Milo working on potential Village Partnership Initiative

MILO — Two months ago Milo officials learned about an opportunity to work with the Maine Department of Transportation on a Village Partnership Initiative to develop a vision for the downtown — any binding obligation would be made in the months to come. During a select board meeting on Aug. 14 Town Manager Bob Canney said a working group is learning more with members representing the town government, police and fire departments, public works, and school and water districts.

The Village Partnership Initiative is a program of the MDOT’s community-based planning program. MDOT Region 4-5 Transportation Planner Jarod Farn-Guillette.reached out to Canney earlier in the year after passing through town while working on a similar endeavor in Dover-Foxcroft. Similar villages projects are also on-going in Presque Isle, Madawaska, Fort Kent, and Van Buren.

MDOT will use investments and municipal infrastructure, such as the historic village core and/or downtown, to bring a feel and character that many historic towns had as a means to revitalize rural economy in the state of Maine as well as improve quality of life of those who live in the community and for visitors.

The MDOT would work with Milo on a feasibility study and conceptual design. The agency would also work with the town on request for proposals to find a consultant who would then work with landscape and traffic engineers to look at efficiency of infrastructure and how it looks to complement the character of the town.

Canney said the working group has a large Milo map. “We went through all the streets that we outlined where we thought the sidewalks needed to be improved,” he said. 

The town manager said an MDOT representative has attended “to help improve transportation through the town, and that means a lot of things.”

“He said you guys need to think big,” Canney said. “He goes, this has congressional spending money like what we’re building the public safety building with.”

Farn-Guillette said the MDOT and Maine’s senior senators have a near 100 percent track record of delivering grant funds — which would have a municipal match requirement — for such projects either from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for those $5 million and up and from Congressionally Directed Spending if under $5 million. He said for about every $1 contributed by the municipality, MDOT can find another $9 million.

“So we’re going to take all the sidewalks right in center town and put them in that program so they’ll get widened out and then resurfaced and we’ll have granite curbing all the way through town,” Canney said. “They’ll take care of any easements or other issues because some of this would have to go into somebody’s lawn a little bit.” 

He said sidewalks would be ADA compliant, and other improvements could include decorative light bulbs, benches, and crosswalks.

“Right now I see people walking down the street instead of on the sidewalks because the sidewalks are that bad,’ Canney said.

The town manager mentioned sidewalks installed near the Penquis Valley School to come down West Main Street. He said those on Elm Street are in good shape and these would be refurbished to help connect to Milo Elementary via Belmont Street. “We would make it uniform and safe and it would connect all the schools to the main part of town,’ Canney said.

Pleasant, High, and Park streets would also have sidewalk improvements. Canney said the project would be about $5 million.

He said the first year would involve planning and the working group is set to meet next on Aug. 23. There will be public hearings as the Village Partnership Initiative progresses.

Farn-Guillette said Milo can start the process with no obligation, drafting a scope of work and the town could then proceed or not or even pick it up again in a few years. “You are not committed until you sign a contract document with Maine DOT for that process,” he said.

In other business, Canney provided a public safety building update.  

“Plymouth Engineering’s still designing the interior rooms like where the outlets are going to go,” he said. “We’re going to have a TV and training room, that sort of thing so they know where to put those connections”

The town manager said the outside and groundwork is all designed. The select board would likely have a discussion at its September meeting on putting the project out to bid for later in the month or in October.

The town is currently in the planning stages of a new building to house the fire, police, and public works departments. The community can spend up to $6,375,000 in USDA funds for the public safety building, which will be located at the business park and across the road from the Milo Water District office less than a mile up Park Street from the 100-year-old town hall where the fire and police departments are currently located.

Plymouth Engineering had been meeting with town officials and department heads to design each department’s section of the facility, with plans being solidified. The engineering firm estimates the building, groundwork, and engineering costs to total $7,200,758 or $825,758 more than what Milo has available in project funding. To make up the difference, residents approved a line of credit not to exceed $825,758 to cover costs above and beyond the $6,375,000 at a special town meeting 

The construction process would be an 18-month build.

Last month the select board voted to use $7,900 from the paving budget to fix the surface of the basketball court located behind the American Legion. Canney said Street’s Landscape of Old Town, which has worked on Milo roads before, will do the work as the company will take care of some streets and sidewalks later in the month or early next.

The plan is to leave a gap in the basketball court fence when it goes back up so the sidewalk machine can go in and snowblow. Canney said he believes the poles are in good shape so just new backboards and rims are needed.

He said Street’s Landscape would also pave near the first responder and veterans monument at Evergreen Cemetery. The $12,000 for this work would come out of the cemetery trust, which has about $300,000 in the account.

Code Enforcement Officer Steven Quist said, “Our property maintenance ordinance is thriving. Right now we have 35 active cases and it’s growing. One of the issues I would like to address at some point in time is abandoned trailers in town and here again abandoned houses.”  

Quist said he knows there is a limited budget but these need to be addressed to bring the community up to some sort of standard. “You can drive around and see what we have to work with,” he added, saying an ordinance is a beginning but more is needed.

An economic develop advisory committee meets at the town hall at 6:30 p.m. the last Thursday of the month. Quist said the group would like more input from residents, and is looking to develop a vision such emphasizing outdoor recreation offerings.