Greenville looks at 10-year road plan

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    GREENVILLE — Convincing residents in a town of less than 2,000 year-round inhabitants to support $1 million worth of road reconstruction is a difficult, if not impossible, task.
    But when you present it in small bites, it’s usually a lot more acceptable.
    Greenville Town Manager John Simko made such a presentation at last week’s board of selectmen’s meeting, outlining a 10-year plan to make much-needed repairs to municipal roads.

    “The point I made to the selectmen is that this is an aggressive plan but even this won’t get every road fixed during that time,” Simko told the Observer. “Also, we can only keep up this pace if we continue to fund our summer roads accounts at similar levels to this year. If we diminish our effort on maintenance, we won’t be able to prep our roads for paving in time to meet this schedule, and we’ll have to pull from our paving money to accomplish necessary road maintenance, which will put us even further behind.”
    Simko calculated a total capital budget of $99,418 per year, offset by the Maine DOT’s Local Road Assistance Program which averages $23,000 annually.
    “This plan keep us consistent with previous years’ expenditures for road improvement, but re-invests funds which had gone to road improvement debt service to new road improvement projects directly,” he explained.
    At the top of the list for this year is an upgrade of catch basins and open ditches on Cottage and Upper Lincoln streets; shim and overlay the entire length of Mayhew Manor at an estimated cost of $40,000; and remove pavement, add gravel, ditch, bank corner and pave East Road from the end of  the “newer section” east of Drew Road intersection to the school bus turn-around. This would cost approximately $45,000.
    Additional work on East Road is planned for 2016 as well as a shim and overlay sidewalk along Pritham Avenue from Mayhew Manor to Oliver Road.
    Pritham Avenue is downtown Greenville’s main attraction with retail stores, restaurants, a park and seaplane base.
    Crafts Road would be due for a major upgrade in 2017; Washington Street and Carpenter Place are on the 2018 to-do list; Prospect Street and additional sidewalk work on both sides of Pritham Avenue from Oliver Road to Pine Street and Hospital Street to the Plum Creek offices are planned for 2019; and extensive work on North Birch Street, including adding geotextile fabric and 12 to 18 inches of gravel, are on the horizon for 2020.
    Construction and renovation projects for the 2021-24, providing the same level of funding is available, include shim and overlay on South Birch, South Maple and North Maple streets; shim and overlay on Cottage and Village streets and upgrades on Lily Bay Road sidewalks; and similar work to Lower Lincoln and North Wiggins streets.
    Simko cautioned that even with this schedule, several roads will still need work during the next decade.
    The next Greenville Board of Selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 15 at 6:30 p.m.