MILLINOCKET – Town officials are considering using a $500,000 federal Department of Transportation grant secured years ago to build a walking and bicycling trail along Millinocket Stream, Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said Friday.
The trail, Conlogue said, would run along the stream from Granite Street School to Stearns High School, with detours out to the Bangor Hydro substation to Ash Street and Forest Avenue, then back across Congress Street to Granite Street School.
The exact mix of money and services the town will need to provide to make the trail a reality are still being formulated, Conlogue said, but he briefed the town council on the idea Thursday night.
“We will have a bigger presentation on it at the council meeting in late November,” Conlogue said Friday.
Paid for largely by a grant U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud secured several years ago, the trail might require a $125,000 match from the town, but the state might help the town accumulate those funds, Conlogue said.
The town might also be able to cut into any funding requirements with in-kind service donations, such as work done by its Department of Public Works, the town manager said.
“It is a real amenity to this community if it is constructed, but there is a lot to be done,” Conlogue told the council Thursday.
Councilors seemed receptive to the idea. If all goes well, construction could begin next summer, Conlogue said.
In other council business:
. Councilors agreed after some hesitation to send representatives to the Joint Elected Officials Board at 6 p.m. Wednesday in East Millinocket’s Town Hall to discuss creating warming centers in East Millinocket, Medway and Millinocket this winter.
The idea is to have places where people stay warm with their home thermostats turned way down. Councilors Scott Gonya and Jimmy Busque said they were leery of committing the new, post-election council to the idea without new councilors’ consent.
“I would like to not drop the ball on this, so I think we could still have a meeting … keep the process going. That’s my opinion,” said Councilor James Mingo, one of the warming center idea’s proponents.
Chairman Wallace Paul agreed, saying that with cold weather coming on, centers are time-sensitive.
. The council voted 5-0 to approve resolves honoring Councilors Bruce McLean and Matthew Polstein for their public service, but both, who are not running for re-election and will leave their seats after Election Day, were out of town on business, Conlogue said Friday.
The resolves will be presented to McLean and Polstein at the next council meeting.
. After a slow start, the town’s $1.9 million water service and infrastructure improvement project in the Pines section is coming along rapidly, but not without some upset, Conlogue told the council.
Some residents have complained, he said, that they cannot use their driveways because the construction company doing the work has temporarily left huge drop-offs between their driveways and the street. Conlogue said he has pressed the company to finish the majority of the work and fill in the drop-offs as quickly as possible.
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