Milo Public Safety Building brought within budget

MILO — The price for the new Milo Public Safety Building has been reduced by more than $900,000 to get within the $7.2 million budget while allowing for contingencies.

Staff Engineer Keith Ewing of Plymouth Engineering told the select board at a July 9 meeting that the month prior he was asked to negotiate with Sheridan Construction Corporation of Fairfield, with Milo’s fire, police and public works department heads involved. 

Sheridan Construction was the low bidder at $7.6 million with all the submissions coming in over the $7.2 million price tag. The project needs to be within budget per USDA requirements. 

A cost of $6,647,300 was agreed upon by Ewing and the firm and was endorsed by the select board.

“In getting it down to that point we had to make concessions in order to make those changes with Sheridan,” Ewing said.

A wash bay has been removed, the building slab in the office area was reduced from 6 to 4 inches and some alterations have been made to the roof design.

“The big additional change is a change to the structure of the building in order to allow a manufacturer to come in and minimize their steel sizes,” Ewing said. Frames were going to run perpendicular to the steel doors and now these will be parallel.

“You are still going to have a building that will last 35-40 years before you have to do maintenance,” Ewing said.

Sheridan Construction hopes to break ground next month. Construction is expected to take 18 months.

The new building will house the fire, police and public works departments. Milo 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 has met 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. 

In other business, a $125,000 bid from A.D. Smith Trucking of Dexter for sidewalk replacements was accepted.

Select Chair Paula Copeland opened a pair of bids with the second coming in at $157,477 from Street’s Landscape & Lawn Care of Old Town.

“Just to remind everybody it is to renovate the sidewalk on Pleasant Street, Summer and Morrill,” Town Manager Robert Canney said.

Last month residents approved a $100,000 grant from the state’s Community Development Block Grant program. The remaining $25,000 will come from the paving budget.

The sidewalk project will start by the library and go up Pleasant Street to the corner of Summer Street. It will go down Summer Street to the corner of Morrill Street and  proceed along this road to Park Street.

The sidewalk on Summer and Morrill streets is very narrow and this stretch will be widened to become ADA compliant. 

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 and this could be in five to 10 years.

The select board approved a 2025-26 fiscal year mill rate of $28 per every $1,000 of assessed property, an increase from last year’s $27.25 rate.

Town Clerk Betty Gormley checked with the Maine Municipal Association and the mill rate can still be set even with a school budget still to be approved.

Next year’s mill rate should be different, likely lower, due to a revaluation.

Town officials know valuations are low, Copeland said as some properties have gone years without any assessor laying eyes on the parcel.

A 2002 ladder truck with 36,000 miles with a $150,000 cost will be coming to Milo, Fire Chief Mike Harris said after a four-person team from the fire department traveled to New Jersey for several days late last month to look at a vehicle to replace Milo’s antiquated ladder truck.

“When it was all said and done, our biggest hangup was that it is a ginormous truck, heavy weight-wise,” Harris said about the 80,000-pound vehicle. The contingent decided that for the price and everything that was done, the department would be crazy not to buy.

“It is in phenomenal shape, it operates wonderfully,” Harris said.

Some additional testing could not be done until later in July, so the truck will be shipped to Milo at no cost to the town.

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.

After checking with SAD 41 Board Chair Mary Lynn Kazyaka, Canney was told Milo’s share of the revised SAD 41 2025-26 budget would be up by $190,606 instead of the $385,000 that was in the spending plan voted down in June.

Earlier this month a figure of $11,500,911 was approved by the school board. This sum represents a 2.33 percent increase from the 2024-25’s $11,239,156 budget, instead of the 5.95 percent increase to $11.9 million voted down via a referendum count of 219-118 across the three district communities. The total was 118-74 in Milo.

A district budget meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 23 in the Penquis Valley School cafeteria, with a 5:30 p.m. informational meeting. 

“That is the time to go and ask questions,” Canney said.

The total approved on July 23 will be moved to a referendum vote on Wednesday, Aug. 6 in the SAD 41 communities of Brownville, LaGrange and Milo. Milo’s polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“Pretty good news, we’re adding to our tax base,” Code Enforcement Officer Steven Quist said in his report. “The corner of Elm and Belmont (streets) a new building’s going in, a dental hygienist is moving down. That’s going to be a little more value to our taxes.”