Otisfield roads on agenda to be fixed

OTISFIELD — After learning the results of the Crooked River Watershed survey conducted by Western Foothills Land Trust Coordinator Lee Dassler in March, the board of selectmen at its April 18 meeting also learned that some of the problem sites identified in the survey will be fixed in the near future.

Betty Williams, senior project manager of Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District (CCSWCD), a partner with WFLT on the project, said the next step is to address some of the high-priority sites that were identified in Otisfield, all of which are town roads.

"What I was hoping to do, is to try to focus on the medium- to high-priority sites," said Williams, as she handed board members a list of road sites in Otisfield that need work.

According to Williams, each road is ranked 1-7, one being low priority and seven being high.

"The higher the number, the higher the priority," she said. In other words, said Williams, "the higher the priority, the bigger the impact."

Of the sites identified, a majority had short culverts, "which means that the shoulders are caving in on top of the culverts, or the culverts were crushed," said Williams.

One in particular, she said, is on the Jesse Mill Road, just north of the Scribners Mill Road intersection. According to Williams, Jesse Mill Road is a level-five priority.

Williams said that CCSWCD's work on the roads is about protecting the environmental values of the town. She said that she is currently trying to pull together a report of the sites that need fixing and what it will cost, to submit to DEP in June.

According to Williams, a decision should be made by DEP in August whether the project will go forward.

"If it's awarded," she said, "it [the work] starts the following spring. With all federal grants, there is a match requirement, and with the 319 [Nonpoint Source Management] Program," which provides funding to states, territories and tribes to mitigate nonpoint source pollution, "it's a 40-percent match overall."

According to Williams, CCSWCD can offer, through the program, a 50/50 cost share with the town to fix the roads. Any engineering work, she said, should the town need it, is paid for by the grant as well.

"It doesn't look like there is anything that's complicated, as far as the fixes go," said Williams. "Most of them are culvert replacements."