MILO – Town officials say their patience for the Department of Transportation to keep a promise made 11 years ago for the reconstruction of a dangerous intersection has been exhausted.

The latest blow came earlier this week when a state official advised Town Manager Jane Jones that the Elm Street intersection project has been pulled for lack of funding this year. The town had planned to piggyback the replacement of a 1930s sewer line on the street with the road reconstruction.

“We had been told up until last Friday that the project was going out to bid on April 24,” Jones said.

State Transportation Commissioner David Cole called Jones this week to advise her that the Milo intersection project would not be funded in the current round, Jones said.

Cole told her that he was “very sympathetic” to Milo’s situation, and that he was working hard to find a funding solution.

“We have waited 11 years for this; we have lived through the Department of Transportation’s ups and downs, changes in commissioners, catastrophic bridge failures and every other imaginable reason why Milo keeps being pushed back, and to be bumped back yet another year is not acceptable,” Jones said Friday.

Milo selectmen plan to hold an emergency meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, at the town office, to make campaign plans to save the Elm Street project.

At risk is a $600,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan and grant package that was awarded to the town for the sewer project several years ago. Rural Development has approved extensions each time DOT has delayed the road project, but the town will have to relinquish the funds if they are not used by Aug. 1, 2007.

About $20,000 in engineering work has been done for the sewer project, the bill for which would fall to the 630 ratepayers if the federal funds are returned, Jones said. In the belief that the road project would be done, bids recently were solicited for the sewer project.

Contacted Friday, Dale Doughty, acting director of the DOT’s Bureau of Planning, said that no decisions have been made about the projects that will be funded this year. He said the state has a whole series of projects that are designed and ready to go, such as the Elm Street project in Milo, but funding is the issue.

Inflation and rising costs have crimped the budget plans, according to Doughty. The fact the town could lose Rural Development funds if the project does not occur will weigh heavily in the DOT’s funding considerations, he said.

Jones said the DOT already has spent $295,000 in engineering and more than $200,000 for right-of-way and acquisition costs for the proposed 1.1-mile reconstruction project. As part of the acquisition costs, the state purchased a building to be removed to widen the intersection.

“This is the second busiest intersection in Piscataquis County, and it’s [arguably] the most dangerous,” Jones said.

It also is tied to the town’s economic development, she noted. “It’s our main lifeline in terms of commerce, in terms of employment and in terms of prosperity for the future.” The town also wants to make downtown improvements but they are tied to the road project.

Jones said the road, which leads to Interstate 95, has crowned, and its narrow passage creates safety issues for traffic, including loaded pulp trucks. Pedestrian safety is an issue, too, because some truckers run their tires over the sidewalk to make the turn at the intersection.

DOT told town officials in 1996 that it would fund the project. Nearly every year since then there have been assurances that the project will be done, Jones explained.

“We were assured over and over again this project was a go,” Jones said. Commissioner Cole even came up last fall for a public hearing, one of three held for the project, she said.

Jones said she had no problem with the project manager and right-of-way crew who have been diligent and professional in keeping the project on target.

“We believe we’ve been professional, courteous and understanding for 11 years, and now it’s somebody else’s turn to wait,” Jones said.