Two permanent electronic speed signs will be installed in downtown Waldoboro this spring as part of a shared effort from the town and state to reduce speeding in the historic village, town manager Julie Keizer told the Waldoboro Select Board at its meeting on Tuesday, March 26.
“This is one of the areas, downtown, where we get a lot of complaints about speeding. This is huge,” Keizer said.
Dynamic speed signs alert drivers to their speed by displaying the number on a flashing screen. A 2021 analysis by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that across the various contexts these devices are used, the signs are consistently effective at reducing driver speed, helping prevent collisions.
The two signs planned for Waldoboro will be installed on Main Street, with one located approximately five buildings north of the library and another just north of the bridge over the Medomak River.
The signs, which will be installed and maintained by the Maine Department of Transportation, will be installed later this spring, Keizer said.
In other business, Keizer told the select board that she and Town Planner Maxwell Johnstone have started meeting with the local nonprofit groups that have expressed interest in being part of a potential community center.
Similar meetings with interested parties will continue, she said, to inform the preliminary discussion about the potential building.
Also at the meeting, resident Leslie Lorentzen updated the select board on the status of the Quarry Hill multi-use trail project.
As the town’s first multi-use trail network, Lorentzen said that the complex was already well used and had the potential to become even more of an important amenity for locals.
The trail network was developed with aid from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund.
“I’m very excited about this,” Lorentzen said. “It is an amazing resource, and not just for mountain bike trails, for multi-use trails … fishing at the quarry, there are so many opportunities up there.”
The next meeting of the Waldoboro Select Board will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, in the Waldoboro municipal building. For more information, call 832-5369 or go to waldoboromaine.org.
