Milo to receive $100,000 for sidewalks
MILO — A $100,000 grant from the state will replace sidewalks on several streets throughout town.
The funding, which comes from the Community Development Block Grant program, will provide for new sidewalks on Pleasant, Summer, Morrill and Park streets. The funding was approved by residents at a June 11 special town meeting.
The Community Development Block Grant program provided $125,000 for Milo to fix its municipal parking lot several years ago, Town Manager Robert Canney said. The town applied for the program that provides federal monies distributed through the state in this round of funding and was awarded the maximum $100,000 for sidewalk work.
“The sidewalk project, it will start right here by the library and go up Pleasant Street all the way to the corner of Summer and it will go down Summer Street to the corner of Morrill and it will go down Morrill Street to where it picks up Park Street again,” Canney said.
A bit of paving along the walking route was done last year as a stop gap, with no curbing.
A paving contract provided Milo with a $143,000 estimate for the work. The town will have a 20 percent match requirement to receive the grant and there is plenty of money for this in the paving account, Canney said.
The work will go out to bid and the select board is scheduled to open the submissions at the July meeting.
The sidewalk on Summer and Morrill streets is very narrow and this stretch will be widened to become ADA compliant.
“This is the worst section of sidewalk in town and it probably gets the most foot traffic,” Canney said.
In several years the town can apply for more funding from the program to fix other sidewalks. One such needed project is along West Main Street to the Penquis Valley School campus.
Sidewalks on most of Park Street fall under state jurisdiction. The Maine Department of Transportation had told Canney these won’t be repaired until major road work is done.
“That’s at least another five to 10 years out,” he said.
During the ensuing select board meeting, a four-person team representing the Milo Fire Department was authorized to rent a car to travel to New Jersey to look at a ladder truck and buy the truck if it meets the criteria as anticipated.
The small group will travel June 27-29 to view and operate the ladder truck.
“They would like to take a check with them and if the truck is everything they said it would be, they would like to bring the truck back,” Canney said, as just one trip south would be needed.
Renting a car would be cheaper than mileage reimbursement.
A 2002 model with 36,000 miles has been located in New Jersey with a $150,000 asking price. Milo firefighters have looked at the vehicle over a Zoom walkthrough.
Much of the $150,000 would be covered by budget and capital reserve, and the Brownville Fire Department will contribute $6,000 toward the purchase. The adjacent communities share many resources and have mutual aid agreements in place.
Milo currently has a 1982 ladder truck that is too old to be fixed. Permission was previously granted to put it out to bid, with the motor itself potentially worth $15,000.
Staff Engineer Keith Ewing of Plymouth Engineering informed Canney that the low bidder on the Milo Public Safety Building project continues to revise the budget and Ewing will let Canney know once he knows more.
Bids came in over the $7.2 million price tag and Plymouth Engineering is negotiating with the low bidder — whose price was $7.6 million — to get the public safety building project within budget per USDA requirements. This could be done in time for the July meet so the contractor can be hired and ground can be broken in August.
Milo is planning stages for 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, less than a mile 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. 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 is expected to take 18 months.
Mentioning the previous day’s SAD 41 school budget referendum, “It easily failed,” Canney said.
A proposed 2025-26 budget totaling $11,907,487 was voted down 219-118 across the three SAD 41 communities. Individually the budget failed in each, 84-34 in Brownville, 118-74 in Milo and 17-10 in LaGrange.
“That doesn’t mean we are out of the woods, that means they are going to come back with another budget,’ Canney said.
The SAD 41 budget committee will need to reconvene to start over, Select Chair Paula Copeland said.
“For those of you who were not happy with the budget they presented, this is the time to start being involved,” she said.
Citizens are encouraged to go to meetings during the budget development process, Copeland said and not after the budget has been brought to a vote.
The SAD 41 School Board is scheduled to meet next on Wednesday, July 2. The board’s finance committee is set to meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 24 at the Marion C. Cook School in LaGrange.
The new town website at https://www.milomaine.org/ is up and running.
The Piscataquis County Economic Development Council gave the town a $5,000 grant, funded by the Alfond Foundation, for the launch of the new website. This will cover the expenses for the first two years, Canney said.
The town manager said Sebec Lake Fence donated a large flag pole for the First Responders Monument Park at Evergreen Cemetery, with a value of about $1,200.
Three smaller flag poles will be funded from a cemetery trust, for about $1,950.