Houlton budget review panel to meet tonight

HOULTON – Road and sidewalk maintenance and repair was a significant topic of conversation during the recent board of budget review meeting, as the panel wrapped up its review of municipal departments and entities.

The board, which is charged with examining the 2008 computations and making recommendations to the Town Council for the budget’s final approval, has been meeting throughout the month to look over the town’s more than $8.5 million 2008 municipal budget.

The board will hold what is expected to be their last meeting tonight, in which they will draft a list of recommendations to be passed on to the council for their consideration.

Among the topics discussed during the recent meeting was the possibility of allocating more money for the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has requested to be flat funded at $15,000 next year, but board member Dorothy Donahue suggested the panel recommend that councilors grant them an additional $2,000 so they can update their membership directory.

Lori Weston, executive director of the Chamber, said the directory has not been updated since 2001, and membership has increased significantly since that time.

Donahue said that updating the directory would help foster economic development.

“This is economic development, and I think we can find money for economic development,” she added.

Board member Don Keiser agreed, saying he supported the additional funding for the Chamber.

The town has set aside $325,000 for road maintenance and repair this year, an increase of $125,000 over last year.

It is still short of the goal that Town Manager Douglas Hazlett said he had hoped to meet.

Hazlett told the board he was aiming to allocate a total of $400,000 for roads, but financial constraints prevented that from happening.

One of the major factors that has hampered the town’s effort to allocate more money for roads in 2008 is the fact that the municipality needs to come up with approximately $470,000 to pay for its share of the reconstruction of a section of Route 2A known as Bangor Street.

The state-owned route was targeted for improvements by the Maine Department of Transportation several years ago, and in 2001, Houlton voters opted to raise $200,000 for the local share of the reconstruction.

The project has been delayed every year since, mostly due to lack of funding at the state level.

Now, the estimated $4.7 million project is set to begin in the spring and will be conducted over two years.

The town must provide a 10 percent local match, which will be paid over three years – the state will chip in 10 percent and the federal government will pay for 80 percent of the project.

Because of the rising cost of asphalt, fuel and other materials, it is costing the state more to complete the reconstruction project. That means the town has to come up with additional money as well – more than double the amount they initially budgeted for.

The board of budget review meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.