$100K grant awarded for Milo sidewalk project

MILO — The state has awarded Milo a $100,000 Community Enterprise Grant for the installation of a sidewalk along Penquis Drive, off West Main Street to the Penquis Valley School, this summer. 

Students would be able to walk to and from the building on the right side and not be in the road with all the vehicle traffic.

Town Manager Robert Canney announced the grant during a May 13 Select Board meeting. This is the third such grant in four years awarded to the community.

Milo used a similar grant to fund parking lot improvements several years ago and sidewalk repairs in 2025.

A standard environmental study is being conducted with the state as the campus is in the floodplain of the nearby Sebec River. In the near future the work will go out to bid and the contractor will put in the sidewalk sometime in July.

“The district’s really happy about it. They are really excited,” Canney said. Milo and SAD 41 officials have been discussing the project for several months.

The town needs to provide an additional 25% of the total to meet a matching requirement. This amount would come out of the paving budget. Public works would do some demo work to help keep costs down.

The plan is to apply for more funding in 2027 for a sidewalk leading to Milo Elementary along High Street.

“The public safety building is still on track. It’s still scheduled to be finished a little early,” Canney said.

The forthcoming $7.2 million public safety building will be off outer Park Street and is scheduled to be completed by fall.

The new building, being built by Sheridan Construction Corporation of Fairfield, 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.

The public works slab was poured two days prior and is nearly done. Another slab will support a mezzanine to hold a compressor and electrical components.

The fire department doors are in and police department and public works doors will arrive the following week.

When everything is set in the fall, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house will be held with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, invited.

The possibility of having this event during Fire Prevention Week in October was mentioned.

The town will hold a public hearing and special town meeting concerning a fire department pumper truck at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27.

Fire Chief Mike Harris said the minipumper overheated during a recent fire on Elm Street.

“It has a severe motor problem. We lost a head on it so $12,000 to $15,000 to fix and it is now out of service,” he said about the 25-year-old vehicle.

The body is separating from the chassis so this would cost another $20,000 to $25,000 to fix. 

Harris found a 2023 minipumper in Canada with about 7,000 miles for around $250,000. A decision on how to move forward may be made at the special town meeting. 

The select board appointed Tyler Fors to fill a vacancy on the SAD 41 School Board through next year’s annual town meeting in March. Milo now has all five of its positions on the 10-member board filled.

An $11.1 million 2026-27 school budget was approved the previous evening.

“I encourage people to look over the material. Milo has seen another large increase,” Canney said.

Milo’s proportional share would be up by a little more than $102,000 (7.42%) to just under $1,480,000. This would equal an extra mill in the assessment for the town.

Residents of Brownville, Lagrange and Milo will vote on the SAD 41 budget at the June 9 referendum.

A committee will likely be formed to update the comprehensive plan, working with Eastern Maine Development Corp. on the document.

“It’s a really good plan still, it’s just the demographics need to be updated,” Canney said.

The work could be done for about $5,000 and having a fully updated comprehensive plan in place helps with grant applications.

The economic development advisory committee wants to place an information kiosk downtown, committee member Breena Bissell said. The 14-by-14-foot kiosk would be located on a vacant lot next to Elaine’s Bakery & Cafe, pending board approval once the exact property line with the adjacent Milo House of Pizza has been determined.

Inmates from the building trades program at Mountain View Correctional in Charleston could build the kiosk — the design resembles a train depot in a nod to the railroad heritage — for about $5,000. Any funds still needed could be raised with the help of the Friends of Milo.

“We have had really good success whenever we’ve asked for donations for the flowers downtown or banners on the Welcome to Milo signs and other work efforts that we’ve had so we feel really positive about this,” Bissell said.

The intention would not be to take people away from the Milo-Brownville & Points North Visitors Center.

“Because of the location right downtown we think it would direct more people to the visitor center, to the Harrigan Museum, to the Milo Historical Society, to our library,” Bissell said. “We want to help share information but also get visitation at the places that do exist in Milo.”