D-F selectmen accept bid for 2019 paving
DOVER-FOXCROFT — This summer’s work on stretches of 10 town roads as part of the 10-year paving plan will be done by Hopkins Landscaping & Paving of Hermon as the selectmen approved the company’s low bid of $387,940 during a June 17 meeting.
“We got our bids last week, Gorrill-Palmer reviewed them for us, identified the bid specs and did a very detailed bid tab,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said. “We only had one bid within our budget of $400,000.”
Two other bids came in for the paving, $454,902 by Pike Industries of Fairfield and $467,130 from Wellman Paving of Winterport.
Clukey said Hopkins Landscaping & Paving “did the paving of our very first year of this, 2016, and we were very happy with them.”
He said the consultant and engineer work with the firms to “try to get as many roads done before they get to the condition where doing a resurfacing is not possible.”
A list will be posted at dover-foxcroft.org as Clukey said the 2019 paving schedule includes a section of Autumn Avenue, Danforth Street, Davis Street, part of Dwelley Avenue, Forest Street, Grange Street, a portion of Grove Street, some of Hancock Street, Harvey Street and Pleasant Street from High Street to Route 15.
In other business, the selectmen approved a list of municipal appointments for the 2019-20 fiscal year.
One change Clukey mentioned was Brian Gaudet taking over as code enforcement officer and Connie Sands shifting to deputy code enforcement officer.
“That is the succession we knew would be taking place when we created the deputy position,” he said, mentioning Gaudet is excited about the transition.
Clukey said Sands would still be working for the town part-time, such as being able to sign off on permits for smaller projects when Gaudet is not available to lessen the wait time.
In his report Clukey said, “We talked about a transportation study and MDOT has solicited proposals and we should hear back in July.”
In the spring the selectmen took a step toward finding some possible solutions for various downtown traffic issues by agreeing to use up to $25,000 for the municipality’s 50/50 share with the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) on a traffic study.. The board requested that the scope of work include a public meeting at the beginning of the process and another when the preliminary recommendations are made.
“Filming on our commercials started this week, today actually,” Clukey said. He said more footage would be captured during the weekend’s Maine Whoopie Pie Festival.
Several months prior Clukey first spoke with a representative from NEWS CENTER Maine, which includes television stations WLBZ 2 of Bangor and WCSH 6 of Portland, as the television outlet expressed interest in airing commercials promoting Dover-Foxcroft with a theme that the community is not a boring town.
Earlier this year the online magazine BestLifeOnline.com called Dover-Foxcroft the most boring town in the state, based on factors such as median age, nightlife and population density.
NEWS CENTER Maine will be working with the town and Dover-Foxcroft businesses to develop 15- and 30-second ads specific to each season highlighting various activities and establishments. The commercials would run statewide as well for streaming services featuring network programs.
The town would be covering 25 percent of the $5,000 cost, with funds from promotion and development accounts, and the business community would cover the other 75 percent of ad costs.