County still seeks contractor for Big Moose Mountain Road

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Piscataquis County officials are still looking for a contractor to improve the Ski Resort Road leading up Big Moose Mountain.

Earlier this year the Piscataquis County Commissioners opted to seek an estimate on repairs in Big Moose Township around the road culverts following a request from the Friends of the Mountain. 

County Road Agent Carl Henderson marked spots on the 1.6-mile road for the contractor to reference when developing a repair estimate on the deteriorating pavement. One possible low-cost repair: remove material around the culverts, use hot asphalt instead of cold patch and smooth the surface. 

“I am still trying to get a contractor for the Big Moose Mountain road. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” County Manager Mike Williams said during Tuesday’s commissioners meeting.

He has spoken with more than a half dozen contractors about Ski Resort Road but no one has yet come forward to take the job.

In other business, Williams updated work on two Katahdin Iron Works Road bridges and culverts installed in 2025 at the Bog Brook stream crossing just west of Route 11 in Ebeemee Township and at the Sucker Brook crossing 4.5 miles west of Route 11. 

“There’s a one-year adjustment period, so basically we go back a year later after the completion timeframe, look at it, see if there’s anything they need to address,” he said.

The Bog Brook culvert is fine but some water is not getting through where intended at Sucker Brook and a solution will be sought.

“The engineer doesn’t think it’s anything that’s going to hurt the road but they are putting together a gameplan because they think the water’s getting through the diversion barricade that pushes it through the culvert,” Williams said.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation partnered with Piscataquis County, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries and the Maine Department of Transportation to replace two undersized culverts under the Katahdin Iron Works Road with new bridges to improve fish passage, flood capacity and the integrity of the road.

The project was funded by grants from a NOAA Fisheries Restoring Fish Passage Through Barrier Removal grant under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and a grant from the Maine Department of Transportation’s Municipal Stream Crossing Upgrade Program. 

The first meeting of the budget committee will be Sept. 3. Williams will brief members on general budget information. He has started meeting with department heads to go over finances.

The 139th Piscataquis Valley Fair will run from Aug. 27 to Aug. 30 in Dover-Foxcroft.

“We always maintain a presence there for the weekend,” Sheriff Bob Young said.

One of 26 surviving copies of the Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence, printed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, and sent to the Colonies to announce American independence, will be on display from Sept. 3 to Sept. 5 at the Jim Robinson Field House at Foxcroft Academy.

The sheriff’s department and Dover-Foxcroft Police Department will provide round the clock security, Young said.

The Maine Historical Society is providing everyone with the opportunity to view one of the nation’s most important documents. 

Chris Cyr, who patrols northern Piscataquis County, has been given some office space by the Friends of the Mountain at Big Moose Mountain. 

“That’s very kind of them for one of us to have that,” Young said.

Commissioners Chair Paul Davis said he knows the sheriff’s department had a tough weekend with a death in Guilford being ruled a homicide and a town resident being charged with murder. 

Davis, a retired state trooper, said incidents like this stick with officers.

Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency Director Deb Hamlin said Greenville’s 52nd annual International Seaplane Fly-In will be Sept. 10-13 so the agency will be keeping an eye on all the air traffic during these days.

A 2025 Homeland Security grant of more than $86,000 is arriving a bit late but this will go toward several projects, including $45,000 for active threat training.

“They call it threat because it doesn’t have to be a gun,” Hamlin said.

Another $30,000 is for a planner, and $10,000 for laptops could be used instead for a forthcoming NARKsafe Ductless Testing Workstation for the sheriff’s office. 

Hamlin and Maine Forest Ranger Sam Heffner were at the Onawa Community Association meeting earlier in the month.

“Just as he was wrapping up, all the power went out because of the Moosehead Mill Fire,” Hamlin said.

Fire at the Moosehead Mill property in Monson on Aug. 8, destroying buildings at the site that employed generations of furniture-making residents from town and the region into the early 21st century. Mill owners had a permit to burn debris but the fire got out of control and spread to buildings, at least three of which were a total loss. 

“Everybody did such a great job, dispatch was incredible,” Hamlin said. “All of the fire departments that were working together between Piscataquis and Penobscot, they were just so incredible working together.”

Monson Selectperson Jonathan Pullen bought cases of water and pizza for firefighters as they worked through the night.

Register of Deeds Gail Clark said Chris Maas of the Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society asked about a ledger belonging to 19th-century lawyer Charles Chandler Parsons, who kept a one-room law firm on Lincoln Street. The ledger’s notes mention his cases and payments. 

Clark is unsure how the deeds office acquired the ledger. The item will remain county property but the Dover-Foxcroft Historical will hold onto the ledger for safekeeping.

Work on the  courthouse front — repairing the front steps, ramp and retaining wall — will be done in early spring 2027 rather than this fall, Maintenance Head Josh York said. 

“Due to time of the year and the fact the company’s booked up they requested pushing this off until spring,” he said. York asked work be done as early as possible next year.

Knowles Industrial Services Corporation of Gorham proposed $49,785 for two employees working 8-hour shifts over five weeks. There is money in capital to fund the project.