Council approves bid for paving around town

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer  

DEXTER — After considering a pair of bids for over a half a dozen individual priced smaller road projects across the community, the Dexter Town Council opted to award the work to Wellmann Paving, Inc. of Winterport during a special meeting on Aug. 25.

“My feeling is to go with Wellmann, I think the lower price on some stuff offsets the higher price,” Council Chair Michael Blake said as both the Winterport business and Cameron Paving, Inc. of Jackson bid on the projects by estimating multiple improvements on different travelways.

“He is cheaper overall,” Town Manager Shelley Watson said. She said the price of the quotes from Wellmann Paving combined equals $118,250 but the council approved a change order with the company as the cost could be altered leading up to a contract, with a timeframe for the work, being signed.

The road work includes shimming on Lincoln, Maple and Park streets, two-inch hot mix asphalt on upper Winter Street, cuts — for culverts — on the Zions Hill and Silvers Mills roads and aprons on both the Arno and Dunn roads.

The council also received a $45,000 bid from Wellmann Paving for work on the Main Street sidewalks. “That is not part of this package, we need to get a contractor to give us an estimate,” Blake said, with more discussions on this work to take place moving forward.

Improvements to the sidewalks would be coordinated with a light pole installation project. Blake said the work would try to done to limit disruption to the Main Street businesses as much as possible, such as during the evening and/or overnight hours, but there will likely be some overlap during the projects.

In other business, councilors agreed to schedule a public hearing on an amendment to the shoreland zoning ordinance as part of the next regular meeting on Thursday, Sept. 10 with the session beginning at 7 p.m.