Bangor officials lobby for grant funds, highway weight limits

WASHINGTON – Two Bangor officials came to the capital this week to lobby the Maine congressional delegation and take part in the National League of Cities’ Congressional City Conference.

Councilwoman Anne Allen and Rodney McKay, the director of Bangor’s Department of Community and Economic Development, were here to push the city’s interests in the fields of education, transportation, telecommunications and community development.

As members of the Maine Municipal Association, the two officials also belong to the National League of Cities, and Bangor and other cities and towns throughout the state regularly participate in this annual conference. Representatives of Augusta, Brewer, Lewiston and Portland attended as well.

Allen and McKay agreed that the biggest issue facing Bangor and the rest of Maine is the proposed 25 percent cut in federal Community Development Block Grants, which are disbursed to states and specific communities to spend on things such as housing and job creation.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved an amendment that Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine offered to wipe out this proposed cut, but the spending reduction could still go through before the final budget is passed.

The state program which administers CDBG grants to the rural areas saw funding drop from $17 million in 2002 to $14 million this year, according to Orman Whitcomb, director of the Maine Office of Community Development. Under the president’s proposed budget, that amount would drop to about $10 million, Whitcomb said.

In addition to the state-administered program, the state’s largest cities, so-called “entitlement” communities, receive CDBG funds directly. They are Bangor, Lewiston, Auburn, Portland, South Portland and Biddeford.

When the grants were started in 1974, Bangor received $1.2 million, according to McKay. Despite inflation, which affects the impact of each dollar spent, the city’s annual award has remained relatively static for more than 30 years. To match the impact of the 1974 dollars after inflation, the city would need to get $4.8 million this year.

McKay said that under the president’s budget proposal the city would get less than $1 million in the next fiscal year.

McKay said Bangor has used Community Development Block Grants to improve older residential neighborhoods by giving grants to lower-income house owners for home improvements. The city also bought up unused military housing in the Capehart area and turned it into transitional housing for the city’s homeless. Some of the money also went to job training programs for those residents.

The city also uses the money to help low-income families buy a house, and it gives money to landlords who rent to low-income people, McKay said. The federal money has been used to improve 12 buildings in the downtown area and to bring buildings up to code and make sure they are handicapped-accessible.

When L.L. Bean wanted to open a new call center near the airport, grant money was used to expand the parking lot at 690 Maine Ave., a prerequisite for the giant retailer’s moving there, McKay said. The call center created hundreds of jobs for Bangor and the surrounding areas.

Bangor Housing Program Manager T.J. Martzial recently said the $7 million, 35-unit housing development at the old waterworks facility on the Penobscot River would not have been possible without $800,000 from the CDBG program.

The congressional delegation promised to do what they could to keep the program cuts from occurring.

McKay and Allen were also pushing the delegation for a 100,000-pound vehicle weight limit on I-95 north of Augusta’s new bridge. Currently the limit is 80,000 pounds, and trucks that weigh more have to get off the highway at that point and use state and city roads. Not only do they wear out the roads faster, but they also cause many accidents that could be avoided if they stayed on the highway, according to the congressional delegation

The limit used to be 80,000 pounds at the point where the Maine Turnpike ended, forcing northbound trucks to drive down Western Avenue and through the perilous traffic circles in Augusta. After the 100,000-pound weight limit was moved up to a bridge slightly north of the downtown on Oct, 15, 2004, accidents on Memorial Circle involving heavy trucks dropped from seven in 2004 to two in 2005, and on Bangor Street from four to two. All traffic accidents also declined from 2004 to 2005.

Now the Maine congressional delegation is working to get the weight limit extended further north. A bill introduced by Snowe and co-sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins is in committee, and a House version sponsored by Maine’s Reps. Tom Allen and Michael Michaud is at the same stage.

McKay and Allen also were concerned with recent efforts by telecommunications companies to end city control over when city streets can be dug up for installation of cables. Currently the companies need city approval and have to pay a nominal fee. The telecommunications industry wants such controls shifted to the federal government.