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STARKS

State funds bridge repair

By Erin Rhoda erhoda@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

STARKS -- The town is one of the few in Maine to receive a Community Development Block Grant for bridge repair.

The grant, which is managed by the Maine Office of Community Development, is often given for water and sewer systems or downtown revitalization, but the 573-person town received it for repairs to the Lemon Stream bridge.

Selectman Paul Frederic said it is also unusual for small towns to receive the grant.

"It's relatively unusual for small towns to go after this sort of grant and receive it because they have almost no in-house support system for grant writing and grant administration," he said.

The community development office awarded the $100,000 grant this spring, and residents accepted it at a special town meeting on Aug. 17.

The town is currently waiting for the environmental review process to be completed before it puts out calls for construction bids.

The bridge on Sawyer's Mills Road that crosses Lemon Stream is unsafe, Frederic said.

Officials at the Maine Department of Transportation have said the bridge's weight limit will have to be reduced to three tons, or the bridge could be closed, if repairs are not made.

A 3-ton limit would not allow a school bus, a fire truck, a logging truck or some farm machinery to cross, Frederic said.

The abutments are not stable, and the bridge is situated after a curve, he said. The guardrails are flimsy.

"You can go through the guardrails with a bicycle," he said. "There's a real safety issue here, both in terms of its design as it is and in terms of its weight capacity," he said.

So the bridge, which connects the Starks area with the Industry area, will be widened, and the abutments will be strengthened.

The work will be done with no local tax contribution, Frederic said. There is a matching contribution of about $25,000, but that will be taken from the town's Urban Rural Initiative Program money. Each year the town receives about $40,000 through the state program.

"We didn't have to raise anything for this particular project," Frederic said.

The bulk of the funds originate with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant was awarded with much help, Frederic said, from selectman Joe Miller and from Gail Chase of Kennebec Valley Council of Governments.

Residents should expect more bridge work in the near future -- on bridges on the Mayhew Road and the Brann Mills Road.

Erin Rhoda -- 474-9534

erhoda@centralmaine.com