Greenville names six streets for Northern Forest Center housing development

GREENVILLE — A half dozen street names are now in place for the forthcoming Northern Forest Center housing development off Spruce Street.

The names were approved by the Greenville Select Board during a July 1 meeting, with one to be adjusted if need be.

Timber Way is the name of the main road off Spruce Street and the other streets are named for area mountains as chosen by the Northern Forest Center. These include Big Moose, Borestone, Eagle Rock, Kineo and White Cap. Eagle Rock could be adjusted if the fire department believes it to be too similar to the existing Eagle Stream Drive.

“They are the little sidewalks or lanes to get into the homes,” Town Manager Mike Roy said. Each needs a specific name for 911 purposes.

The Northern Forest Center is constructing a 28-unit housing development to address local housing challenges. The $12.5 million planned housing development will feature a mix of single family homes and duplexes, ranging from one to three bedrooms, in a clustered neighborhood designed to encourage community connections among residents.

Infrastructure expansion includes extension of public water and sewer service and development of a new public road onto the site. The town is contracting with Maine-based Sargent Corporation to complete the project by the end of the summer.

The $1.2 million infrastructure project is being funded in part by a $991,000 grant the town secured two years ago from the Northern Border Regional Commission. The Northern Forest Center helped the town secure the commission grant and is providing the matching funds needed to complete the project. 

Roy has joined a municipal leadership network hosted by the Northern Forest Center. The group is made up of a dozen members from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York and meets monthly.

“We will use this opportunity not only to network but to discuss different topics,” Roy said. “For example, how to balance growth and budget and the demands of people coming in and things like that.”

“I was very pleased to represent Greenville and I explained a lot about Greenville and (Moosehead Lake),” he said. Conversations centered on how the community is the hub for the region and handles a lot of services for the large area. 

In other business, the guaranteed maximum price of the YES (Youth, Education and Sports) Building is scheduled to be finalized by the contractor in time for the July 15 Select Board meeting for approval. How much funding would be available for the facility to house pre-kindergarten and childcare facilities and a community center on the Pritham Avenue school campus should also be set by that evening.

A figure in the $3 million range has been mentioned previously.

If approval is granted, crews could potentially break ground in August, pending discussion between Roy and Superintendent Kelly MacFadyen.

Also on July 15, the board could award the bid for work on the Scammon, Varney and East roads. Improvements would be done later in the summer.

The six bids were opened earlier in the morning. These ranged from nearly $2.54 million to the bid of just under $898,000 made by Roundy’s Paving of Newport.

Roy needs to verify everything in the bid packages to make sure all the criteria has been met.

He was happy to see some bids came in under $1 million, he said.The capital account for the project has $1.4 million.