Attention set on ‘critical need’ roads
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Following the approval of all the items on the annual referendum warrant, the selectmen took the next steps for several articles during a June 20 meeting.
One item OKed the week before authorized raising and appropriating $310,000 for local road improvements — to go along with an anticipated $90,000 in state funds.
Town Manager Jack Clukey said he has asked Will Haskell of Gorrill Palmer to put together bid specifications for 2016 work listed in a pavement management plan the firm has developed for Dover-Foxcroft. “The timing’s going to be perfect to do this at our next meeting,” Clukey said, with the regular July session scheduled for Monday, July 25. He said the bids would be due the week before July 25, with the contract set to be approved that evening and the construction to commence soon after.
The Gorrill Palmer pavement management plan looked at the 34 miles of roads in town, with nearly 14.5 miles identified as in critical need of preventative maintenance and another 9.1 miles having fallen into rehabilitation/reconstruction status. Town officials had stressed the need to address the critical need roads in order for the travelways to not fall into the second, more expensive category.
On June 14 citizens approved the continuation of Dover-Foxcroft’s membership in the Municipal Review Committee (MRC) and the signing of a municipal joinder agreement concerning a solid waste disposal facility in Hampden being developed by Fiberight, LLC of Maryland. After 2018 the current contract between MRC members and Penobscot Energy Recovery Company in Orrington will expire, and the 187 MRC communities needed to make individual decisions for future solid waste disposal.
“That requires us to adopt a resolution,” Clukey said, which authorizes him to sign the MRC municipal joinder agreement. The selectmen passed the MRC/Fiberight municipal joinder agreement resolution.
“Another article that passed, two of them actually, were for the charter commission and appointments,” Clukey said. Voters approved the establishment of a charter commission, for the purpose of revising the municipal charter. Those at the polls elected George Barton, Erin Callaway, Phyllis Lyford, Christopher Maas, Susan Mackey Andrews and David Perkins to serve on the panel.
Three other seats are appointed by the selectmen, with Kim Cavanaugh and Brian Mullis to serve in two of the positions. Selectman Ernie Thomas will be the board’s charter commission representative, as he and the others will serve from July 1 to June 30, 2017.
After a hour-plus public hearing earlier in the meeting, the selectmen made decisions on a pair of proposed ATV routes.
ATV access on the Foxcroft Center, KIimavicz and Parsons Landing roads was granted for the current riding season (through Oct. 31 or the first snowstorm) once signage has been posted. Routes are subject to annual review. “The board of selectmen grants permission for a road to be used as an ATV route but the board can revoke that at any time,” Clukey said. “Nothing is permanent.”
Those traveling on ATVs are permitted on these roads from 8 a.m. to sunset. The speed limit would be 35 mph on the Foxcroft Center Road, subject to approval by the Maine Department of Transportation which currently has the speed limit at 40 for vehicular traffic.
The second ATV route brought to the board followed the Shaw and Oliver Hill roads, which intersect at Route 7. The selectmen opted to table a decision on these travelways, wanting more information on a possible safer alternate route than what was proposed.
Board member Gail D’Agostino suggested residents of those two roads be given at least two weeks’ notice before a Shaw/Oliver Hill Road ATV access agenda item is brought up again.
The selectmen also elected the chair and vice chair, with Elwood Edgerly and Cindy Freeman Cyr both serving in the respective positions for another year. Edgerly has now reached the 20-year milestone of time served on the board.