‘Fix And Swap’ Proposal Concerns Newcastle Officials

Newcastle town officials expressed concern about the Dept. of Transportation (DOT) Highway Simplification Study at an Oct. 25 meeting of the Newcastle Board of Selectmen.

Depending on the outcome of the study, the state may transfer 12-13 miles of roads to Newcastle, along with the responsibility to maintain the roads. The roads in question include portions of Rt. 194 (Head Tide Road), Rt. 213 (Bunker Hill Road), Rt. 215 (Mills Road), River Road and Sheepscot Road.

Newcastle Town Administrator Ron Grenier and Newcastle Road Commissioner Steve Reynolds attended an Oct. 7 sounding board meeting at the Maine Municipal Association building in Augusta.

“It was a pretty charged meeting,” Reynolds said. A survey of the approximately 110 people in attendance revealed 41 percent in favor of the “Fix and Swap” proposal, 31 percent opposed and 28 percent undecided, he said.

If the state returns the roads to towns, they will fix the roads to a “10-year standard,” Reynolds said. DOT has not released specific details about what constitutes a ten-year standard, Reynolds said.

Before DOT repairs the roads, a DOT engineer and town officials would “define what the issues are for each road” and, if unable to agree on necessary repairs, would enter “some sort of mediation,” Reynolds said.

Grenier, Chairman Ellen McFarland and Selectman Pat Hudson expressed opposition to the proposal and skepticism regarding the state’s financial ability to repair the roads.

Hudson asked who the 41 percent of attendees in favor of the proposal were.

“It wasn’t Newcastle, nor Damariscotta, I can tell you that,” Grenier said.

Lynch RoadThe Oct. 15 storm caused “a few wash-outs” on Lynch Road, Reynolds said. Reynolds planned to reinforce the areas with riprap Oct. 26. “Hopefully it’ll take more than four inches of rain to wash it away,” he said.

Land use workshopsSelectmen described the first in a series of land use workshops hosted by the Newcastle Land Use Ordinance Review Committee (LUORC) as a success, but hope to draw a wider demographic to future workshops.

“I thought there were people of a lot of different minds there, a lot of different outlooks,” Selectman Ellen Dickens said. Unfortunately, the elderly, the young and the poor were not represented, she said.

The next workshop is Thursday, Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Academy dining commons. For more information, call the Newcastle Town Office at 563-3441 or LUORC Chairman Rob Nelson at 350-6170.

Glidden Street parkingSelectmen briefly discussed an Oct. 11 e-mail from Glidden Street resident Frazier Meade. According to the e-mail, Glidden Street was “packed to the gills” Oct. 9-10 – the weekend of the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest and Regatta.

“[E]ven with cars parking on only one side of the road (right up to the end of Glidden and down on Stewart), it essentially left just on lane free for traffic,” Meade wrote. “Under those circumstances… emergency vehicles – ambulance, fire, etc. – would not get through if they encountered a vehicle going in the opposite direction.”

“That is relevant to potential restaurant parking,” Meade wrote, in an apparent reference to Newcastle Harbor House.