funding possibilities for the next phases of the Browns Mill Park. He said interpretive signs at the site could provide information on the tannery and leather making process.
    “We have done what we can, but I think the potential is great,” Freeman Cyr said. She suggested the recreation committee discuss the park possibilities at a future meeting, and said town officials could consider forming a volunteer board to help oversee the Browns Mill Park.
    During his report on the recreation committee meeting, Selectman Scott Taylor said the parking lot on Vaughn Street will be plowed in the months to come. He said trail maps will be posted on the town website for those wishing to ski and snowshoe at the Browns Mill Park.
    Taylor reported that the committee met with Tim Smith of Foxcroft Youth Sports. “Every sport was up in participation,” he said about the fall offerings.
    The recreation committee also met with Piscataquis Regional YMCA Executive Director Deb Boyd for an update on the program offerings available to young children through senior citizens. Taylor said some of the PRYMCA programs have easily been filled with large numbers of participants.
    “We are going to start learn to skate, hopefully in December,” Taylor said about the program offered at the rink at the Piscataquis Valley Fairgrounds.
    Freeman Cyr said the Dover-Foxcroft Kiwanis Club donated some children’s bicycle helmets to the program, for use by participants who may not have otherwise been able to have the required safety items. Taylor said the learn to skate program is accepting donations of various pieces of equipment or time of volunteers.
    Last month the selectmen approved the purchase of a new fire truck to replace a 1989 model. The new truck is comprised of a body new from the factory, built on a 2011 chassis, at a cost of $257,000 from K&T Fire Equipment in Island Falls.
    Clukey said the town of Bowerbank is interested in purchasing the 1989 fire truck. “The state inspector will be up next week for the pump test, the plan is to test both at the same time,” he said. The two vehicles will be tested before either purchase is finalized.
    On the Nov. 5 ballot residents approved amendments to the Land Use Ordinance, pertaining to signs, by a vote of 291 to 186. “I have talked with (Code Enforcement Officer Connie Sands) about the next step for the planning board,” Clukey said. “There is an opportunity for a huge amount of performance standards to be put in place,” he said.
    The planning board is scheduled to meet next on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Morton Avenue Municipal Building.
    “We designate a lot of capital accounts from year to year so we are not trying to raise a whole capital account in a single year,” Clukey said.
    The selectmen voted to bring forward balances in two dozen accounts, totaling over $533,000 between all 24, from the 2013 fiscal year to 2014. The two dozen accounts includes all capital accounts and other accounts designated for specific purposes, such as fire equipment and the public works building.